Content Creation & Frontmatter Standards

By bamr87

Create blog posts, quests, documentation, and other content types with proper frontmatter, naming conventions, and file organization.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Edit on GitHub

This guide covers Phase 8 of the Quick Start — creating content across all IT-Journey collection types with proper frontmatter, naming, and organization.

Frontmatter — The Metadata That Powers Everything

Every content file starts with YAML frontmatter between --- fences. These fields control how the page is rendered, categorized, and discovered.

Minimum Required Frontmatter (All Content Types)

---
title: "Your Page Title"
---

That’s it — Jekyll will render the page. But for a production site, you’ll want much more.

Blog Posts

Posts live in pages/_posts/ and follow a strict naming convention.

Naming Convention

YYYY-MM-DD-slug-title-with-hyphens.md

Example: 2026-03-31-deploying-jekyll-to-azure.md

The date in the filename is used as the post’s publication date. The slug becomes part of the URL.

Post Frontmatter

---
title: "Deploying Jekyll to Azure Cloud"
layout: article
description: "Step-by-step guide to deploying a Jekyll site on Azure Static Web Apps."
date: 2026-03-31
lastmod: 2026-03-31
author: bamr87
categories:
  - devops
tags:
  - jekyll
  - azure
  - deployment
draft: false
image: /assets/images/azure-deploy-cover.png
mermaid: true
toc: true
---

Creating a Post

Option A — Manually:

touch pages/_posts/2026-03-31-my-first-post.md

Option B — Front Matter CMS:

Open the Front Matter dashboard
Click Create content
Select the “posts” folder
Fill in the fields visually
The CMS generates a properly formatted file

Post Organization

Posts are auto-organized by category into subfolders:

pages/_posts/
├── ai & machine learning/
├── devops/
├── infrastructure/
├── tutorials/
└── web development/

Quests

Quests are gamified learning content with RPG-style progression. They live in pages/_quests/ organized by binary level directories.

Quest Directory Structure

pages/_quests/
├── 0000/    # Level 0000 — Foundation
├── 0001/    # Level 0001 — Beginner (Frontend)
├── 0010/    # Level 0010 — Intermediate
├── 0011/    # Level 0011 — Advanced
├── 0100/    # Level 0100 — Containers
├── 0101/    # Level 0101 — CI/CD
├── 0110/    # Level 0110 — Databases
├── 1000/    # Level 1000 — Cloud
├── 1001/    # Level 1001 — Kubernetes
├── 1010/    # Level 1010 — Monitoring
├── 1100/    # Level 1100 — Data Engineering
├── 1101/    # Level 1101 — ML/AI
├── 1110/    # Level 1110 — System Design
└── 1111/    # Level 1111 — Leadership

Quest Frontmatter

---
title: "Docker Container Fundamentals"
layout: quest
fmContentType: quest
description: "Master Docker container images, volumes, and networking. Learn to build, run, and orchestrate containers for modern application development."
date: 2026-03-31
lastmod: 2026-03-31
author: bamr87
permalink: /quests/0100/docker-container-fundamentals/
level: "0100"              # Binary level code
difficulty: "🟡 Medium"    # 🟢 Easy | 🟡 Medium | 🔴 Hard | ⚔️ Epic
quest_type: "main_quest"   # main_quest | side_quest | bonus_quest | epic_quest
primary_technology: "docker"
skill_focus: "devops"      # frontend | backend | devops | security | data-engineering
learning_style: "hands-on" # hands-on | conceptual | project-based
quest_series: "Container Mastery"
estimated_time: "60-75 min"
keywords:
  primary:
    - docker
    - containers
  secondary:
    - docker-compose
    - container-networking
platforms:
  - macOS
  - Windows
  - Linux
prerequisites:
  - "Terminal Fundamentals"
  - "Git Basics"
---

Binary Level System

Level	Tier	Focus Area
`0000`	Foundation	OS setup, terminal, Git, Markdown, VS Code
`0001`	Beginner	GitHub Pages, Jekyll, YAML, Liquid
`0010`	Intermediate	JavaScript, CSS, Bootstrap, Bash
`0011`	Advanced	Git workflows, plugins, SEO, analytics
`0100`	Containers	Docker, Docker Compose
`0101`	CI/CD	GitHub Actions, pipelines
`0110`	Databases	SQL, data modeling
`1000`	Cloud	AWS, Azure, IaC
`1001`	Kubernetes	Pods, workloads, config
`1010`	Monitoring	Prometheus, Grafana, ELK
`1100`	Data Eng.	Stream processing, warehousing
`1101`	ML/AI	Python data science, deep learning
`1110`	Architecture	Microservices, design patterns
`1111`	Leadership	Technical leadership, mentorship

Documentation

Docs live in pages/_docs/ and use the default layout.

Doc Frontmatter

---
title: "API Reference"
layout: default
description: "Complete API reference for the IT-Journey platform."
categories:
  - reference
---

Content Types Summary

Collection	Folder	Layout	Naming Convention	Permalink Pattern
Posts	`pages/_posts/`	`articles`	`YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md`	`/posts/YYYY/MM/DD/slug/`
Quests	`pages/_quests/`	`quest`	`quest-name.md` in level folder	`/quests/category/name/`
Docs	`pages/_docs/`	`default`	`descriptive-name.md`	`/docs/category/name/`
Quickstart	`pages/_quickstart/`	`default`	`descriptive-name.md`	`/quickstart/name/`
Notebooks	`pages/_notebooks/`	`journals`	`name.md` or converted `.ipynb`	`/notebooks/path/name/`
Notes	`pages/_notes/`	`default`	`descriptive-name.md`	`/notes/path/name/`
About	`pages/_about/`	`default`	`descriptive-name.md`	`/about/category/name/`

Best Practices

Always include title and description — they drive SEO and site navigation
Set draft: true for work in progress — draft pages are hidden in production
Use categories and tags consistently — they power filtering and navigation
Add lastmod dates — helps search engines and readers track freshness
Use Front Matter CMS for visual editing — reduces frontmatter errors
Follow naming conventions — especially the YYYY-MM-DD date prefix for posts

What’s Next

Next Step	Guide
Style your site with skins and custom CSS	Styling & Navigation
Run the site locally with Docker	Local Development
Deploy to GitHub Pages	Deployment

IT-Journey Docs: Frontmatter Standards · Content Guidelines

IT-Journey Quests: Markdown Mastery · Forge Your Character

Layout	`default`
Collection	`quickstart`
Path	`_quickstart/content-creation.md`
URL	`/quickstart/content-creation/`
Date	`2026-04-01`