Shortcodes

What a shortcode is

Hugo loves Markdown because of its simple content format, but there are times when Markdown falls short. Often, content authors are forced to add raw HTML (e.g., video <iframe>’s) to Markdown content. We think this contradicts the beautiful simplicity of Markdown’s syntax.

Hugo created shortcodes to circumvent these limitations.

A shortcode is a simple snippet inside a content file that Hugo will render using a predefined template. Note that shortcodes will not work in template files. If you need the type of drop-in functionality that shortcodes provide but in a template, you most likely want a partial template instead.

In addition to cleaner Markdown, shortcodes can be updated any time to reflect new classes, techniques, or standards. At the point of site generation, Hugo shortcodes will easily merge in your changes. You avoid a possibly complicated search and replace operation.

Use shortcodes

In your content files, a shortcode can be called by calling {{% shortcodename arguments %}}. Shortcode arguments are space delimited, and arguments with internal spaces must be quoted.

The first word in the shortcode declaration is always the name of the shortcode. Arguments follow the name. Depending upon how the shortcode is defined, the arguments may be named, positional, or both, although you can’t mix argument types in a single call. The format for named arguments models that of HTML with the format name="value".

Some shortcodes use or require closing shortcodes. Again like HTML, the opening and closing shortcodes match (name only) with the closing declaration, which is prepended with a slash.

Here are two examples of paired shortcodes:

{{% mdshortcode %}}Stuff to `process` in the *center*.{{% /mdshortcode %}}

{{< highlight go >}} A bunch of code here {{< /highlight >}}

The examples above use two different delimiters, the difference being the % character in the first and the <> characters in the second.

Shortcodes with raw string arguments

You can pass multiple lines as arguments to a shortcode by using raw string literals:

{{<  myshortcode `This is some <b>HTML</b>,
and a new line with a "quoted string".` >}}

Shortcodes with Markdown

Shortcodes using the % as the outer-most delimiter will be fully rendered when sent to the content renderer. This means that the rendered output from a shortcode can be part of the page’s table of contents, footnotes, etc.

Shortcodes without Markdown

The < character indicates that the shortcode’s inner content does not need further rendering. Often shortcodes without Markdown include internal HTML:

{{< myshortcode >}}<p>Hello <strong>World!</strong></p>{{< /myshortcode >}}

Nested shortcodes

You can call shortcodes within other shortcodes by creating your own templates that leverage the .Parent method. .Parent allows you to check the context in which the shortcode is being called. See Shortcode templates.

Embedded shortcodes

Use these embedded shortcodes as needed.

figure

The figure shortcode can use the following named arguments:

src: URL of the image to be displayed.
link: If the image needs to be hyperlinked, URL of the destination.
target: Optional target attribute for the URL if link argument is set.
rel: Optional rel attribute for the URL if link argument is set.
alt: Alternate text for the image if the image cannot be displayed.
title: Image title.
caption: Image caption. Markdown within the value of caption will be rendered.
class: class attribute of the HTML figure tag.
height: height attribute of the image.
width: width attribute of the image.
loading: loading attribute of the image.
attr: Image attribution text. Markdown within the value of attr will be rendered.
attrlink: If the attribution text needs to be hyperlinked, URL of the destination.

Example usage:

{{< figure src="elephant.jpg" title="An elephant at sunset" >}}

Rendered:

<figure>
  <img src="elephant.jpg">
  <figcaption><h4>An elephant at sunset</h4></figcaption>
</figure>

gist

To display a GitHub gist with this URL:

https://gist.github.com/user/50a7482715eac222e230d1e64dd9a89b

Include this in your Markdown:

{{< gist user 50a7482715eac222e230d1e64dd9a89b >}}

This will display all files in the gist alphabetically by file name.

To display a specific file within the gist:

{{< gist user 23932424365401ffa5e9d9810102a477 list.html >}}

Rendered:

highlight

To display a highlighted code sample:

{{< highlight go-html-template >}}
{{ range .Pages }}
  <h2><a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .LinkTitle }}</a></h2>
{{ end }}
{{< /highlight >}}

Rendered:

{{ range .Pages }}
  <h2><a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .LinkTitle }}</a></h2>
{{ end }}

To specify one or more highlighting options, include a quotation-encapsulated, comma-separated list:

{{< highlight go-html-template "lineNos=inline, lineNoStart=42" >}}
{{ range .Pages }}
  <h2><a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .LinkTitle }}</a></h2>
{{ end }}
{{< /highlight >}}

Rendered:

42{{ range .Pages }}
43  <h2><a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .LinkTitle }}</a></h2>
44{{ end }}

instagram

To display an Instagram post with this URL:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxOWiQNP2MO/

Include this in your Markdown:

{{< instagram CxOWiQNP2MO >}}

Rendered:

View this post on Instagram

param

The param shortcode renders a parameter from the page’s front matter, falling back to a site parameter of the same name. The shortcode throws an error if the parameter does not exist.

Example usage:

{{< param testparam >}}

Access nested values by chaining the identifiers:

{{< param my.nested.param >}}

ref

The ref shortcode returns the permalink of the given page reference.

Example usage:

[Post 1]({{% ref "/posts/post-1" %}})
[Post 1]({{% ref "/posts/post-1.md" %}})
[Post 1]({{% ref "/posts/post-1#foo" %}})
[Post 1]({{% ref "/posts/post-1.md#foo" %}})

Rendered:

<a href="http://example.org/posts/post-1/">Post 1</a>
<a href="http://example.org/posts/post-1/">Post 1</a>
<a href="http://example.org/posts/post-1/#foo">Post 1</a>
<a href="http://example.org/posts/post-1/#foo">Post 1</a>

relref

The relref shortcode returns the permalink of the given page reference.

Example usage:

[Post 1]({{% relref "/posts/post-1" %}})
[Post 1]({{% relref "/posts/post-1.md" %}})
[Post 1]({{% relref "/posts/post-1#foo" %}})
[Post 1]({{% relref "/posts/post-1.md#foo" %}})

Rendered:

<a href="/posts/post-1/">Post 1</a>
<a href="/posts/post-1/">Post 1</a>
<a href="/posts/post-1/#foo">Post 1</a>
<a href="/posts/post-1/#foo">Post 1</a>

twitter

To display a Twitter post with this URL:

https://x.com/SanDiegoZoo/status/1453110110599868418

Include this in your Markdown:

{{< twitter user="SanDiegoZoo" id="1453110110599868418" >}}

Rendered:

Owl bet you'll lose this staring contest 🦉 pic.twitter.com/eJh4f2zncC
— San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (@sandiegozoo) October 26, 2021

vimeo

To display a Vimeo video with this URL:

https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/55073825

Include this in your Markdown:

{{< vimeo 55073825 >}}

Rendered:

If you want to further customize the visual styling, add a class argument when calling the shortcode. The new class will be added to the <div> that wraps the <iframe> and will remove the inline styles. Note that you will need to call the id as a named argument as well. You can also give the vimeo video a descriptive title with title.

{{< vimeo id="146022717" class="my-vimeo-wrapper-class" title="My vimeo video" >}}

youtube

To display a YouTube video with this URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RKpf3rK57I

Include this in your Markdown:

{{< youtube 0RKpf3rK57I >}}

Rendered:

The youtube shortcode accepts these named arguments:

id: (string) The video id. Optional if the id is provided as a positional argument as shown in the example above.
allowFullScreen
New in v0.125.0: (bool) Whether the iframe element can activate full screen mode. Default is true.
autoplay
New in v0.125.0: (bool) Whether to automatically play the video. Forces mute to true. Default is false.
class: (string) The class attribute of the wrapping div element. When specified, removes the style attributes from the iframe element and its wrapping div element.
controls
New in v0.125.0: (bool) Whether to display the video controls. Default is true.
end
New in v0.125.0: (int) The time, measured in seconds from the start of the video, when the player should stop playing the video.
loading
New in v0.125.0: (string) The loading attribute of the iframe element, either eager or lazy. Default is eager.
loop
New in v0.125.0: (bool) Whether to indefinitely repeat the video. Ignores the start and end arguments after the first play. Default is false.
mute
New in v0.125.0: (bool) Whether to mute the video. Always true when autoplay is true. Default is false.
start
New in v0.125.0: (int) The time, measured in seconds from the start of the video, when the player should start playing the video.
title: (string) The title attribute of the iframe element. Defaults to “YouTube video”.

Example using some of the above:

{{< youtube id=0RKpf3rK57I start=30 end=60 loading=lazy >}}

Privacy configuration

To learn how to configure your Hugo site to meet the new EU privacy regulation, see privacy protections.

Create custom shortcodes

To learn more about creating custom shortcodes, see the shortcode template documentation.

Shortcodes

What a shortcode is

Use shortcodes

Shortcodes with raw string arguments

Shortcodes with Markdown

Shortcodes without Markdown

Nested shortcodes

Embedded shortcodes

figure

gist

highlight

instagram

param

ref

relref

twitter

vimeo

youtube

Privacy configuration

Create custom shortcodes

See also

Last updated: June 25, 2024: Restructure templates section (748bf065)