Frontmatter

You can customize individual recipes by setting values in their frontmatter which is set at the top of your files between --- separators:

src/content/docs/recipes/virgin-colada.md

---
title: Non-Alcoholic Piña Colada
cover:
  alt: A beautiful Virgin Colada
  image: ../../../assets/virgin-colada.png
---

Extend your frontmatter schema

Starlight Recipes extends Starlight’s frontmatter schema with information about the recipe. You need to update the content config file in order for the additional recipe-specific fields to be available:

src/content.config.ts

import { defineCollection } from 'astro:content';
import { docsLoader } from '@astrojs/starlight/loaders';
import { docsSchema } from '@astrojs/starlight/schema';
import { recipesSchema } from 'starlight-recipes/schema'

export const collections = {
  docs: defineCollection({
    loader: docsLoader(),
    schema: docsSchema({
      extend: (context) => recipesSchema(context)
    })
  }),
};

Frontmatter fields

All frontmatter fields of each recipe are not only used to create visual content on the overview pages and recipe pages, but also to generate Structured Data and Recipes Data. Each field specifies whether it is used for one or both of these data structures, and maps it to its corresponding properties.

The more schema fields you complete for a recipe, the better its visibility in search results.

cover

Required
Type: CoverConfig

Image of the completed dish. — Used to generate image und cover.

Add high-quality image of the completed dish at the top of the recipe:

---
cover:
  alt: "A beautiful Virgin Colada"
  image: "../../../assets/virgin-colada.png"
---

CoverConfig

Field	Type	Description
image	string	Required. Relative path to a local image (e.g., ../../assets/cover.png) or a remote URL.
alt	string	Required. Alternative text describing the cover image for assistive technologies.

date

Type: Date

The date the recipe was published. — Used to generate datePublished und createdAt.

Must be a valid YAML timestamp.

---
date: 2024-03-11
---

category

Type: string

The type of meal or course your recipe is about. — Used to generate recipeCategory.

---
category: "Main Course"
---

Here are some recommended values for categories:

• 'Breakfast'
• 'Lunch'
• 'Dinner'
• 'Main Course'
• 'Side Dish'
• 'Appetizer'
• 'Snack'
• 'Dessert'
• 'Beverage'
• 'Salad'
• 'Soup'
• 'Marinade'
• 'Sauce'

cuisine

Type: string

The region associated with your recipe. — Used to generate recipeCuisine.

---
cuisine: "Mediterranean"
---

If a valid ISO 3166-1 two-letter country code is provided (e.g., “AT” or “JP”), the localized country name will be displayed with the corresponding country emoji flag appended.

---
cuisine: "FR"
---

tags

Type: string[]

A list of tags associated with the recipe. — Used to generate keywords und tags.

Other terms for your recipe such as the season ("Summer"), the holiday ("Halloween"), or other descriptors ("Quick", "Easy", "Authentic"). Displayed at the bottom of a recipe and in the recipe list.

Don’t use a tag that’s actually a category or cuisine.

---
tags:
  - Spring
  - Easter
---

featured

Type: boolean
Default: false

Whether the recipe is featured. — Used to generate featured.

Featured recipes are listed at the top of the sidebar in a dedicated group.

The featured group is displayed only if at least one recipe is marked as featured. If a recipe is featured and also popular, it will be displayed only in the featured group.

---
featured: true
---

authors

Type: StarlightRecipesAuthorsConfig

The author(s) of the recipe. — Used to generate author und authors.

---
authors:
  - Bob
---

Check the “Authors” guide for more information.

time

Type: TimeConfig

Duration-related data about the recipe. — Used to generate prepTime, cookTime, totalTime und time.

Specify the time required to prepare and cook the dish.

---
time:
  preparation: 15
  cooking: 30
  total: 45
---

Note

If you provide preparation time, you must also provide cooking time, and vice versa.

TimeConfig

Field	Type	Description
preparation	number	Time to prepare ingredients (in minutes).
cooking	number	Time to cook the dish (in minutes).
total	number	Total time until the dish is finished (in minutes).

yield

Type: YieldConfig

Details regarding the final output or portion size. — Used to generate recipeYield, nutrition und yield.

Defines how many servings, calories, or items the recipe produces.

---
yield:
  servings: 4
  calories: 180
  additional:
    - amount: 12
      unit: "cookies"
---

YieldConfig

Field	Type	Description
servings	number	Required. The numeric quantity produced.
calories	number	Optional number of calories in each serving.
additional	object[]	Optional array of alternative yields (requires both amount and unit).

ingredients

Type: (string | IngredientObject)[]

List of ingredients used in the recipe. — Used to generate recipeIngredient und ingredients.

Ingredients can be provided as simple strings or structured objects for better data parsing.

---
ingredients:
  - 2 eggs
  - quantity: 500
    unit: "g"
    name: "Flour"
---

Note

It is recommended to specify all measurable ingredients with the IngredientObject to allow users to adjust the serving amount dynamically. Only ingredients with a non-numerous amount (like Pinch of salt) should be specified as a string.

Note

If you provide a unit for one ingredient, you must also provide the quantity for this ingredient.

IngredientObject

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Required. The name of the ingredient (e.g., “All-purpose flour”).
quantity	number	Optional numeric amount (e.g., 2, 1.5, 500).
unit	string	Optional unit of measurement (e.g., “cups”, “g”, “tbsp”).

instructions

Type: (string | InstructionStep)[]

The steps to make the dish. — Used to generate recipeInstructions und instructions.

Instructions can be simple strings or detailed objects including images (image and alt), titles (name) and specific timing (time) for that step.

---
instructions:
  - Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  - name: "Mix ingredients"
    text: "Combine flour and eggs in a large bowl."
    time: 5
    image: "../../../assets/mixing.png"
    alt: "Mixing flour and eggs"
---

InstructionStep

Field	Type	Description
text	string	Required. The instruction text.
name	string	Optional title for the step.
image	string	Path to an image for this specific step.
alt	string	Alt text for the step image.
time	number	Time required for this specific step (in minutes).

video

Type: string

A YouTube URL of a video depicting the recipe steps. — Used to generate video.

---
video: https://youtube.com/shorts/jYf3nheLZfE
---

When you start astro dev or run astro build, this YouTube URL is resolved once into the full metadata needed to render the video on the recipe page and to generate the Structured Data for the video.

In practice, you normally only set video to a plain YouTube URL string as shown above. The following object shows the shape of the resolved data that the plugin produces; you do not need to copy or maintain this manually. The actual values (title, thumbnails, interaction count, etc.) will depend on your video and may change over time:

---
video:
  url: "https://youtube.com/shorts/jYf3nheLZfE"
  name: "The Perfect Pina Colada 🌴🥥 #pinacolada #bar #bartender #cocktails #pineapple #cocktail art"
  thumbnailUrl:
    - "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jYf3nheLZfE/maxresdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEoCIAKENAF8quKqQMcGADwAQH4AbYIgAKAD4oCDAgAEAEYZSBgKFYwDw==&rs=AOn4CLB-7d9Wh2MOnwzfdr4BEnj4FX5e1w"
    - "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jYf3nheLZfE/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwE2CNACELwBSFXyq4qpAygIARUAAIhCGABwAcABBvABAfgBtgiAAoAPigIMCAAQARhlIGAoVjAP&rs=AOn4CLA3LQSFQ9OvLlFFx6DQ_tIK34p7Yg"
    - "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jYf3nheLZfE/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwE2CPYBEIoBSFXyq4qpAygIARUAAIhCGABwAcABBvABAfgBtgiAAoAPigIMCAAQARhlIGAoVjAP&rs=AOn4CLBAMQ3AQvVzR9rGNrdv4iCSWDq1bA"
  uploadDate: "2024-05-28T13:06:43-07:00"
  duration: "PT11S"
  embedUrl: "https://www.youtube.com/embed/jYf3nheLZfE"
  userInteractionCount: 1623035
---

Note

How video URL resolution works:

• Resolution runs once when astro dev starts or astro build runs, not on every hot reload.
• Only YouTube URLs are supported.
• Metadata is fetched from YouTube at resolution time and is not kept continuously in sync with later changes on YouTube. To pick up updated metadata from YouTube, replace all metadata with the URL again, and run astro dev or astro build.

Starlight’s frontmatter fields

This section describes how frontmatter fields that are integrated in Starlight itself are used across the recipe website.

title

Required
Type: string

The name of the dish. — Used to generate name und title.

The title gets used in the recipe list, on author and tags pages, besides the top of each recipe, in browser tabs, and in recipe metadata.

description

Type: string

A short summary describing the dish. — Used to generate description.

The recipe description is displayed in recipe lists when the recipe is featured and used for recipe metadata and will be picked up by search engines and in social media previews.

lastUpdated

Type: Date | boolean

The date the recipe was last updated. — Used to generate updatedAt.

If a date is specified in a recipe for this Starlight frontmatter field, such date will also be displayed next to the recipe date.

Displayed only if different from the date frontmatter field and must be a valid YAML timestamp.

---
lastUpdated: 2024-07-01
---

draft

Type: boolean
Default: false

Whether the recipe is a draft. — Used to generate draft.

Draft recipes are not included in production builds. Set to true to mark a recipe as a draft and make it only visible during development.

---
draft: true
---