Free tool
Free Blog Front Matter Generator
Pick your stack, type a title and description, and copy front matter that your generator will actually accept: the right field names, the right date format and the file path the post belongs at. Field rules come from each stack's own docs or official starter (checked 2026-11-12). It runs in your browser: nothing is uploaded.
content/blog/how-we-cut-our-build-time-in-half.md
--- title: "How We Cut Our Build Time in Half" date: "2026-11-12" description: "A step-by-step look at caching, parallel jobs and what did not work." tags: ["performance", "ci"] slug: "how-we-cut-our-build-time-in-half" ---
- Next.js has no built-in blog format: keep the keys your post loader already reads, and use .mdx if your posts are MDX.
How front matter differs by stack
- Next.js: No built-in format. Whatever keys your loader (often gray-matter) reads; a quoted YYYY-MM-DD date is the safest default.
- Astro: The official blog starter validates title, description and pubDate with Zod. Fields your schema does not declare fail the build or are dropped, so extend the schema before adding tags.
- Hugo: Dates are RFC 3339 with an offset. Drafts and future-dated pages are left out of a normal build unless you pass --buildDrafts or --buildFuture.
- Jekyll: The date lives in the filename (_posts/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md); the date field adds the time as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS +/-TTTT. Future posts are skipped unless _config.yml sets future: true; published: false hides a post.
- Gatsby: gatsby-starter-blog reads title, date and description from content/blog/<slug>/index.md. Anything else must be added to the GraphQL query first.
- Docusaurus: The blog plugin reads title, description, slug, date, tags and draft natively, and can take the date from the filename. A truncate marker sets the list summary.
Front matter is also where most blog SEO starts: the title and description become your search snippet. For the rest of the list, see the Next.js blog SEO checklist, and if AI agents read your site, generate an llms.txt with the free llms.txt generator.
FAQ
What is front matter?
The block of metadata at the top of a Markdown post, between --- lines (YAML) or +++ lines (TOML in Hugo). Static site generators read it for the title, date, URL, tags and draft state.
Why are the strings quoted?
Quoting keeps YAML from reinterpreting values: a title with a colon, a tag like no or a bare date can otherwise parse as something you did not mean. Quoted strings work in every stack here.
Why did my Hugo or Jekyll post not appear?
The most common cause is a date in the future relative to the build server's clock, often from a missing time zone offset. Both generators skip future-dated posts by default. Set the offset, or build with --buildFuture (Hugo) or future: true (Jekyll).
Is anything I type sent to a server?
No. The generator runs entirely in your browser; nothing is uploaded or stored.
Put your blog on autopilot
Writing the front matter is the easy part. Blogger Dog researches and writes the whole SEO/AEO post, with front matter your stack accepts, and commits it to your GitHub or GitLab repo on a schedule. Your first 3 posts are free, then plans start at $19/month.