Starting a series

A “series” on this site is just a folder. Starlight’s autogenerated sidebar reads the directory tree, so nesting is what you already do in Obsidian.

The one rule

Every content folder should have a folder-named file so URLs work. It can either be an index.md/index.mdx (hidden from the sidebar) or nothing at all — posts inside will still resolve.

• Directorysrc/content/docs/

  • Directorykubernetes/

    • index.mdx hidden landing page (LinkCards to sub-sections)
    • Directorynetworking/

      • index.mdx hidden landing page
      • services-explained.md
      • ingress-controllers.md
    • Directorysecurity/

      • index.mdx
      • rbac-basics.mdx
      • pod-security-standards.mdx

Creating a new series (e.g. “Databases” under a new top-level)

1. Make the folder in Obsidian or the file explorer: src/content/docs/databases/postgres/

2. Add a hidden landing page so /databases/ doesn’t 404:

   ---
   title: Databases
   description: Notes on running databases in production.
   sidebar:
     hidden: true
   ---
   
   Notes on running databases in production.

3. Register it in the top-level sidebar — edit astro.config.mjs:

   sidebar: [
     // ... existing entries
     {
       label: 'Databases',
       items: [{ autogenerate: { directory: 'databases' } }],
     },
   ],

4. Write posts inside databases/postgres/ — no more config needed. New subfolders become nested groups automatically.

Sub-series (nested groups)

To add a new sub-series under an existing top-level — for example kubernetes/observability/ — just create the folder. No config change:

• Directorysrc/content/docs/kubernetes/

  • Directorynetworking/ existing group

    • …
  • Directorysecurity/ existing group

    • …
  • Directoryobservability/ NEW group — appears automatically

    • index.mdx hidden landing
    • prometheus-setup.md
    • loki-log-shipping.mdx

Naming your series folder

Folder name becomes the sidebar label. Use lowercase kebab-case — Starlight Title-Cases it automatically (az305 → Az305). If you want a custom label like AZ-305, add an index.mdx with a sidebar.label: — but you probably don’t need to.

Ordering posts inside a series

Default order is alphabetical. To force an order, set sidebar.order on each post’s frontmatter (lower first):

---
title: Post One
sidebar:
  order: 1
---

Common pattern for exam prep — order by exam domain number:

---
title: SAA-C03 · VPC and Networking
sidebar:
  order: 1              # first topic in the series
---

Hiding a page from the sidebar

For landing/overview pages you only want reachable from LinkCards or search:

---
title: Kubernetes
sidebar:
  hidden: true
---

Every index.mdx on this site does exactly that.