Decoding Jekylls Directory Structure
Starting a new Jekyll project can feel a bit like learning a new language. You open the folder and see a set of files and directories, some with underscores and some without. This structure isn't random; it's a carefully designed system that makes building a website simple and efficient. Understanding what each part does is the first and most important step to mastering Jekyll and creating a great site on GitHub Pages. This guide will walk you through the essential components, explaining their purpose and how they all work together to turn your content into a beautiful, functional website. Once you grasp this structure, you'll find that managing and growing your site is a smooth and logical process.
Table of ContentsJekyll operates on a principle called convention over configuration, which means it expects certain files to be in certain places. This might seem restrictive at first, but it's what makes Jekyll so powerful. By following these conventions, you don't need to spend time manually setting up every detail. The system knows what to do with a file in the _posts directory versus one in the root directory. This clear separation of concerns—content, design, and configuration—is the secret to Jekyll’s success. Let's break down this structure so you can start your project with a solid foundation.
The Three Pillars of Content
The _config.yml File Your Sites Brain
At the root of your Jekyll project, you will always find the _config.yml file. This file is the central nervous system of your entire site. It's written in YAML format and controls all the global settings. Here, you define your site's title, a short description, the base URL for your GitHub Pages site, and the permalink structure for your posts. This is also where you tell Jekyll which plugins to use and which files or folders to ignore. It is a single source of truth for your site's configuration, so any change you make here will be reflected across your entire website when you build it.
For example, if you want all your blog post URLs to follow a pattern like /blog/post-title/ instead of the default, you would set that rule in _config.yml. Keeping this file organized and well-documented with comments is a great habit. It makes your site's settings transparent and easy to change later on, whether you're working alone or with a team. A good _config.yml file is the key to a manageable and scalable Jekyll site.
The _posts Directory for Your Blog
If you're building a blog, the _posts directory will be where you spend most of your time writing. This folder is specifically for your blog posts. Each post is a Markdown file, and it must follow a strict naming convention: YYYY-MM-DD-your-post-title.md. Jekyll uses the date at the beginning of the filename to automatically sort your posts and generate the correct date on your live site. The title part of the filename is used to create a clean, SEO-friendly URL. This simple system ensures that all your blog posts are organized consistently and are easy for both you and search engines to understand.
Inside each post file, you must include what is known as YAML front matter at the very top. This is a block of key-value pairs enclosed by triple-dashed lines (---). The front matter is where you set post-specific metadata, such as the title of the post, the author, and which layout to use. Jekyll uses this information to process the file and insert your content into the appropriate template. By keeping all your posts in one place with a consistent format, your blog becomes incredibly easy to manage and update.
Pages The Rest of Your Site
What about content that isn't a blog post? This is where pages come in. Pages are any other files, usually Markdown or HTML, that you place directly in your project's root directory or in subfolders. For example, your home page might be index.html or index.md, and an about page could be about.md. If you have a contact page, you might create a file called contact.html. Jekyll processes these files and creates a corresponding page on your website with a URL that mirrors the file path. For instance, about.md will become the /about/ page on your site.
This flexible system allows you to build a wide variety of static content beyond a simple blog. You can create subdirectories to organize your pages, such as /docs/ for documentation or /portfolio/ for your projects. Jekyll will respect this structure and generate a corresponding file hierarchy in the final output. This clear separation between posts and pages keeps your project organized and prevents clutter, especially as your site grows with more content.
Templates and Assets for Design
Layouts and Includes for Reusability
Jekyll keeps your content separate from your design through two key folders: **_layouts** and **_includes**. The _layouts folder contains the HTML templates for your pages. For example, you might have a default.html layout that defines the overall structure with your header and footer, and a post.html layout that adds special styling for blog posts. When you specify a layout in your page's front matter, Jekyll takes your content and "pours" it into the correct template. This prevents you from having to copy-paste the same HTML code on every single page.
The _includes folder is for smaller, reusable bits of code. Think of things like a navigation menu, a footer, or social media links. Instead of writing that HTML code in every layout, you can put it into a file in the _includes folder and then use a Liquid tag like {% include footer.html %} to add it wherever you need it. This makes your layouts much cleaner and easier to read. Most importantly, if you need to update your footer, you only have to do it in one file, and the change will automatically appear everywhere.
Static Assets Images, CSS, and JS
Not every file needs to be processed by Jekyll. Files that don't start with an underscore, like your images, CSS stylesheets, and JavaScript files, are treated as static assets. Jekyll simply copies these files directly to the final output folder without any changes. A common practice is to create a folder called **assets** at the root of your project to store all of these. Inside assets, you can create subfolders for css, js, and images. This keeps your project tidy and makes it easy to find what you need.
For example, if you have a main stylesheet at /assets/css/style.css, you can link to it from your layouts using that exact path. This clear separation between your processed content and your raw assets is another reason why Jekyll projects are so manageable. You know exactly where to look for your code and your content, making development a much more pleasant experience.
The Final Output Folder
When you run the Jekyll build command, all of these pieces come together to create your final website. This final, static version of your site is placed in a directory called **_site**. The _site folder contains nothing but pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript—the complete, ready-to-serve version of your website. It is the folder that GitHub Pages will read and publish to the web. It is crucial to remember that you should never edit anything inside the _site folder. It is meant to be a temporary output directory that is deleted and rebuilt every time you make a change and run the build command. To prevent this folder from being accidentally uploaded to your repository, it's a best practice to add _site/ to your .gitignore file.
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