Theme Customization

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Themes can expose a configuration: block in their theme.yaml. At generation time you can override any key with --config, without touching the theme files themselves. Changes apply only to that run.

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Discovering a theme's config options

Every theme that supports configuration declares its keys and defaults in theme.yaml. Read it before overriding anything:

cat themes/default/theme.yaml

The default theme exposes:

name: Default
slug: default
description: Default theme
author: Germain LEFEBVRE
minimumVersion: 0.4.0
configuration:
  person:
    anonymisation: false   # Show real name by default
  socialNetworks:
    display: true          # Show social networks section by default
  displayContactInfo: true # Show contact info block by default

Each key under configuration: is something you can override at run time. The values shown are the defaults — what gets used when you don't pass --config.

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Overriding a single key

Use --config "key=value" on generate or serve:

# Hide the person's name — useful for anonymized applications
cvwonder generate \
  --input=cv.yml \
  --output=generated/ \
  --theme=default \
  --config "person.anonymisation=true"

The value true is automatically coerced to a boolean. The theme template receives .Config.person.anonymisation = true.

Value string	Coerced type	Example
"true" / "false"	boolean	--config "socialNetworks.display=false"
"42"	integer	--config "maxItems=42"
any other string	string	--config "accentColor=#ff0000"

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Nested keys with dot notation

Use dots to address nested keys:

# Disable social networks section
cvwonder generate \
  --input=cv.yml \
  --output=generated/ \
  --config "socialNetworks.display=false"

The flag targets only the leaf key — sibling keys at the same level are preserved. If the theme declares socialNetworks: { display: true, icons: true } and you pass --config "socialNetworks.display=false", then socialNetworks.icons remains true.

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Multiple overrides in one command

Repeat --config for each key:

cvwonder generate \
  --input=cv.yml \
  --output=generated/ \
  --theme=default \
  --config "person.anonymisation=true" \
  --config "socialNetworks.display=false" \
  --config "displayContactInfo=false"

This produces a fully anonymized CV in one command — no editing of YAML files required.

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Using serve with live overrides

--config works identically on the serve command. Every time CVWonder re-renders on file change, the overrides are re-applied:

cvwonder serve \
  --input=cv.yml \
  --output=generated/ \
  --theme=default \
  --config "person.anonymisation=true"

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Combining with bulk mode

--config flags apply to all files when running in bulk mode. This lets you produce multiple output batches from the same source files:

# Batch 1: full CVs
cvwonder generate \
  --input=./cvs/ \
  --output=generated/full/ \
  --theme=default

# Batch 2: anonymized CVs for blind review
cvwonder generate \
  --input=./cvs/ \
  --output=generated/anonymous/ \
  --theme=default \
  --config "person.anonymisation=true" \
  --config "displayContactInfo=false"

See Bulk Mode for more on how bulk generation works.

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Persisting overrides in a Makefile

If you use the same overrides repeatedly, store them in a Makefile target or shell alias:

# Makefile

.PHONY: cv cv-anon

cv:
	cvwonder generate --input=cv.yml --output=generated/ --theme=default

cv-anon:
	cvwonder generate \
		--input=cv.yml \
		--output=generated/anon/ \
		--theme=default \
		--config "person.anonymisation=true" \
		--config "displayContactInfo=false"

make cv       # full CV
make cv-anon  # anonymized CV

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How the merge works

CLI overrides are deep-merged on top of the theme.yaml defaults:

theme.yaml defaults        +   --config flags         =   .Config in template
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
person:                        person.anonymisation=true
  anonymisation: false    →    (only leaf overridden)   →   person:
socialNetworks:                                               anonymisation: true
  display: true                                          socialNetworks:
displayContactInfo: true                                      display: true
                                                         displayContactInfo: true

Sibling keys at every level are always preserved.

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Writing your own theme with config

If you are building a theme and want to expose configuration options, declare them in your theme.yaml and access them in the template via .Config:

# themes/my-theme/theme.yaml
configuration:
  accentColor: "#2563eb"
  showPhoto: true
  skills:
    display: true
    layout: tags  # or "list"

<!-- themes/my-theme/index.html -->
{{ if index .Config "showPhoto" }}
  <img src="{{ .Person.Photo }}" alt="{{ .Person.Name }}">
{{ end }}

{{ $skills := index .Config "skills" }}
{{ if index $skills "display" }}
  <!-- render skills section -->
{{ end }}

See Write a Theme for the full theme authoring guide.