Glossary

This glossary defines Heine's stable public vocabulary. A guide introduces a term in context before relying on it; this page is a concise place to return when reading configuration, templates, diagnostics, or the reference.

Site and output

Base path

The absolute URL-directory prefix below which a site is deployed, configured as site.base_path. For example, /guide/ makes generated absolute URLs begin with /guide/; it does not change the source layout.

Full build

A normal Heine build. It creates and checks a complete replacement output tree before publishing it, so renamed and deleted source files disappear from generated output.

Draft

A page declared with draft = true. Ordinary builds exclude it before resolving page relationships; heine serve --drafts includes it in a local preview. Draft state is page-local and has no inherited false form. See the drafts guide.

Generated output

The files Heine writes below build.output_dir, public/ by default. It is a managed tree: do not maintain unrelated files there by hand.

Managed output

Generated output that Heine has marked as its own. Heine will replace it on a full build. --clean-output explicitly adopts an existing non-empty output directory once.

Output path

A checked path relative to generated output, such as blog/post.html. Pages, copied assets, deployment files, license texts, and generated resources all make output claims; Heine rejects collisions before writing.

`__heine/`

A URL and output-path namespace reserved for Heine’s development-server endpoints. It is never published as site output. Pages, copied assets, deployment files, and generated resources cannot claim a path inside it, preventing a site from colliding with the server’s own routes.

Quick build

An intentionally incomplete in-place update selected with --quick. It is useful for changed present inputs, but does not detect every relationship, configuration, template, rename, or deletion change. Use a full build after those changes.

Relative URL

A URL from one generated page to another generated resource. Heine exposes it as relative_url; unlike url, it does not begin with site.base_path.

Site root

The project directory containing heine.toml, content/, and templates/. Optional roots such as data/, locales/, deploy/, and LICENSES/ also live beside them.

Site origin

The scheme, host, and optional port configured as site.origin, for example https://example.org. It has no deployment path; combine it with the base path when a generated document needs an absolute canonical URL.

Sitemap

An opt-in XML discovery document generated from Heine's rendered-output inventory. It lists canonical page URLs for search engines; it does not affect whether a page is rendered or reachable. A page can opt out with sitemap = false; a descriptor's [pages] sitemap = false establishes a recursive, non-overridable boundary for its descendant pages.

Atom feed

An opt-in XML syndication document generated once per locale from one configured collection. It contains chronological page summaries and canonical page links. Feed entry requirements are checked during the build; see the Atom-feed guide.

Search index

An opt-in locale-local generated JSON document selected from one or more collections. Heine supplies checked source-derived page facts and output URLs; the site supplies the browser search library, ranking, and interface. See the search-index guide.

Publication chronology

Optional page published and updated local date-times. They must include a calendar date and time without an offset; Heine resolves them through the site-wide editorial time zone. published records when a page became public, while updated records a later reader-meaningful change and cannot precede published.

Editorial time zone

The site-wide IANA zone in site.time_zone used to resolve authored local published and updated times. Heine uses its bundled time-zone database, so the resulting UTC timestamps do not depend on the build machine.

Authored files and inputs

Asset sidecar

A file named <asset filename>.license beside a copied asset. It declares REUSE-style SPDX copyright and licensing facts for that asset; it is not itself published as an asset.

Licensing group

One explicit [[licensing.groups]] declaration in heine.toml. It assigns the same SPDX facts to an exact non-empty list of copied-asset output paths. It is an alternative to individual sidecars for a coherent upstream or first-party asset set, not a directory rule, glob, or template-facing object.

Copied asset

A regular file below content/ that is neither a .page file nor a file declared by a page's [content] table. Heine copies it to its corresponding generated output path. Templates use asset() to link to one safely.

Declared content file

A file named by a page's [content] table. Heine reads it as page content but does not publish it as an asset.

Deployment file

A regular file below optional deploy/. Heine copies it unchanged to the matching output-root path. Deployment files are for host configuration and verification, not for files a page links through asset().

Directory descriptor

A non-published _directory.toml file below a locale tree. It provides the directory's metadata and recursive defaults or requirements for descendant pages.

License text

A text file in optional LICENSES/, named for an SPDX identifier or local LicenseRef-…. Heine publishes it below <build.output_dir>/LICENSES/ and checks it against every resolved asset licensing declaration that names it.

Locale tree

The content/<locale>/ directory containing one configured locale's pages, declared content, and locale-specific assets. The default locale has unprefixed URLs; other locale trees receive a URL prefix.

Locale data

Structured data loaded from data/<locale>/ for the locale currently being rendered. Templates access it through locale_data; it is separate from shared data and has no fallback.

Page file

A .page TOML file below a locale tree. It declares a page's template, metadata, optional content inputs, and relationships. A rendered page normally becomes one output file.

Page directory

The locale-relative directory containing a page file. Templates receive it as page.dir; the locale-root directory is the empty string. page.subdirs is the sorted list of its immediate source subdirectories.

Summary

Optional authored page or directory metadata used for a short description in a listing. It is written as summary in TOML and exposed as page.summary; Heine never extracts it from Markdown.

An optional, page-owned view of headings from one selected declared Markdown file. Configure it with [toc] on a page or [pages.toc] in a directory descriptor. Templates read page.toc and render the selected source with markdown(content="…"), which gives its headings matching fragment IDs.

Margin footnote

An optional, page-owned presentation of ordinary Markdown footnotes from one selected declared Markdown input. Heine checks every reference and definition, then renders each reference as a local note instance after its containing paragraph or heading. A template and its CSS decide the visual margin or below-prose layout. See margin footnotes.

Authors

An optional non-empty list of human names written as authors = ["Name"] on a page or inherited from [pages] authors in a directory descriptor. Atom feeds require every selected entry to resolve authors; the feed checks that independently of directory requirements.

Weight

An authored integer used for sibling or collection ordering. weight = false excludes a non-index page from sibling ordering; collection weight ordering requires every member to have a numeric weight.

The deterministic sequence of rendered, numeric-weight pages in one page directory and locale. It is ordered by weight, then page ID. siblings() returns the other IDs in the same sequence, while sibling_neighbors() returns the immediate before and after pages. It is independent of collections.

Template

A Tera2 file below templates/ that renders a page or another named generated resource. Its logical template name is its path below templates/, such as post.tera.

Versioned asset

A copied asset with .v<positive integer> before its extension, such as styles.v2.css. asset(id="assets/styles.css") and the latest filter select the highest available version. This is a naming convention for asset selection, not a separate directory or build step.

Identity and links

Asset ID

The literal path used to identify a copied asset within its locale's content tree, without a leading slash; for example, css/site.css. asset() checks this ID and returns URLs, integrity metadata, and image dimensions when known.

Page ID

The literal path of a .page file relative to its locale tree, without the .page extension; for example, blog/first-post. page() checks this ID and resolves an exact rendered page.

URL

The absolute-path form Heine exposes as url. It begins with the configured base path, such as /guide/blog/first-post.html; it is not a full site origin.

Localization

Counterpart

A rendered page in another locale explicitly connected by the same translationid. Heine never infers counterparts from matching filenames or directories.

Default locale

The configured locale whose generated URLs are not prefixed by a locale code. Every site has exactly one default locale.

Locale

A configured canonical BCP-47 language identifier, such as en, de, or ar. It has a configured writing direction and one required content source tree.

Translation ID

An opaque page metadata value, translationid, that explicitly groups known counterpart pages across locales. A group may be partial but contains at most one page for each locale.

Listings

Collection

A configured, locale-local ordered set of rendered pages. Pages opt in through membership; a collection itself does not generate output.

Collection neighbors

The immediate before and after members around the current authored page in one collection's resolved locale-local order. Templates obtain them with collection_neighbors(name="…"); this is separate from directory sibling navigation.

Listing page

An authored rendered page that reads a collection. It may enable pagination, in which case its own output is the first slice and Heine creates later pages.

One generated later output of a paginated listing. It uses the authored first listing page's template model plus its pagination view.

Taxonomy

A configured classification built from one collection. It turns literal terms assigned by member pages into generated taxonomy-index and term-listing pages.

Series

A configured, locale-local ordered reading sequence. Pages declare a positive position for each Series they join. A Series produces an index and listing pages, but does not select a collection or alter taxonomy, feed, or search membership. See the Series guide.

Term

A literal taxonomy value such as Rust or Static sites. A term is both its display name and one route component; Heine does not silently slugify it.

Template boundary

Filter

A Tera operation applied with |, such as value | markdown. Heine provides filters for Markdown rendering and selected checked resource operations.

Render-facing value

Data Heine makes available to Tera, such as page, data, locale, or pagination. Templates do not receive mutable internal site state or arbitrary filesystem access.

Template function

A named Heine operation called from a Tera template, such as asset(), page(), collection(), t(), or format_date(). Fixed arguments are checked at the template call site.