tinydot content editing

tinydot is a file-based publishing platform. folders = sites, files = pages. changes publish instantly.

how it works

• users have a tinydot folder on their Mac (via FileProvider) synced at ~/Library/CloudStorage/Tinydot/
• each subfolder is a site with its own subdomain: sitename.tinydot.com
• .md files render as pages, images display inline, other files are downloadable
• URL mapping: docs/intro.md -> /docs/intro, folder/index.md -> /folder/
• slugs are lowercase with hyphens

markdown

standard markdown plus tinydot extensions:

wikilinks

[[page-name]]                    links to /page-name
[[folder/page-name]]             links to nested page
[[page-name|custom text]]        custom link text

• case-insensitive: [[About]] and [[about]] resolve to the same page
• broken links render but are not clickable
• creates backlinks automatically (page B shows page A in backlinks when A links to B)

ref: docs.tinydot.com/wikilinks

content blocks

embed files inline using iA Writer-style syntax:

/path/to/file.md                 embed from site root (own line)
photo.jpg                        embed from same folder (own line)
[photo.jpg]                      bracket syntax
[photo.jpg] "my caption"         with caption

• .md renders as formatted content
• .jpg, .png, .gif, .webp display as images
• .txt, .js, .css, .html show syntax-highlighted code
• other files show download link
• paths are relative to site root, use lowercase hyphens for slugs

ref: docs.tinydot.com/content-blocks

embeds

paste a URL on its own line with blank lines around it:

some text here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

more text here.

supports 300+ providers via oembed: YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, SoundCloud, Twitter/X, Instagram, Figma, CodePen, GitHub Gist, and more.

ref: docs.tinydot.com/embeds

frontmatter

YAML between --- markers at the top of .md files.

file metadata

---
title: My Page Title
date: 2026-01-15
tags: blog, tech, updates
description: A short description for SEO
author: anton
---

• title overrides filename as page title
• date format: YYYY-MM-DD
• tags comma-separated; also supports #hashtags in content body (both merge)
• each tag auto-generates a page at /tags/tag-name
• tag conventions: lowercase, hyphens for multi-word (machine-learning)

ref: docs.tinydot.com/file-metadata

folder metadata

set in index.md of a folder:

---
default_view: cards
show_file_list: true
title: My Folder
description: What this folder contains
---

• default_view: list (default), cards, grid
• show_file_list: true (default) or false (hides file listing, shows only index.md content)
• settings inherit from parent folder; child overrides parent

ref: docs.tinydot.com/folder-metadata

site customization

set in the root index.md frontmatter of a site.

templates

four built-in templates: finder (default, file-browser style), future (retro web), romi (minimal with red accents), human (readable)

colors

color:
  background: "#ffffff"
  text: "#1a1a1a"
  border: "#e5e5e5"
  muted: "#666666"
  hover: "#f5f5f5"      # finder template
  list: "#fafafa"        # finder template
  link: "#0066cc"        # future, romi, human templates

menus

three menu areas: header_menu, footer_menu, sidebar_menu

header_menu:
  - title: home
    url: /
  - title: blog
    url: /blog
  - title: github
    url: https://github.com/user

images

image:
  shadow: "0 4px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.15)"
  radius: "8px"
  border: "1px solid #eee"

spacing and behavior

spacing:
  content_max_width: "800px"
header:
  sticky: true
content:
  headingAnchors: true
show_file_list: false
typography:
  baseFontSize: 14        # human template, range 10-16

ref: docs.tinydot.com/customization

sites

• create at tinydot.com/sites: name + subdomain + template
• subdomain becomes subdomain.tinydot.com
• subdomain rules: lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens only
• custom domains supported via site settings
• multiple sites per account, each with own customization
• deleting a site removes public access but preserves files

ref: docs.tinydot.com/sites

backlinks

• when page A contains [[page-B]], page B shows page A in its backlinks section
• tracked automatically, updated on add/remove/rename
• displayed at the bottom of each page

ref: docs.tinydot.com/backlinks

working with tinydot files

when editing tinydot content:

1. find the site folder in ~/Library/CloudStorage/Tinydot/ or wherever the user points you
2. .md files are pages - edit them directly
3. always preserve existing frontmatter when editing
4. use wikilinks [[page-name]] to link between pages (prefer over regular markdown links for internal linking)
5. use content blocks to embed images and files
6. for embeds, put URLs on their own line with blank lines around them
7. changes save and publish instantly through FileProvider sync