Site Configuration

All site configuration lives in zola.toml at the project root.

Core Settings

base_url = "https://mylearnbase.com"
title = "My Learn Base"
description = "A personal learning journal and portfolio"
default_language = "en"
theme = "serene"

Build Settings

compile_sass = true
minify_html = false
build_search_index = false
generate_feeds = true
feed_filenames = ["rss.xml"]

Taxonomies

taxonomies = [{ name = "tags" }, { name = "categories" }, { name = "series" }]

Each entry tells Zola to look for this field in post frontmatter and auto-generate listing pages. Each taxonomy needs matching templates in templates/<taxonomy_name>/.

Markdown Processing

[markdown]
external_links_target_blank = false
external_links_no_follow = true
external_links_no_referrer = true
smart_punctuation = false

Syntax Highlighting

[markdown.highlighting]
style = "class"
light_theme = "github-light"
dark_theme = "catppuccin-mocha"

style = "class" means code tokens get CSS classes instead of inline styles. This enables dynamic light/dark switching via the CSS files in static/ (giallo-light.css, giallo-dark.css).

URL Slugification

[slugify]
paths = "on"
taxonomies = "on"
anchors = "on"

Controls automatic URL-safe conversion. With all set to "on":

• /posts/My Post Title → /posts/my-post-title
• Series “Building My Website” → /series/building-my-website
• ## My Heading → #my-heading

Theme-Specific Settings ([extra])

[extra]
sections = [{ name = "posts", path = "/posts", is_external = false }]
blog_section_path = "/posts"
back_link_text = "Back"
force_theme = false
footer_copyright = "© 2026"
footer_credits = true
not_found_error_text = "404 Not Found"
not_found_recover_text = "« back to home »"
reaction = false

These are not read by Zola itself — they’re a contract between your templates and the Serene theme. The theme’s templates check these values with {% if config.extra.reaction %} style conditionals.