How to Add a New Content Section

This guide explains how to add a new content section (like /news, /tutorials, etc.) to the site.

Example: Adding /news Section

Step 1: Update hugo.yaml

1a. Add Section Config

Why: This tells the footer what title and button text to show when viewing news pages.

What it does: When you’re on a news page, the footer will show “Latest News” instead of “Recent Posts”.

params:
  contentSections:
    news:
      recentTitle: "Latest News"
      viewAllText: "View All News"
      taxonomies: ["news_categories", "news_tags"]

Note on taxonomies field: This tells the footer which taxonomy pages belong to this section. When viewing /news_categories/ or /news_tags/, the footer will show “Latest News” recent posts instead of defaulting to blogs. Use same in archetypes/template is a must.

⚠️ Important: If you don’t add your section to contentSections, the footer will fall back to showing “Recent Blogs” instead of your section’s posts. This can be intentional for unlisted/secret sections.

1b. Add to Navigation Menu

Why: Makes the section accessible from the main navigation bar.

What it does: Adds a “News” link in the header that takes users to /news.

Menus:
  main:
    - identifier: news
      name: News
      url: /news
      weight: 4

1c. Add Taxonomies (Optional)

Why: Creates separate categories/tags for news that won’t mix with blogs or opinions.

What it does: News posts can have news_categories: ["breaking"] without affecting blog categories.

taxonomies:
  news_tag: news_tags
  news_category: news_categories

Step 2: Create Content Directory

Why: Hugo needs a folder to store the news posts.

What it does: Creates the /news URL and houses all news markdown files.

mkdir content/news

Create Index File

Why: Sets the page title for the news list page.

What it does: When visiting /news, the page will show “News” as the header.

Create content/news/_index.md:

---
title: "News"
---

Step 3: Create Archetype

Why: Provides a template for new posts with correct front matter fields.

What it does: When you run hugo new news/post.md, it auto-populates the correct fields.

Create archetypes/news.md:

---
title: '{{ replace .File.ContentBaseName "-" " " | title }}'
date: '{{ .Date }}'
draft: false
author: 'Jairaj Kumar'
news_categories: []
news_tags: []
description: ''
toc: true
slug: '{{ .File.ContentBaseName }}'
---

Step 4: Create New Posts

Why: Now you can easily create properly-formatted news posts.

What it does: Creates a new file with all the correct front matter already filled in.

hugo new news/my-first-news.md

Quick Reference

Adding a Post to Featured Section

Posts from any section can appear in the homepage Featured section.

Required front matter:

categories: ["featured"]
featured: 5  # Higher number = appears first on homepage

Note: The featured number is only used for homepage ordering. On the /categories/featured/ page, all featured posts are shown sorted by this value.

Example: Adding an opinion to featured:

---
title: 'My Opinion Post'
opinion_categories: ["thoughts"]
opinion_tags: ["design"]
categories: ["featured"]   # Add to featured
featured: 5                 # Homepage order (higher = first)
---

Creating an Unlisted (Secret) Section

Use this when you want posts that are only accessible via direct link - great for sharing specific content privately without exposing other posts in the same section.

What “Unlisted” Means

Example: Making /opinions Unlisted

Step 1: Mark Section as Draft

Edit content/opinions/_index.md:

---
title: "Opinions"
draft: true
---

What this does: The URL /opinions/ will return 404. Individual posts remain accessible.

Step 2: Remove from contentSections

In hugo.yaml, comment out or remove the section from contentSections:

params:
  contentSections:
    blogs:
      recentTitle: "Recent Posts"
      viewAllText: "View All Blogs"
      taxonomies: ["categories", "tags"]
    # opinions:                              # ← Comment out or remove
    #   recentTitle: "Recent Opinions"
    #   viewAllText: "View All Opinions"
    #   taxonomies: ["opinion_categories", "opinion_tags"]

What this does: “Recent Opinions” will never appear in the footer. When viewing an opinion post, the footer falls back to showing “Recent Posts” (blogs) instead.

Step 3: Ensure Menu Link is Removed

In hugo.yaml, make sure the section is not in the menu:

Menus:
  main:
    - identifier: blog
      name: Blogs
      url: /blogs
      weight: 1
    # - identifier: opinions  # ← Keep this commented out
    #   name: Opinions
    #   url: /opinions
    #   weight: 2

Step 4 (Optional): Exclude from Search

Add this to individual posts to exclude from search:

---
title: 'My Secret Opinion'
draft: false
excludeFromSearch: true   # ← Excludes from site search
---

Summary: Unlisted Section Checklist

How It Works Internally

Important Notes

⚠️ Posts are still public! Anyone with the direct link can access them. This is “security through obscurity” - suitable for non-sensitive content you just don’t want discoverable.

💡 Cascade warning: Do NOT use cascade: draft: true in _index.md - this will hide all individual posts too!

# ❌ DON'T DO THIS (hides all posts)
---
title: "Opinions"
draft: true
cascade:
  draft: true
---

# ✅ DO THIS (only hides section listing)
---
title: "Opinions"
draft: true
---