Hugo: How to escape shortcode in markdown

Hugo: How to escape shortcode in markdown to display as literal text.

Last Update: September 19, 2023

Problem with shortcode like text in Hugo markdown

In Hugo markdown, if you have some text wrapped by curly brackets likes following:

Today: {{%m%d%y}}

You will receive an error similar to the following:

Error: Error building site: "foo.md:36:25": failed to extract shortcode: template for shortcode "m" not found

This is due to Hugo treat {{%m%d%d}} as its shortcode .

A shortcode is a simple snippet inside a content file that Hugo will render using a predefined template. In your content files, a shortcode can be called by calling {{% shortcodename parameters %}}.

Solution on how to escape shortcode in Hugo markdown

Solution 1: Add space between `{{` (curly bracket) and `%`.

Today: {{ %m%d%y }}

Solution 2: Escape `%` with unicode in HTML

If you don’t want extra space between {{ and %, you can escape % with %. Example:

Today: {{&#x25;m%d%y}}

This trick is being used by this page.

Solution 3: Use `/* */` comment

Use /* */ to quote the comment shortcode.

{{< myshortcode param1="value1" param2="value2" >}}

References

Hugo shortcode

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Hugo: How to escape shortcode in markdown

Problem with shortcode like text in Hugo markdown

Solution on how to escape shortcode in Hugo markdown

Solution 1: Add space between {{ (curly bracket) and %.

Solution 2: Escape % with unicode in HTML

Solution 3: Use /* */ comment