Blog Sidebar

Created on August 17, 2026 — updated on August 18, 2026

Overview

Three widgets built from the same post collection Blog List reads: Recent Posts, Categories, and Tags. Each is toggled independently. Requires the simple-blog-posts plugin.

Unlike the Sidebar (which shows the current page's table of contents), the Blog Sidebar shows data aggregated across every post.

How to activate?

  • Default: false — each widget is off unless listed

Configuration

plugins:
  - search
  - simple-blog-posts

theme:
  name: simple-blog
  components:
    blog_sidebar:
      recent_posts: true
      categories: true
      tags: true
      recent_count: 5

Widgets

  • recent_posts — links the recent_count most recent posts (default 5)
  • categories — one link per distinct category value
  • tags — one link per distinct tag

Any widget can be omitted or set to false to hide it independently of the others.

Clicking a category or tag doesn't just jump to "some post that has it" — the plugin generates an actual page per value (e.g. category/python/, tag/django/) that renders only the posts carrying that category or tag, using the same Blog List layout as everywhere else. See Category and tag pages for how these are generated and configured.

Coexistence with the Table of Contents sidebar

Setting theme.components.blog_sidebar puts the theme into its two-column layout (same one used by theme.sidebar: true) even if theme.sidebar itself is left at its default false. If both are enabled, the page's table of contents renders above the blog widgets in the same sidebar column.

Data source

Both this component and Blog List read from the same collection built by the simple-blog-posts plugin — see its front matter contract.