Project structure

How files and folders in a Dustavez project map to pages, navigation, and configuration.

A Dustavez project is deliberately minimal. There are no hidden configuration directories, no generated files you need to understand, and no framework-specific folder conventions beyond what Astro requires.

Directory layout

my-docs/
  astro.config.ts        # Astro and Dustavez configuration
  src/
    content.config.ts    # Content collection schema (Zod)
    styles/              # Design tokens, typography, animations
    components/          # Layout and MDX components
    layouts/             # Page layout templates
    pages/               # Astro routes (auto-generated from content)
    lib/                 # Utilities (navigation, search)
  content/
    getting-started/     # Section folder → sidebar group
      introduction.mdx   # Page → sidebar item
      installation.mdx
    guides/
      deployment.mdx
  public/
    fonts/               # Self-hosted font files
    favicon.svg
  package.json

How content maps to navigation

The content/ directory structure directly determines your sidebar navigation. Each subdirectory becomes a section label, and each .mdx file becomes a navigation item.

The mapping is straightforward:

• Folder name → section label (e.g., getting-started/ → “Getting started”)
• File name → URL slug (e.g., installation.mdx → /getting-started/installation)
• Frontmatter order → position within the section
• Frontmatter section → overrides the section label if different from folder name

Frontmatter

Every .mdx file requires frontmatter at the top of the file. This metadata controls how the page appears in navigation, search, and the browser tab.

---
title: "Installation"
description: "Get started in under five minutes."
section: "Getting started"
order: 2
---

Optional fields include lastUpdated, author, tags, draft, and deprecated. Pages with draft: true are excluded from production builds but visible during development.

Static assets

Files in the public/ directory are served as-is at the root URL. Place images, downloadable files, and other static assets here. They are not processed or optimized by the build pipeline.

For images referenced in MDX content, prefer placing them alongside the content file or in a shared public/images/ directory.