Glossary#

Anchor#

A documentation insertion point: the place in a generated Markdown file where the merger will splice human-written content for a given source symbol. Represented as an HTML comment:

<!-- ovellum:anchor id="src/foo.ts::formatDate" generated="…" -->

Every auto-generated section gets one. See Concepts → Anchors and zones.

Anchor ID#

The stable identifier for an anchor. Format: {relativeFilePath}::{symbolPath}. Examples: src/utils/format.ts::formatDate, src/models/User.ts::User.constructor, src/index.ts::__module__.

basePath#

Jekyll-style subpath the site is served from. Set via site.basePath (e.g. '/ovellum'). Prepended to every internal URL, asset path, canonical link, and sitemap.xml entry at render time. Authors keep writing root-relative links (/getting-started/); the build adds the prefix. Empty by default — the site is served from the root.

Auto mode#

The simplest pipeline: source to IR to Markdown. Existing output is overwritten on every build. No merge step.

Block tag#

The Markdown HTML-comment tag pair (default <!-- @manual:start --> / <!-- @manual:end -->) that fences a protected zone. Configurable via protect.blockTag.

Breadcrumbs#

The "Section › Page" trail rendered above the article on pages two or more levels deep in the nav. Computed from the nav tree by walking from the root to the current page; the final entry carries aria-current="page". Top-level pages get none.

CTA (call to action)#

A button on the landing-page hero that invites the reader to do something. Configured under site.landing.hero.ctas.

Draft#

A work-in-progress page, marked with frontmatter draft: true or a folder's _meta.json "draft": true (which cascades). Drafts are shown in ovellum dev with a ribbon + sidebar badge and excluded from ovellum build (and the sitemap/RSS). They're unpublished, not secret — still visible to anyone with repo access. Distinct from site.ignoreFiles, which is never parsed at all. See the Drafts guide.

Edit-this-page link#

The "Edit this page" link rendered under each article when site.editUrlPattern is set. The {path} placeholder is substituted with the page's source path relative to the build's working directory, so the pattern usually points at the GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket "edit file" URL for that path.

Feature card#

One cell of the landing-page feature grid. Configured under site.landing.features[].

Frontmatter#

YAML block at the top of a Markdown file, between --- delimiters. Parsed via gray-matter. Used for page titles, descriptions, mode overrides, and more.

Hero#

The full-width title + subtitle + CTA block at the top of a landing page.

Icon registry#

The small inline-SVG icon set the default template ships with, backed by Lucide. Each icon renders at 24×24 with stroke="currentColor" and stroke-width="2", so it inherits color from the surrounding text and works for free in every theme. Public helper: renderIcon(name, opts) from the @ovellum/site package.

Hybrid mode#

The default mode. Generates from source, then merges existing protected zones from the previous output back in. Orphans go to .ovellum/orphans/.

Inline tag#

A JSDoc tag (default @preserve) that marks a doc comment as human-managed. The source-code counterpart to the block tag.

IR (intermediate representation)#

The typed shape passed from the parser to the generator. Decouples parsing from rendering.

Landing page#

A wider, marketing-style page rendered at / when site.landing.enabled is true. Hero + feature grid + optional prose

• optional trust strip. Doc pages keep their existing URLs.

Last modified#

The "Edited" half of the page meta line. A page's frontmatter updated: pins it explicitly; otherwise read from git log --follow --diff-filter=AM (last content change, ignoring pure renames) when the file is tracked, otherwise from the filesystem mtime. Falls back to omitting the line if none resolve. Controlled by site.pageMeta.lastModified (default true); the date's wording (today / Jun 14, 2026 / 2026-06-14) follows site.dateFormat.

Manual mode#

Markdown-first static-site builder. No source parsing. Produces HTML + CSS + minimal JavaScript.

Manual block#

Synonym for protected zone. Spec calls them "protected zones"; runtime code leans "manual block".

Merger#

The package responsible for combining freshly generated content with existing protected zones. Quarantines orphans.

Orphan#

A protected zone whose source anchor no longer exists in the current IR. Quarantined to .ovellum/orphans/ with metadata; never silently dropped. See Concepts → Orphans.

Page meta#

The small line above each article showing reading time and last-modified date: 2 min read · Edited May 17, 2026. Configured via site.pageMeta; either half can be toggled off, or you can hide the whole line by disabling both.

Pagefind#

The static search indexer Ovellum ships behind site.search.enabled. Pagefind produces a static index from the built HTML and ships a small client that loads it on demand — no server, no runtime indexer. Output lands at dist/pagefind/.

Pretty URL#

Output path shape in manual mode: each page becomes {slug}/index.html so the URL is /{slug}/. Works on any static host without rewrites.

Protected zone#

A <!-- @manual:start id="…" --> … <!-- @manual:end --> region in a Markdown file whose contents are preserved verbatim across regeneration. See Concepts → Anchors and zones.

Print stylesheet#

The @media print rules in the default template that hide the chrome (topbar, sidebar, ToC, search, prev/next, edit link), widen the article, print external link URLs inline, and avoid page-breaks inside code blocks. No config required — it kicks in whenever a reader prints.

Quarantine#

The act of writing an orphan record to disk under protect.orphanDir rather than discarding it. Orphan files are human-readable Markdown, reviewable in PRs.

Reading time#

The "N min read" half of the page meta line. Counts visible prose at ~200 wpm after stripping code blocks, inline code, link URLs, HTML, and heading punctuation. Always at least 1 minute. Controlled by site.pageMeta.readingTime (default true).

Sanitization#

The pass that strips dangerous HTML from rendered Markdown. renderMarkdown runs every source through rehype-sanitize before shiki highlights code blocks. Removed: <script>, <iframe>, <object>, <embed>, on* event handlers, and any URL whose scheme isn't on the allowlist (javascript:, vbscript:, and data: are all dropped — including data: on <img> because data:image/svg+xml can carry executable JS). See Security for the full policy.

@preserve#

JSDoc tag (the default inline tag) on a source comment that asks the generator to wrap the comment's description in a protected zone automatically — so user edits to that description survive regeneration.

Topbar nav#

The right-aligned navigation in the topbar, driven by site.topbarNav. Links render in order beside the brand on every page. External links get a small icon and open in a new tab. Below 720px the nav collapses into a hamburger button that opens a full-width sheet.

Trust strip#

The optional row of partner / sponsor / "powered by" links rendered at the bottom of a landing page, above the footer. Configured under site.landing.trustStrip.

shiki#

The TextMate-grammar-based syntax highlighter used at build time. Emits HTML with CSS variables so a single build serves both light and dark code-block themes with zero runtime cost.

ts-morph#

The TypeScript compiler API wrapper used by the parser. Provides a friendlier surface than the raw compiler API; full type information retained.