LiVa

Overview

LiVa started as a personal development logger during early Alpha configuration. It proved useful while setting up templates and shortcodes, so over time, it evolved into an actual tool.

LiVa helps detect misconfigurations in both config and content files. Its purpose is to assist your workflow. While it is part of Alpha, you should think of it more as a symbiotic independent entity rather than just a feature.

LiVa will detect and report crucial issues in config files, frontmatter, Markdown, and shortcodes that can affect your deployed site if left unresolved.

Detected issues appear as warnings or errors on the page and in the Hugo terminal.

Usage

LiVa is enabled by default in Alpha. You can disable it in your config/_default/params.toml file:

liva_enabled = false
livaWarn_enabled = false

LiVa runs only in your local development environment.
It does not affect production builds in any way.

When enabled, you’ll see a floating action button (FAB) at the bottom-right corner of the screen.

• If no errors are detected, clicking the FAB will open the settings menu, where you can:
  • Change the FAB position (left/right)
  • Open the LiVa Console
  • Check for Alpha and Hugo updates
• If an error is detected, the FAB turns red and clicking it opens the LiVa Console, which:
  • Describes the issue(s).
  • Suggests how to fix them.
• All LiVa errors appear as warnings in the Hugo server terminal.
• Shortcode and frontmatter related errors are also displayed directly on the affected page during local development.

You can think of LiVa as a second line of defense, supplementing Hugo’s built-in warning and error system.
However, LiVa will never break your build, so it’s your responsibility to resolve any errors it reports before deploying your site.

Interacting with LiVa

LiVa requires no additional configuration. Under normal conditions, it runs quietly in the background, detecting, reporting, and clearing errors as you work. It’s designed not to interfere with your workflow.

If you encounter any issues with LiVa or Alpha, you can:

• Click the “Report an Alpha issue” icon in the LiVa Console.
• Or contact me directly.

If you experience a persistent error that doesn’t go away (even after resolving the cause), use the “LiVa reset errors” button inside the console or restart hugo server.

Limitations

The LiVa on-page reporting has one main limitation.

Most errors are not detected until you visit the page containing them.

Resolving this limitation would require adding dependencies, which I want to avoid to keep LiVa fully self-contained and out-of-the-box for all Alpha users.

To work around this, simply check the Hugo terminal. Terminal warnings are scoped globally and will also appear during the final hugo build.
Or make sure to manually preview the pages you edit or create in your local environment.