Directory structure
Site skeleton
Hugo generates a project skeleton when you create a new site. For example, this command:
hugo new site my-site
Creates this directory structure:
my-site/
├── archetypes/
│ └── default.md
├── assets/
├── content/
├── data/
├── i18n/
├── layouts/
├── static/
├── themes/
└── hugo.toml <-- site configuration
Depending on requirements, you may wish to organize your site configuration into subdirectories:
my-site/
├── archetypes/
│ └── default.md
├── assets/
├── config/ <-- site configuration
│ └── _default/
│ └── hugo.toml
├── content/
├── data/
├── i18n/
├── layouts/
├── static/
└── themes/
When you build your site, Hugo creates a public
directory, and typically a resources
directory as well:
my-site/
├── archetypes/
│ └── default.md
├── assets/
├── config/
│ └── _default/
│ └── hugo.toml
├── content/
├── data/
├── i18n/
├── layouts/
├── public/ <-- created when you build your site
├── resources/ <-- created when you build your site
├── static/
└── themes/
Directories
Each of the subdirectories contributes to the content, structure, behavior, or presentation of your site.
- archetypes
- The
archetypes
directory contains templates for new content. See details. - assets
- The
assets
directory contains global resources typically passed through an asset pipeline. This includes resources such as images, CSS, Sass, JavaScript, and TypeScript. See details. - config
- The
config
directory contains your site configuration, possibly split into multiple subdirectories and files. For projects with minimal configuration or projects that do not need to behave differently in different environments, a single configuration file namedhugo.toml
in the root of the project is sufficient. See details. - content
- The
content
directory contains the markup files (typically markdown) and page resources that comprise the content of your site. See details. - data
- The
data
directory contains data files (JSON, TOML, YAML, or XML) that augment content, configuration, localization, and navigation. See details. - i18n
- The
i18n
directory contains translation tables for multilingual sites. See details. - layouts
- The layouts directory contains templates to transform content, data, and resources into a complete website. See details.
- public
- The
public
directory contains the published website, generated when you run thehugo
command. Hugo recreates this directory and its content as needed. See details. - resources
- The
resources
directory contains cached output from Hugo’s asset pipelines, generated when you run thehugo
orhugo server
commands. By default this cache directory includes CSS and images. Hugo recreates this directory and its content as needed. - static
- The
static
directory contains files that will be copied to the public directory when you build your site. For example:favicon.ico
,robots.txt
, and files that verify site ownership. Before the introduction of page bundles and asset pipelines, thestatic
directory was also used for images, CSS, and JavaScript. See details. - themes
- The
themes
directory contains one or more themes, each in its own subdirectory.
Union file system
Hugo creates a union file system, allowing you to mount two or more directories to the same location. For example, let’s say your home directory contains a Hugo project in one directory, and shared content in another:
home/
└── user/
├── my-site/
│ ├── content/
│ │ ├── books/
│ │ │ ├── _index.md
│ │ │ ├── book-1.md
│ │ │ └── book-2.md
│ │ └── _index.md
│ ├── themes/
│ │ └── my-theme/
│ └── hugo.toml
└── shared-content/
└── films/
├── _index.md
├── film-1.md
└── film-2.md
You can include the shared content when you build your site using mounts. In your site configuration:
module:
mounts:
- source: content
target: content
- source: /home/user/shared-content
target: content
[module]
[[module.mounts]]
source = 'content'
target = 'content'
[[module.mounts]]
source = '/home/user/shared-content'
target = 'content'
{
"module": {
"mounts": [
{
"source": "content",
"target": "content"
},
{
"source": "/home/user/shared-content",
"target": "content"
}
]
}
}
After mounting, the union file system has this structure:
home/
└── user/
└── my-site/
├── content/
│ ├── books/
│ │ ├── _index.md
│ │ ├── book-1.md
│ │ └── book-2.md
│ ├── films/
│ │ ├── _index.md
│ │ ├── film-1.md
│ │ └── film-2.md
│ └── _index.md
├── themes/
│ └── my-theme/
└── hugo.toml
You can mount directories to archetypes
, assets
, content
, data
, i18n
, layouts
, and static
. See details.
You can also mount directories from Git repositories using Hugo Modules. See details.
Theme skeleton
Hugo generates a functional theme skeleton when you create a new theme. For example, this command:
hugo new theme my-theme
Creates this directory structure (subdirectories not shown):
my-theme/
├── archetypes/
├── assets/
├── content/
├── data/
├── i18n/
├── layouts/
├── static/
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── hugo.toml
└── theme.toml
Using the union file system described above, Hugo mounts each of these directories to the corresponding location in the project. When two files have the same path, the file in the project directory takes precedence. This allows you, for example, to override a theme’s template by placing a copy in the same location within the project directory.
If you are simultaneously using components from two or more themes or modules, and there’s a path collision, the first mount takes precedence.