How can I make Jekyll use a layout without specifying it?

Question

In order to keep some of my Jekyll sites simple, I'm always using the same layout. That is to say, I'm always writing something like. . .

--- layout: default title: Here's my Title --- 

. . . as the YAML Front Matter at the top of my pages.

What I'd rather write, however is only. . .

--- title: Here's my Title --- 

. . . and have Jekyll assume that it should use a certain layout, as if I had explicitly written "layout: default" (or whatever), as above.

I don't see a way to specify this behavior in _config.yml. Maybe I could write a Jekyll plugin that would allow this. . . any ideas?

Answer 1

This can be done using Frontmatter defaults:

defaults:   -     scope:       path: "" # empty string for all files     values:       layout: "default" 

This setting is available since Jekyll Version 2.0.0.

Answer 2

Shorter and with no monkey-patching:

# _plugins/implicit_layout.rb module ImplicitLayout   def read_yaml(*args)     super     self.data['layout'] ||= 'post'   end end  Jekyll::Post.send(:include, ImplicitLayout) 

Caveat: GH Pages won't run your plugins.