Whitepaper Template Options

Complete reference for the whitepaper template configuration options. These are set under the options field in a vessel definition.

Quick Example

options:
  title: "Structured Publishing for the Open Web"
  subtitle: "A technical whitepaper on NUU Vessel"
  abstract: "This document describes the architecture and design..."
  sidebar: true
  showTimeline: true
  showVersionBadges: true
  links:
    - label: "GitHub"
      url: "https://github.com/example/repo"
      icon: "github"
  sections:
    - id: "design"
      title: "Design Principles"
      content: "[Design Principles](/design-principles)"
      description: "Core design philosophy"
      version: "v1.0"
      updated: "Feb 2026"
      audiences:
        - audience: "Developers"
          content: "[Design Principles - Developer Focus](/design-principles-developer-focus)"
        - audience: "Operators"
          content: "[Design Principles - Ops Focus](/design-principles-ops-focus)"
    - id: "api-ref"
      title: "API Reference"
      external: "https://docs.example.com/api"
  timeline:
    - version: "v1.0"
      date: "2026-02-01"
      summary: "Initial public release"
      link: "design"
      linkLabel: "See what shipped"
    - version: "v0.5"
      date: "2025-12-15"
      summary: "Internal draft"

Homepage Views

The whitepaper homepage has two views, toggled via a segmented control:

• Full Paper (default) — Renders all section content in sequence as a single continuous document. When audience variants are available, an audience selector appears allowing readers to switch between General and audience-specific content for each section.
• Sections — Grid of section cards for browsing. Clicking a card navigates to the individual section page.

The view toggle appears automatically when there are sections with content.

Display Options

title

• Type: string
• Default: Vessel name

Override the whitepaper title shown on the homepage and in navigation. If omitted, the vessel's name field is used.

subtitle

• Type: string
• Default: none

Subtitle displayed below the title on the homepage.

sidebar

• Type: boolean
• Default: true

Show a sidebar with section navigation when viewing individual sections. On desktop, the sidebar is a fixed panel on the left. On mobile, it collapses into a slide-out sheet menu.

When false, individual sections render in a clean single-column layout with a fixed back arrow in the top-left corner.

showVersionBadges

• Type: boolean
• Default: true

Show version badges on section cards and section headers. Reads from the version field on each section.

Abstract

abstract

• Type: string
• Default: none

Markdown content for the abstract section displayed on the homepage below the links and above the view toggle. Supports full markdown including wiki links.

Links

links

• Type: array
• Default: []

External links displayed as pill buttons right below the title/subtitle on the homepage. Each link opens in a new tab.

Link Object

Available Icons

target, code, users, book, book-open, file-text, github, discord, message, globe, link, mail, settings, shield, zap, star, home, package, layers, database, terminal, palette, heart, lightbulb, rocket, map

Sections

sections

• Type: array
• Default: []

Ordered list of whitepaper sections. Each section appears as a card in the sections grid and as a navigable page. In the full paper view, sections are rendered in order as a continuous document.

Section Object

When external is set, the section card links to that URL in a new tab and is excluded from prev/next navigation and the full paper view.

When content is set to a [Title](/title) wiki link, the template matches it against published mesh documents by title and renders the matched document's content.

Tags from the matched content document's frontmatter are displayed as badges in the top right of the section title.

Audience Variant Object

Audience variants allow the same section to have different content for different readers. In the full paper view, the audience selector switches between variants. When a variant exists for the selected audience, its content is shown; otherwise the section falls back to the default content.

Example:

- id: architecture
  title: Architecture
  content: [Architecture Overview](/architecture-overview)           # General audience (default)
  audiences:
    - audience: Developers
      content: [Architecture Deep Dive](/architecture-deep-dive)       # More technical detail
    - audience: Operators
      content: [Architecture - Ops Runbook](/architecture-ops-runbook)   # Operations-focused

Timeline

showTimeline

• Type: boolean
• Default: true

Show the version timeline on the homepage below the content views.

timeline

• Type: array
• Default: []

Chronological entries for the version timeline.

Timeline Entry Object

Dates are displayed as short format (e.g., "Feb 2026").

When link is set, the summary text becomes a clickable link. If link starts with http, it opens in a new tab as an external link. Otherwise it's treated as a section ID and links to that section within the vessel. Use linkLabel to show different text than the summary.

Content File Frontmatter

Section content documents can include any frontmatter fields. The fields below are recognized by the template:

See also:

• Module - Templates - Template system overview
• Module - Vessel Definitions - How to configure vessels
• Reference - Vessel Schema - Complete vessel YAML schema
• Reference - Blog Options - Blog template options