# Feature Log

A running log of notable features added to Retype, including links to relevant docs and demos.

For a complete list of changes in each release, see the Changelog.

Have a feature idea? Open an issue and let's chat.

# Pro features

The following features require a Retype PRO or Enterprise license.

Backlinks component: Automatic display of inbound links from other pages in your project. Shows which pages reference the current page, helping readers discover related content. Configurable at project and page levels.
branding.baseColor setting: Quick method to set a brand base color without full theme configuration. Applies the color to the left navigation and other key UI elements.
Breadcrumb navigation: Add breadcrumb navigation trails to pages with the breadcrumb project setting. Configurable at project and page levels.
Custom themes: Full customization of your site's visual appearance through Theme Variables for both light and dark modes. Override colors, typography, and other design tokens via the theme project setting.
Custom UI labels: Override any built-in UI string (search placeholders, table of contents heading, and more) using the labels project setting. Supports per-locale overrides and integrates with Retype's templating system.
Default color scheme setting: Control whether the site renders in light, dark, or system mode by default using the scheme.mode project setting. Without a Pro key the site always follows the visitor's system preference.
Hub link: Add a back-link to a parent hub site in the header using the hub project setting. Displays a < link alongside the project logo for navigating back to a central documentation portal.
Last updated label: Display an automatic "Last updated" date and author in the page footer, sourced from Git commit metadata. Configurable at project and page levels.
nav.badge setting: Add a badge to any page's entry in the left sidebar navigation. Supports all badge variants and the pipe shorthand notation.
Navigation icon control: Show or hide navigation icons for all, some, or no items with the nav.icons.mode setting. Options include all, folders, pages, top, and none.
Next/Previous navigation control: Configure the visibility and sequencing of Next and Previous navigation buttons. Supports show, hide, and exclude modes at project, page, and folder levels.
Outbound links: Automatically annotate and style all external outbound links with a trailing icon and new-tab behaviour. Control which domains are treated as outbound and customize the icon, target, and exclusions.
Private and protected pages: Restrict access to pages and folders using visibility: private or visibility: protected. Private pages are excluded from navigation, search, and the generated website. Protected pages are hidden from navigation and search but remain accessible via direct URL.
Remove Powered by Retype branding: Remove the Powered by Retype footer branding by setting poweredByRetype: false in your project retype.yml.
Search filtering: Fine-grained control over what content appears in search results. Use search.exclude to remove pages, folders, or path patterns from the index, and search.include to re-include specific paths within an excluded set.
Stack navigation mode: Transform top-level folders in the sidebar into visually distinct stacked blocks with nav.mode: stack. Configurable at project and page levels.
Strict build mode: The --strict flag on retype build returns a non-zero exit code when the build produces any errors or warnings. Useful for enforcing quality gates in CI pipelines.
Table of contents: Enable and configure an in-page table of contents with the toc project setting. Configurable at project and page levels, with control over heading depth and label.

# v4.2.0

PRO Last updated label: Automatic "Last updated" date and author footer for each page, sourced from Git commit metadata. Configurable at project and page levels with control over date source (author vs committer) and display format.
PRO Custom UI labels: Override any built-in UI string using the labels project setting. Supports per-locale overrides and integrates with Retype's templating system via project.labels, see #781.
Blog RSS feed configuration: New blog.rss project settings for configuring the RSS feed maxResults, title, description, copyright, and imageUrl. The feed link is automatically added to all pages when a blog exists, see #747.
created and lastUpdated page settings: Set a fixed creation date or last updated date directly in page frontmatter. Useful for migrated content or pages where Git history does not reflect the true dates.
compact layout for Card component: New compact card layout for displaying multiple wikilink cards in a tight list format. Supports the wikilink list pairs syntax for quick card group creation, see docs.
Search filtering: New search.exclude and search.include project settings to explicitly control which pages, folders, or path patterns appear in search results, see #258.
retype stop command: New CLI command to stop a running retype start development server process.

# v4.1.0

New search experience: Improved search ranking, result UI, and keyboard navigation. Code blocks are now indexed and included in search results, see #680.
blog.layout setting: New project setting to configure the default layout for blog posts. Set a consistent layout across all posts without having to specify it in each page's frontmatter, see #729.
Unicode icon support: Set a unicode character directly on any icon property in page frontmatter or project configuration, see #785.

# v4.0.0

Card component: A styled preview card linking to another page in your project. Cards automatically display the target page's title, category, description, date, and image. Supports horizontal and vertical layouts with responsive grid behavior when multiple cards are placed together, see docs.
Steps component: Create numbered step-by-step instructions with the >>> syntax. Each step includes a title and content area, with support for custom start numbers and nested content like code blocks, tabs, and callouts. Steps automatically generate anchor links for deep linking, see docs.
Question variant for Button and Badge: New question variant for Button and Badge components. Provides a question mark styled option for FAQ sections, help buttons, and troubleshooting guidance, see docs and #658.
project and page properties: Access page metadata and project configuration values directly in your templates. Use page.* for frontmatter properties and project.* for retype.yml settings. Enables dynamic content generation without hardcoding values, see #619.
content template variables: Query and access site content programmatically within templates. Includes content.pages, content.blog.posts, content.tags, content.categories, and content.authors. Supports wikilink-style lookup with content["page-key"] and search with content.search("query").
Blog configuration: Expanded blog configuration with pageSize, maxResults, title, and base settings. Control pagination, limit total posts on summary pages, customize the blog heading, and change the URL base path, see #747.
title property on links: Add tooltip descriptions to navigation links. The title property on links and footer.links sets the HTML title attribute for hover tooltips, providing additional context without cluttering the interface, see #672.
meta.siteName: Set the og:site_name meta tag for improved social media sharing. Defines the site name that appears when pages are shared on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Library and dependency upgrades: Complete upgrade to the latest versions of all libraries and dependencies, including performance improvements and security updates.

# v3.12.0

Backlinks component: Automatic display of inbound links from other pages in your project. Shows which pages reference the current page, helping users discover related content. Configure at project and page levels with enabled, title, and maxResults settings.
Color preview chips: Automatic color preview chips for hexadecimal color codes in your documentation. When you write a hex color like #FF5733, Retype automatically displays a small color swatch next to it for instant visual reference.
Dark mode image switching: Automatic detection and switching between light and dark mode images. Name your images with a -dark suffix (e.g., diagram.png and diagram-dark.png) and Retype automatically displays the appropriate version based on the active color scheme.
Dark mode favicon support: Automatic discovery and switching of favicon variants for light and dark modes. Retype detects dark mode favicon files and automatically switches between them based on the user's color scheme preference.
Triple-star description syntax: New *** syntax block for defining page descriptions directly in markdown if placed immediately after the opening H1 heading. Provides a cleaner alternative to YAML frontmatter for setting page meta descriptions.
templating.loopLimit: New project configuration setting to control the maximum number of loop iterations in templates. Helps prevent infinite loops and improves template safety.
target: New page-level setting to control where links on a page open. Set to blank, parent, top, or self to control link behavior for the entire page.
Heading theme variables: Expanded theme variable support for all heading levels (H1 through H6). Customize typography, colors, and spacing for each heading level independently through theme configuration.

# v3.11.0

Custom themes: Comprehensive theme variables customization for both light and dark modes, see docs, Themes guide, and Theme Variables.
branding.baseColor: Quick method to set the base brand color without full theme configuration, see docs.
nav.badge: Add a badge to navigation items in the left sidebar, see docs.
Three-way switcher: Enhanced color scheme switcher with Light, Dark, and System options. Allows users to return to system preference after manual selection.
Pipe notation syntax: Shorthand syntax for Button, Badge, and Navigation Badge components using text|variant format. Example: [!badge NEW|info] instead of [!badge text="NEW" variant"info"].
Icon-only links: Support for icon-only links in header and footer configurations without requiring text. Enables cleaner, minimal navigation designs.
Base variant: New base variant for Button, Badge, and Callout components. Provides consistent styling with the site's base color theme.
Better print mode rendering: Improved print style with better outbound link handling and visual consistency
Search and filter UX: Added keyboard shortcuts hints, improved placeholder handling, and better focus states
Footer template support: Full templating support in footer.copyright including use of data variables, includes, and functions

# v3.10.0

Next/Previous navigation control: Configure visibility and sequencing of Next/Previous navigation buttons. Configure at project, page, and folder levels with show, hide, and exclude modes, see blog post, Project settings, Page settings, and Folder settings.
GitHub Pages community key: Retype Pro Community Key unlocks all Pro features for GitHub Pages projects. No cost, no strings attached for *.github.io domains, with up to 1000 pages with all Pro features included, see blog post and GitHub Pages setup.
Hidden comments component: Add hidden comments to markdown that won't appear in the final website. Supports both inline %%comment%% and block comment syntax, see docs.
New tip Callout variant: New tip callout variant with lightbulb icon and friendly green color scheme. Perfect for sharing best practices and helpful hints, see docs.
Generic attributes for list items: Apply CSS classes, IDs, and custom attributes directly to individual list items. Uses generic attribute syntax: - List Item {.class-name #id data-value="test"}, see docs.
New CSS Classes: Added rounded CSS classes including rounded-xl, rounded-2xl, rounded-3xl, rounded-4xl and rounded-full
Custom Anchors: Support for custom Obsidian style anchor points using ^anchor syntax for block references. Enables wiki-style block linking and referencing.

# v3.9.0

Navigation icon settings: Control which navigation items show icons with nav.icons.mode setting. Options include: all, folders, pages, top, none.
Default color scheme: Set project's default color scheme with scheme.mode configuration. Options include: system, dark, light.
Print-Friendly Stylesheets: Comprehensive print stylesheet for professional PDF and paper output. Removes navigation, optimizes typography, prevents awkward page breaks. Shows full URLs for external links in print.
Question Callout: New question callout variant with question mark icon. Perfect for FAQ sections and troubleshooting guides.
Pipe separator image dimensions: Set image dimensions using intuitive pipe syntax: ![Image|300] or ![Image|300x200]. Cleaner alternative to generic attributes for image sizing, see docs.
Universal Callout syntax: Enhanced compatibility and seamless migration with other documentation platforms, including Notion, GitHub, Obsidian, Just the Docs and other platforms.
List-Icon styling: Improved styling for creating icon lists with proper spacing and alignment which simplifies creation of icon-based list layouts.
Details/summary conversion: Automatic conversion of HTML details elements into Retype Panel components to ensure seamless integration with other platforms, such as GitHub.

# v3.8.0

Stack navigation mode: Transform top-level folders into visually distinct stacked blocks. Better organization and visual hierarchy for complex documentation sites, Configure at project or page level, see blog post, Project settings, and Page settings.
WikiLinks Support: Comprehensive wiki-style linking with double square brackets: [[Page Name]]. Intelligent link resolution that handles filename variations and support for custom labels using the syntax [[page|Custom Label]] for text links and ![[image.jpg|Alt text]] for image wikilinks.
YouTube auto-embedding: Automatic conversion of YouTube URLs into embedded video players. Supports all common YouTube URL formats including timestamps. Fully responsive with proper styling and controls, see docs.
Automatic search language detection: Automatically detects languages in content and optimizes search. Supports 25+ languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic. Manual configuration still available with "*" token for auto-detection, see docs.
Greek and Hebrew Language Support: Full support including proper text rendering, direction, and search functionality
Enhanced Include Functionality: Support for accessing files outside project directory. Useful for including external readme files: {{ include "../readme.md" }}.
home.md Support: Added home.md as another option for project home page. Joins existing options of readme.md, index.md, default.md, welcome.md.
permalink Alias: Added permalink as an alias for route in page configuration. Provides familiar naming for users migrating from other platforms, see docs.
Mermaid Upgrade: Upgraded to Mermaid v11.6.0 with packet-beta diagram support for enhanced diagram rendering capabilities.
GitBook Image Handling: Improved handling of GitBook image exports with relative paths for better compatibility with GitBook markdown exports.
Default Server Port: Changed default development server port from 5000 to 5001 to avoid conflicts with macOS services using port 5000.
UI Refinements: Multiple UI improvements including search input styling, theme switcher icons, and navigation spacing for enhanced visual consistency and user experience.