---
title: "Create Your First Page"
description: "Write your first markdown page and understand frontmatter requirements"
---

Now that your collection is registered, let's create pages and understand what makes them work.

## Anatomy of a Page

Every markdown page has two parts:

### 1. Frontmatter (YAML metadata)

```yaml
---
title: "My First Page"
description: "A brief description for search engines and previews"
---
```

**These two fields are required:**

- `title`: The page title (displays in browser tab, breadcrumbs, sidebar)
- `description`: Used for SEO and page metadata

### 2. Content (Markdown body)

```markdown
# Heading

This is your content written in Markdown format.

## Subheading

You can use **bold**, _italic_, `code`, and more.
```

## Creating Pages

Let's create a few pages. Using your collection from the previous step (`content/my-docs/`):

### Basic Structure

```
content/my-docs/
��� guides/
�   ��� hello.md                 # First page
�   ��� installation.md          # Installation guide
�   ���� quick-start.md           # Quick start guide
���� concepts/
    ��� terminology.md           # Key terms
    ���� architecture.md          # System design
```

### Create the pages:

**content/my-docs/guides/installation.md**

```markdown
---
title: "Installation"
description: "How to install and configure"
---

# Installation

Installation steps go here...
```

**content/my-docs/concepts/terminology.md**

```markdown
---
title: "Key Terminology"
description: "Understanding important terms used throughout"
---

# Key Terminology

Define important terms for your documentation...
```

## Page Slug and URL

The file path becomes your page URL:

```
File:    content/my-docs/guides/installation.md
Slug:    guides/installation
URL:     https://yourdocs.com/my-docs/guides/installation
```

Breaking this down:

- `content/my-docs/` - collection directory (from config)
- `guides/installation` - becomes the slug
- `/my-docs/` - the route prefix (from config)

## Optional Frontmatter

Besides the required fields, you can customize navigation:

```yaml
---
title: "Installation"
description: "How to install"

# Override the sidebar label (if different from title)
navLabel: "Install"

# Add an icon (emoji or SVG reference)
navIcon: ""

# Hide from navigation (page still accessible via URL)
navHidden: false

# Mark as work-in-progress
draft: false
---
```

## Automatic Sidebar Discovery

Since you configured `autoGenerated: true` in your groups, these pages appear in the sidebar automatically, sorted alphabetically:

1. Installation
2. Quick Start
3. (Any other pages you add)

To change the order, see [Manual Configuration](/docs/generation-strategies/manual-creation/explicit-control).

## Next Steps

Now you know how to:

-  Create markdown files
-  Write frontmatter
-  Organize in folders
-  Have them appear automatically

Learn about:

- [Understanding Entries](/docs/navigation-system/core-concepts/entries)
- [Auto-Generation vs Manual](/docs/generation-strategies/auto-generation/how-it-works)
- [Advanced Frontmatter](/docs/content/frontmatter/navigation-overrides)