Serving an Existing Directory

Because the file-page model needs no frontmatter and derives titles from headings, Accent CMS can serve an existing directory of markdown as a site without any preparation. This is the fastest way to preview a project’s documentation or turn a folder of notes into a browsable site.

Point `--content-dir` at any folder

# Serve your project's docs folder
accent serve --content-dir ./docs

# Serve any markdown collection
accent serve --content-dir ~/notes

No restructuring is needed. README.md files become directory indices, titles derive from headings, numeric filename prefixes set the order, and every page renders through the default template.

How it works

Index filenames

A file with an index filename maps to its directory’s URL rather than to a child URL. By default Accent recognizes three names, ignoring case:

Filename	Convention
`default.md`	Accent CMS / Grav
`README.md`	Documentation / GitHub
`index.md`	Web / static-site

When more than one is present in a directory, priority is default.md, then README.md, then index.md. The first one answers the directory’s URL, and the others are skipped with a warning.

If your tree uses another name for its landing pages, such as Home.md in a GitHub wiki or overview.md in a doc set, list it in content.index_files.

The list is ordered, highest priority first, and replaces

the default:

# config.yaml
content:
  index_files: [default.md, README.md, index.md, Home.md]

To use a different list for one part of the tree, put it in a _model.yaml in that directory. It applies to the directory and every directory beneath it, and the nearest _model.yaml that sets a list wins:

# docs/wiki/_model.yaml
index_files: [Home.md]

A few rules keep the URLs predictable:

default.md always counts. Accent creates new pages as default.md, so a list that leaves it out still ranks it, last.
A name must be a plain filename ending in .md or .markdown. Names that start with _ are page modules and names that start with . are hidden, so neither can be an index name.
On a multilingual site, Home.de.md is the German index of a directory whose list contains Home.md.
accent serve and accent build pick the same file.

An invalid list in config.yaml stops the site from loading. An invalid list in a _model.yaml is ignored with a warning, and accent validate reports it as an error.

Title derivation

When a page has no title: in frontmatter – which is the common case for an existing repository – the title is derived automatically:

The first # heading in the markdown content.
The filename, converted from kebab-case to Title Case, as a fallback when there is no heading.

Template fallback

Each file’s stem becomes its candidate template name; when the theme has no matching template, Accent falls back to default.html.jinja. A folder of plain markdown therefore renders end-to-end with only the default template – no theme work required.

From quick preview to real site

Serving a directory is a starting point, not a dead end. When you want more control, layer it on incrementally:

Add a numeric prefix to a filename (01.intro.md) to pin its order.
Add a title: or menu.title: to refine navigation labels.
Move a page into a folder once it grows media or modules.

Nothing you add invalidates the plain files already there – the two models mix freely.