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Routing and Sidebar Patterns

index.md is landing page

• index.md represents the landing page for its directory.
• index is not part of URL pathnames.
• In nested name handling, index.md maps to "" (empty string).
• If a directory contains only an index.md and no other files, the directory collapses to a leaf node (no collapsible in sidebar).

Grouping directories with parentheses (groupers)

Directory names wrapped in () act as groupers:

• shown as a labeled section in the sidebar (not collapsible)
• skipped from route pathname segments
• should not contain index.md
• can be ordered with numeric prefixes: (2. Category)

Groupers are useful for visually grouping related pages without adding extra URL segments.

Example:

docs/
  (Guides)/
    setup.md
    usage.md

Routes:

• /setup
• /usage

Sidebar:

Guides          ← grouper label (not a link)
  Setup
  Usage

Grouper ordering and index collision rules

Numeric prefixes on groupers only control ordering among other groupers — they never collide with indexes on regular files or directories. This is because the sort algorithm always places groupers after every regular file and directory at the same level, regardless of what prefix you give them.

Similarly, numeric prefixes on regular files and directories only control ordering among their own kind.

In short:

• index.md is always sorted first.
• Regular files and directories are sorted next (by label).
• Groupers are sorted last (by label), after all regular files and directories.
• Within each group (regulars and groupers), ordering is controlled by numeric prefixes and localeCompare.

Example:

docs/
  index.md
  1. Getting Started.md
  2. CLI Reference.md
  (1. Guide)/
    routing.md
  (2. Configuration)/
    smm-config.md
  (3. Examples)/
    structure.md

Sidebar order:

Home              ← index.md first
Getting Started
CLI Reference
Guide             ← grouper label (after all regular files)
  Routing
Configuration     ← next grouper
  SMM Config
Examples          ← last grouper
  Structure

Regular directories (without parentheses)

• appear as collapsible sidebar containers
• can have index.md and be clickable landing pages
• are included in pathname segments of child files

Example:

docs/
  guides/
    index.md
    setup.md

Routes:

• /guides
• /guides/setup

Ordered filenames with index prefixes

If you use names like:

• 1. blahblah.md
• 2. blhalbhablah.md

and set trimIndexFromPath: true in config, names can be ordered while emitted as clean paths.

The index prefix in filenames does not conflict with grouper indexes — they operate in separate sort tiers.

Directories vs groupers summary

	Sidebar rendering	In URL path	Can have index.md
Regular directory	Collapsible	Yes	Yes
Grouper (Name)	Labeled section	No	No

Slug generation rules

Route path segments are normalized by the CLI:

• converted to lowercase
• spaces/underscores become -
• punctuation like .,;"'\\:<>?!` is removed
• grouper directory names like (Group) are excluded from final pathname