---
title: "Configuring Hugo"
date: "2013-07-01"
aliases: ["/doc/configuration/"]
groups: ['gettingStarted']
linktitle: "Configuration"
groups_weight: 40
---

The directory structure and templates provide the majority of the
configuration for a site. In fact a config file isn't even needed for many
websites since the defaults used follow commonly used patterns.

Hugo expects to find the config file in the root of the source directory and
will look there first for a `config.yaml` file. If none is present it will
then look for a `config.json` file, followed by a `config.toml` file.

**Please note the field names must be all lowercase**

## Examples

The following is an example of a yaml config file with the default values:
{{% highlight yaml %}}
---
contentdir: "content"
layoutdir: "layouts"
publishdir: "public"
builddrafts: false
indexes:
   category: "categories"
   tag: "tags"
baseurl: "http://yoursite.example.com/"
canonifyurls: true
...
{{% /highlight %}}

The following is an example of a json config file with the default values:

{{% highlight json %}}
{
    "contentdir": "content",
    "layoutdir": "layouts",
    "publishdir": "public",
    "builddrafts": false,
    "indexes": {
       "category": "categories",
       "tag": "tags"
    },
    "baseurl": "http://yoursite.example.com/"
    "canonifyurls": true
}
{{% /highlight %}}

The following is an example of a toml config file with the default values:

    contentdir = "content"
    layoutdir = "layouts"
    publishdir = "public"
    builddrafts = false
    baseurl = "http://yoursite.example.com/"
    canonifyurls = true
    [indexes]
       category = "categories"
       tag = "tags"

Here is a yaml configuration file which sets a few more options

{{% highlight yaml %}}
---
baseurl: "http://yoursite.example.com/"
title: "Yoyodyne Widget Blogging"
permalinks:
  post: /:year/:month/:title/
params:
  Subtitle: "Spinning the cogs in the widgets"
  AuthorName: "John Doe"
  GitHubUser: "spf13"
  ListOfFoo:
    - "foo1"
    - "foo2"
  SidebarRecentLimit: 5
...
{{% /highlight %}}