---
title: Garden guide
draft: "false"
summary: |
  First line.
  Second line.
---
# Garden guide

---
title: Garden guide
draft: false
summary: |
  First line.
  Second line.
---
# Garden guide

---
title: Garden guide
draft: false
summary: |
  First line.
  Second line.
---
# Garden guide

---
title: Garden guide
draft: false
summary: >
  First line.
  Second line.
---
# Garden guide

---
title: Garden guide
draft: false
summary: |
  First line.
  Second line.
---
# Garden guide

---
title: Garden guide
draft: false
summary: |
  First line.
  Second line.
---
# Garden guide

---
title: Garden guide
draft: false
summary: |
  First line.
  Second line.
---
# Garden guide

Put metadata before the document

Some tools read a YAML block at the beginning of a Markdown file as front matter. Astro is one example. Its delimiters and accepted fields are a tool convention, not a universal Markdown feature. Check the target tool before using them. Astro Markdown front matter, CommonMark specification.

---
title: Garden guide
draft: false
---

# Garden guide

A plan for a shared space.

In our exercise, the first block is metadata and the later heading is prose. A renderer that does not support front matter may show the delimiters or interpret them as Markdown. Metadata remains in the raw file even when a preview hides it.

Preserve lines or fold them

summary: |
  First line.
  Second line.
description: >
  A short
  garden guide.

The literal form | retains the line break between these ordinary lines. The folded form > turns that ordinary break into a space. Blank lines and more-indented lines have additional rules. This lesson uses the simple case; inspect the parser output rather than assuming every newline behaves identically. YAML block scalars.

For a postal address, preserving lines may be useful. For a description wrapped across source lines, folding may be useful. Neither choice improves factual accuracy.

Check syntax, then the receiving tool’s rules

Our fictional document contract requires title as text and draft as a boolean. The two descriptions are strings. The browser checks that contract and shows the parsed metadata separately from the Markdown body.

draft: 'false' # Valid YAML; wrong type for this exercise.

Remove the quotes to supply a boolean. Notice that the syntax could be valid before and after the change. Similarly, a correct draft field does not universally hide a page: only a tool that implements that behavior can do so.

Practice with a deliberate mistake

Repair the starter, add both block-scalar examples and retain a Markdown heading below the closing delimiter. Inspect the escaped \n characters in the parsed result. Then change draft back to a string and run the check. You should receive a field/type message rather than a syntax error.

For a real publishing system, check its schema and preview a disposable document before publishing. The exercise performs no publishing, file access or AI request.

Sources checked 17 September 2026. Host behavior can change; verify it against the linked documentation when using these examples.

{
  "title": "Garden guide",
  "draft": "false"
}

---
title: Garden guide
draft: false
summary: |
  First line.
  Second line.
description: >
  A short
  garden guide.
---
# Garden guide

A plan for a shared space.