Theme Configuration

About 2590 wordsAbout 9 min

2025-10-09

Overview

Theme configuration is used to customize various features of the theme and control its behavior. You can configure it in either .vuepress/config.ts or .vuepress/plume.config.ts.

When a field description includes the following statement, it indicates that the field is not supported for configuration in .vuepress/plume.config.ts:

This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

For fields without the above declaration, you can configure them in either .vuepress/config.ts or .vuepress/plume.config.ts. It is generally recommended to configure them in .vuepress/plume.config.ts.

Avoid reconfiguring a field that has already been configured in one configuration file within another configuration file.

.vuepress/config.ts

import { defineUserConfig
 } from 'vuepress'
import { plumeTheme
 } from 'vuepress-theme-plume'

export default defineUserConfig
({
  theme
: plumeTheme
({
    // Theme configuration
  })
})

.vuepress/plume.config.ts

import { defineThemeConfig
 } from 'vuepress-theme-plume'

export default defineThemeConfig
({
  // Theme configuration
})

Basic Configuration

configFile

Type: string
Default: ''
Details:
Custom path to the theme configuration file.
Refer to Theme Config File plume.config.js for more information.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

plugins

Type: PlumeThemePluginOptions
Default: {}
Details:
Custom configuration for plugins used internally by the theme.
The plugins used by the theme are configured by default. In most cases, modification is not required. For detailed customization, please refer to this documentation.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

markdown 1.0.0-rc.136 +

Type: MarkdownOptions
Default: {}
Details:
Markdown feature configuration. Refer to this documentation.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

codeHighlighter 1.0.0-rc.136 +

Type: false | ShikiPluginOptions
Default: {}
Details:
Code highlighting configuration. Refer to this documentation.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

search 1.0.0-rc.136 +

Type: false | SearchOptions
Default: { provider: 'local' }
Details:
Search configuration. Refer to this documentation.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

comment 1.0.0-rc.136 +

Type: false | CommentPluginOptions
Default: false
Details:
Comment configuration. Refer to this documentation.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

watermark 1.0.0-rc.136 +

Type: false | WatermarkPluginOptions
Default: false
Details:
Watermark configuration. Refer to this documentation.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

readingTime 1.0.0-rc.136 +

Type: false | ReadingTimePluginOptions
Default: false
Details:
Reading time configuration. Refer to this documentation.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

copyCode 1.0.0-rc.136 +

Type: false | CopyCodePluginOptions
Default: {}
Details:
Copy code configuration. Refer to this documentation.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

replaceAssets 1.0.0-rc.139 +

Type: false | ReplaceAssetsPluginOptions
Default: false
Details:
Replace assets configuration. Refer to this documentation.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

hostname

Type: string
Default: ''
Details:
Deployment site domain name.
When hostname is configured to a valid domain, the theme will generate sitemap and SEO-related content.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

autoFrontmatter

Type: false | AutoFrontmatterOptions

Details:

Whether to automatically add frontmatter configuration to markdown files.

interface AutoFrontmatterOptions {
  /**
   * Whether to automatically generate permalink
   *
   * @default true
   * - true: auto generate permalink
   * - false: do not generate permalink
   * - 'filepath': generate permalink based on file path
   */
  permalink?: boolean | 'filepath'

  /**
   * Whether to automatically generate createTime
   *
   * Reads file creation time by default. `createTime` is more precise (to the second) than the default VuePress `date` field.
   */
  createTime?: boolean

  /**
   * Whether to automatically generate title
   *
   * Uses the filename as the title by default.
   */
  title?: boolean
}

cache

Type: false | 'memory' | 'filesystem'
Default: filesystem
Details:
Whether to enable compilation cache, or configure the caching method.
This configuration item addresses the slow startup speed of VuePress. It caches the compilation results during the first service start. On subsequent starts, it reads the cache directly, skipping compilation to speed up startup.
- false: Disable cache.
- 'memory': Use memory cache. This method provides faster startup speed but increases memory usage as the number of project files grows. Suitable for projects with fewer articles.
- 'filesystem': Use filesystem cache. This method provides a relatively fast and stable startup speed, more suitable for projects with substantial content.
Warning
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.
For the cache to take effect, you should remove the --clean-cache parameter from the vuepress dev development server startup script in your package.json.

docsRepo

Type: string
Default: ''
Details: Documentation repository configuration, used to generate the Edit this page link.

docsBranch

Type: string
Default: ''
Details: Documentation repository branch configuration, used to generate the Edit this page link.

docsDir

Type: string
Default: ''
Details: Documentation repository directory configuration, used to generate the Edit this page link.

editLink

Type: boolean
Default: true
Details: Whether to enable the edit link.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

lastUpdated

Type: false | LastUpdatedOptions
Default: { formatOptions: { dateStyle: 'short', timeStyle: 'short' } }
Details: Last updated time.

interface LastUpdatedOptions {

  /**
   * Options to set the format of the last updated time.
   * @see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Intl/DateTimeFormat#using_options
   *
   * @default
   * { dateStyle: 'short', timeStyle: 'short' }
   */
  formatOptions?: Intl.DateTimeFormatOptions & { forceLocale?: boolean }
}

This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

contributors

Type: boolean | ContributorsOptions
Default: true
Details: Whether to display contributors.
For more configuration, please refer to this documentation.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

changelog

Type: boolean | ChangelogOptions
Default: false
Details: Whether to display page change history.
For more configuration, please refer to this documentation.
This field is not supported for configuration in the Theme Config File plume.config.js.

locales

Type: Record<string, ThemeLocaleData>
Default: {}
Details: Multi-language configuration.

Text configuration for different languages. Refer to this documentation.

The multi-language configuration supports all configuration options under the following Locale to control theme behavior in different languages.

Locale Configuration

All the following fields are also basic configuration fields and can be configured at the same level as fields like locales.

home

Type: false | string
Default: /
Details: The path to the home page. It will be used for:
- The logo link in the navbar;
- The Back to Home link on the 404 page;

logo

Type: false | string
Default: false
Details: Logo in the navbar.

logoDark

Type: false | string
Default: false
Details: Logo in the navbar for Dark mode.

appearance

Type: boolean | 'dark' | 'force-dark'
Default: true

Whether to enable dark mode.

If this option is set to true, the default theme will be determined by the user's preferred color scheme.
If this option is set to dark, the theme will be dark by default unless the user manually toggles it.
If this option is set to false, the user will not be able to switch themes.
If this option is set to force-dark, the user will not be able to switch themes, and the theme will be forced to dark.

This option injects an inline script that restores user settings from local storage. This ensures [data-theme="dark"] is applied before the page is rendered to avoid flashing.

profile

Type: ProfileOptions
Default: {}
Details: Configure the site owner's personal information.
- profile.avatar: Avatar URL, used for displaying blogger information on the right.
- profile.name: Name, used for displaying blogger information on the right.
- profile.description: Personal description, used for displaying blogger information on the right.
- profile.circle: Whether the avatar is circular.
- profile.location: User's geographical location.
- profile.organization: User's organization/company.
- profile.layout: Whether to display personal information on the left or right, 'left' | 'right'.

Example:

export default defineUserConfig({
  theme: plumeTheme({
    profile: {
      avatar: '/avatar.jpg',
      name: 'Zhang San',
      description: 'Here is no silver three hundred two, next door Wang Er never stole',
      circle: true,
      location: 'Hangzhou, China',
      organization: 'XXX Company',
      layout: 'right',
    }
  })
})

Type: false | SocialLink[]
Default: false
Details: Personal social information configuration.
Displayed as icon links on the far right of the navbar.
Supports any icon from Iconify. Simply use the iconify name to load it automatically.
For icons in the simple-icons collection, you can omit the simple-icons: prefix. For example, simple-icons:github can be abbreviated as github.
Examples of common social icons:
- discord
- telegram
- facebook
- github
- instagram
- linkedin
- mastodon
- npm
- slack
- twitter
- x
- youtube
- bluesky
- tiktok
- qq
- weibo
- bilibili
- gitlab
- docker
- juejin
- zhihu
- douban
- steam
- stackoverflow
- xbox
- kuaishou
- twitch
- xiaohongshu
You can view all available icons for simple-icons here
If Iconify does not meet your needs, you can pass in the format { svg: string, name?: string } to use a custom icon. Pass in the SVG source code string, with the optional name field for configuring navbarSocialInclude.

Example:

export default defineUserConfig({
  theme: plumeTheme({
    social: [
      // use iconify name
      { icon: 'github', link: 'https://github.com/zhangsan' },
      {
        // use custom icon
        icon: { svg: '<svg>xxxxx</svg>', name: 'xxx' },
        link: 'https://xxx.com'
      },
    ]
  })
})

navbarSocialInclude

Type: string[]
Default: ['github', 'twitter', 'discord', 'facebook']
Details:
Social links allowed to be displayed in the navbar. This configuration is only effective on PC.
If social is configured as { svg: string, name: string}, then name can be used as a value for navbarSocialInclude.

Type: NavItem[]
Default: []
Details: Navbar configuration.
To configure navbar elements, you can set it to a navbar array, where each element is a string or a NavItem object.
- A NavItem object should have a text field and a link field, with an optional activeMatch field.
- A string represents a page file path or a page access path.

type NavItem = string | {
  text: string
  link: string

  /**
   * The page prefix for the current group.
   */
  prefix?: string
  /**
   * Navigation items under this group.
   */
  items?: NavItem[]
  /**
   * Supports iconify icons. Use the iconify name directly and it will be loaded automatically.
   *
   * @see https://icon-sets.iconify.design/
   */
  icon: string
  /**
   * Controls when the element is active.
   */
  activeMatch?: string
}

Example 1:

export default defineUserConfig({
  theme: plumeTheme({
    navbar: [
      // NavbarItem
      { text: 'Foo', link: '/foo/' },
      // NavbarGroup
      {
        text: 'Group',
        prefix: '/group/',
        items: ['foo/', 'bar/'],
      },
      // String - page file path
      '/bar', // The `.md` extension can be omitted directly.
    ],
  }),
})

Example 2:

export default defineUserConfig({
  theme: plumeTheme({
    navbar: [
      // Nested Group - maximum depth is 2
      {
        text: 'Group',
        items: [
          {
            text: 'SubGroup',
            items: ['/group/sub/', '/group/sub/bar/'],
          },
        ],
      },
      // Control when the element is active
      {
        text: 'Group 2',
        items: [
          {
            text: 'Always active',
            link: '/',
            // This element will always be active
            activeMatch: '/',
          },
          {
            text: 'Active on /foo/',
            link: '/not-foo/',
            // This element is active when the current route path starts with /foo/
            // Supports regular expressions
            activeMatch: '^/foo/',
          },
        ],
      },
    ],
  }),
})

collections

Type: ThemeCollectionItem[]
Default: []
Details: Documentation collections configuration.
Check Collections Guide
Check Collections Configuration to learn more

Type: false | SidebarMulti
Details:
Sidebar configuration. The theme recommends configuring the sidebar in collections configuration.
The key of the configuration object is the common access path prefix for the sidebar.
For value:
- 'auto' means automatically generate the sidebar based on the directory structure.
- string represents the page file path corresponding to the sidebar.
- SidebarItem represents a single sidebar item configuration.

type ThemeIcon = string | { svg: string }

type SidebarMulti = Record<
  string,
  | 'auto'
  | (string | SidebarItem)[]
  | { items: 'auto' | (string | SidebarItem)[], prefix?: string }
>
interface SidebarItem {
  /**
   * Sidebar text.
   */
  text?: string

  /**
   * Sidebar link.
   */
  link?: string

  /**
   * Sidebar icon.
   */
  icon?: ThemeIcon

  /**
   * Nested sidebar group.
   */
  items?: 'auto' | (string | SidebarItem)[]

  /**
   * If not specified, the group is not collapsible.
   * If `true`, the group is collapsible and collapsed by default.
   * If `false`, the group is collapsible but expanded by default.
   */
  collapsed?: boolean

  /**
   * Link prefix for the current group.
   */
  prefix?: string

  rel?: string
  target?: string
}

sidebarScrollbar

Type: boolean
Default: true
Details: Whether to show the sidebar scrollbar.
When set to false, only the scrollbar is hidden, but the scrolling behavior remains unchanged.

aside

Type: boolean | 'left'
Default: true
Details:
Whether to display the aside (right sidebar).
- false disables the right aside.
- true enables the right aside.
- 'left' moves the right aside to the left side of the article content, to the right of the main sidebar.
Each page can override this global configuration via frontmatter aside.

outline

Type: false | number | [number, number] | 'deep'
Default: [2, 3]
Details:
The heading levels to display.
A single number means only display headings of that level.
If a tuple is passed, the first number is the minimum level and the second is the maximum level.
'deep' is the same as [2, 6], which displays all headings from <h2> to <h6>.
When aside is disabled, outline is also disabled.
Each page can override this global configuration via frontmatter outline.

transition

Type: boolean | TransitionOptions
Default: true

Details:

Whether to enable transition animations.

When passing a boolean, true enables and false disables.

An object can also be passed for specific configuration, as shown below.

interface TransitionOptions {
  /**
   * Whether to enable page transition animations.
   * @default true
   */
  page?: boolean
  /**
   * Whether to enable blog post list transition animations.
   * @default true
   */
  postList?: boolean
  /**
   * Whether to enable dark/light mode switch transition animations,
   * or configure the transition animation type.
   * @default 'fade'
   */
  appearance?: boolean | 'fade' | 'circle-clip' | 'horizontal-clip' | 'vertical-clip' | 'skew-clip' | 'blinds-vertical' | 'blinds-horizontal' | 'soft-blur-fade' | 'diamond-reveal'
}

Type: false | { message: string; copyright: string }
Default: false
Details: Footer configuration.

bulletin

Type: boolean | BulletinOptions
Default: false
Details: Bulletin board configuration.
For details, please refer to Bulletin Board.

editLinkPattern

Type: string
Default: ''
Details: Regular expression for the edit link.
Example: ':repo/edit/:branch/:path'

copyright

Type: boolean | CopyrightLicense | CopyrightOptions
Default: false
Details: Copyright configuration.
For details, please refer to Copyright.

Type: boolean
Default: true
Details: Whether to show the previous page link.

Type: boolean
Default: true
Details: Whether to show the next page link.

createTime

Type: boolean | 'only-posts'
Default: true
Details: Whether to display the creation time.
- false - Do not display.
- 'only-posts' - Only display on blog post list pages.
- true - Display on all article pages.

Contributors

pengzhanbo

Changelog

1/19/26, 1:43 PM

View All Changelog

a3d8e-feat(theme): add filepath permalink support for auto frontmatter, #815 (#822)on 1/19/26
95d34-refactor(theme): social icon support all iconify icons, close #781 (#790)on 12/12/25
1503a-feat(theme): optimize view transition (#725)on 10/15/25
38505-docs: update en docs (#708)on 10/9/25