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Summarizer module

The summarizer module automatically computes page.summary — a plain-text excerpt of each page's content. Summaries are used by the RSS module for feed descriptions and by the Cards module for social media meta tags (og:description, twitter:description).

How it works

The summarizer runs before layout processing, so it summarizes the rendered content body (after Markdown/Scriban evaluation) but before it is wrapped in a layout template.

Only pages with HTML content type are processed. Markdown, CSS, JavaScript, and other content types are skipped.

The algorithm:

  1. Parses the page's rendered HTML content.
  2. If a <!-- lunet:summarize --> comment is present, skips all text before it.
  3. If a <!-- more --> comment is present, uses only the text before it as the summary.
  4. Otherwise, extracts plain text and truncates to summary_word_count words (default: 70), adding an ellipsis (…).
  5. Assigns the result to page.summary.

Configuration

Property Scope Type Default Description
summary_word_count page or site int 70 Maximum number of words in the summary
summary_keep_formatting page or site bool false When true, preserves some HTML formatting in the extracted text

Properties are looked up on the page first, then fall back to the site object.

Set site-wide defaults in config.scriban:

summary_word_count = 100
summary_keep_formatting = false

Or override per page in front matter:

summary_word_count: 50

Content markers

The <!-- more --> comment

Insert a <!-- more --> comment in your content to manually control where the summary ends. All text before the marker becomes the summary, and the word count limit is not applied:

This is the introduction that will appear in feeds and social cards.

<!-- more -->

This content will not appear in the summary.

The <!-- lunet:summarize --> comment

Insert a <!-- lunet:summarize --> comment to mark where the summarizable content begins. All text before this marker is excluded from the summary. This is useful when pages start with navigation, hero sections, or other non-content elements:

<div class="hero">Welcome to my site</div>

<!-- lunet:summarize -->

This is the actual content that should be summarized.

Both markers can be combined: text before <!-- lunet:summarize --> is skipped, and text after <!-- more --> is excluded. The summary becomes the content between the two markers.

Edge cases

  • Only HTML content types are processed. Non-HTML pages (Markdown source before rendering, CSS, JS) are skipped silently.
  • Negative summary_word_count values are treated as the default (70).
  • The summarizer always overwrites page.summary, even if set in front matter. To provide a manual summary for an HTML page, the page must be processed differently (e.g. non-HTML content type).

See also