Navigation, author and friends

Two navigation lists

sidebar.items configures sidebar navigation; sidebar.menu configures the top-left site-name menu. Both support three entry types:

type	Purpose	Destination field
builtin	Builtin page	route
page	Standalone page	page
external	External link	href

{ id: 'posts', type: 'builtin', route: 'posts', page: 'posts', label: 'Articles', icon: 'files' },
{ id: 'about', type: 'page', page: 'about', label: 'About', icon: 'info' },
{ id: 'repo', type: 'external', href: 'https://github.com/Raincarnator/astro-theme-BlogGPT', label: 'Github repository', icon: 'simple-icons:github', newTab: true },

These examples are sidebar.items entries. The site-name menu uses the same destination fields and omits icon. Names and descriptions accept localized maps. Use Lucide for UI icons and Simple Icons for brands.

A builtin entry’s page binds introductory content; see Categories, tags and pages. sidebar.width sets default, minimum and maximum widths. Drag the divider or focus it and use arrow keys to resize; double-click to restore the default.

Author menu

author configures the name (name), biography (bio), avatar and social links. Both name and bio accept plain strings or localized maps, for example:

author: {
  // Retain the avatar, social links and other fields
  name: { zh: '站点作者', en: 'Site author' },
  bio: { zh: '记录日常与想法。', en: 'Notes from everyday life.' },
},

Avatars accept a public path or complete HTTPS URL.

The bottom-left menu provides social links, shortcut help, blog statistics, appearance, language and RSS. Single-language sites hide language selection; disabling statistics hides its entry. Shortcut and statistics dialogs close with the backdrop, close button or Escape.

Friends

friends.config.ts exports a grouped array directly:

const friends: FriendsConfig = [
  {
    title: { zh: '主题帮助', en: 'Theme help' },
    description: {
      zh: '文档与相关资源。',
      en: 'Documentation and related resources.',
    },
    links: [
      {
        name: 'BlogGPT',
        description: { zh: '主题文档', en: 'Theme documentation' },
        url: 'https://bloggpt.reincarnatey.net',
        avatar: '/images/avatar.webp',
      },
    ],
  },
];

Each group has a title, optional description and links. Each link has a name, description, URL, and an avatar or fallback Lucide icon. The page title and introduction come from its bound pages entry. Search filters by name, description and group name immediately.

See the configuration reference for types and fields.

Commands and completion

The homepage plus menu lists commands and recent articles. Type / to filter commands, or @ to match all public article titles. Select a suggestion to complete the input, then submit to execute it. /theme and /lang also suggest arguments.

Command	Action
/random	Open a random recent public article
/lang / /lang en	Cycle languages or select an enabled language
/theme / /theme dark	Switch appearance or specify light, dark or system
/status	Open blog statistics
/categories	Open the category index
/archives	Open the archives

posts.menuLimit controls recent articles in the plus menu; posts.randomLimit controls random candidates. They are independent. A value above the article count, such as 99999, includes all. The sidebar’s Recent section shows all unpinned public articles in date order.

Search scopes and passage links

Scope	Content
Articles	Article titles, descriptions and bodies
Titles	Article titles and descriptions
Body	Article bodies, including headings
Everywhere	Articles, standalone pages, categories and tags, including builtin introductions

Body matches include section names and highlighted context. Click a passage to open the matching paragraph. Adjacent matches are merged. Development provides local search; production builds generate Pagefind indexes.

Demo avatar sources

Demo friends include example sites, theme help, icon resources and reference blogs. Theme help uses public BlogGPT, Astro and MDN identities; Lucide, Simple Icons, Stack and Fuwari use project logos, while AstroPaper uses its author’s avatar. Fictional sites use local gradient images.

Resources: Astro, MDN, Lucide, Simple Icons, Stack, Fuwari, AstroPaper. Image rights belong to the respective projects or authors.