Configure meta.js

The single file that controls your publication's metadata, URLs, and third-party integration keys. Every reader-facing identifier on the site reads from this one location.

src/_data/meta.js is the central configuration file for Project Broadsheet. Everything visible to readers — the title in the header, the footer copyright, the newsletter destination, the analytics website ID — is driven by this one ESM module. Editing it is the quickest path to making the site yours without touching templates.

Editing via Decap CMS

If Decap CMS is set up, you can edit most site configuration from the browser without touching any files. In the CMS sidebar, open Site Configuration → Site Settings. Every save creates a pull request — merge it to deploy the changes. The form fields map directly to the keys documented on this page. See Decap CMS for setup instructions.

Bare minimum to go live

You only need four fields set before you can publish your first article:

export default {
  title: "The Example Dispatch",
  description: "Independent journalism for the curious.",
  url: process.env.SITE_URL || "https://yourdomain.com",
  email: "hello@yourdomain.com"
};

Editorial sections ship with sensible defaults (News, Opinion, Analysis, and so on) — you only need to touch section data when you want to add, remove, or rename one. See Editorial sections.

Core identity fields

export default {
  title:       "The Example Dispatch",
  shortTitle:  "Example Dispatch",
  description: "Independent journalism for the curious.",
  url:         process.env.SITE_URL || "https://example.com",
  email:       "hello@example.com",
  author:      "Example Media LLC",
  maintainer:  "Jane Publisher",
  language:    "en",
  locale:      "en_US",
  themeColor:  "#1A1A1A",
  ogImage:     "/assets/img/og-default.png",
  founded:     2025
};

These values populate the <title> tag on every page, the description used in search-engine results and social previews, the canonical URL used for SEO, and the mailto links that appear throughout the site.

Third-party integrations

Populate only the services you intend to use. Any field left empty disables its integration entirely — nothing ships in the HTML.

buttondownUsername: "your-buttondown-username",
umamiWebsiteId:     "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
umamiSrc:           "https://cloud.umami.is/script.js",
cusdisAppId:        "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
web3formsKey:       "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",

These correspond to the newsletter service, the analytics platform, the comment system, and the form forwarding service, respectively. In production, these values typically come from environment variables — see Environment variables.

What to do next

• Write your first article, create a Markdown file in src/content/news/.
• Add an author so posts carry a byline.
• Customize design tokens to set your brand palette.