docs reference

[[redirects]]

Redirects

By Sheriff Docs ~ 7 min read

A redirect sends an old page name or alternate page name to the real page.

In Sheriff, redirects are defined on the destination page. Instead of creating a separate redirect page by hand, you tell the real page which names should point to it.

Sheriff uses the aliases field in frontmatter to build redirects and resolve wikilinks.

Why Is It Important?

Redirects serve two primary purposes:

They keep old links working after a page is renamed.
They let alternate wikilink names point to the same real page.

For wiki-style sites, this is especially useful when a page has common abbreviations, old names, spelling variants, or plural/singular forms.

Destination-Owned Redirects

Sheriff redirects are destination-owned.

That means aliases live on the real page:

^^^^
title: House Andergard
author: Janden
layout: docs
meta_kind: docs
meta_type: entry
summary:
gloss:
aliases: [Andergard, Andergard House, House Andergaard]
categories: [Houses, Royal Houses]
^^^^

^^^^
title: House Andergard
author: Janden
layout: docs
meta_kind: docs
meta_type: entry
summary:
gloss:
aliases: [Andergard, Andergard House, House Andergaard]
categories: [Houses, Royal Houses]
^^^^

This means:

All of these names point to House Andergard.

All of these names point to House Andergard.

Generated Redirect Files

When you build your portal, Sheriff automatically creates redirect pages for each alias.

For example:

aliases: [Andergard, Andergard House]

aliases: [Andergard, Andergard House]

generates redirect pages like:

dist/
└── sheriff/
    ├── andergard.html
    └── andergard-house.html

dist/
└── sheriff/
    ├── andergard.html
    └── andergard-house.html

Each generated redirect page sends visitors to the real page.

Wikilinks

Aliases also work inside wikilinks.

If this page exists:

title: House Andergard
aliases: [Andergard, Andergard House]

title: House Andergard
aliases: [Andergard, Andergard House]

then all of these links resolve to the same page:

[[House Andergard]]
[[Andergard]]
[[Andergard House]]

[[House Andergard]]
[[Andergard]]
[[Andergard House]]

Sheriff checks the real page slug first, then checks its aliases.

Page Renames

When you rename a page, add the old name to the new page's aliases list.

Example:

title: Focus Panels
aliases: [Focus Panel, focus-panel]

title: Focus Panels
aliases: [Focus Panel, focus-panel]

Now old links such as:

[[Focus Panel]]
[[focus-panel]]

[[Focus Panel]]
[[focus-panel]]

will point to Focus Panels.

Sheriff will also generate redirect pages for those aliases.

Conflicts

Sheriff will not generate a redirect page if the alias slug already belongs to a real page.

For example, if a real page already exists at:

focus-panel.html

focus-panel.html

then an alias that would generate the same path is skipped.

The real page always wins.

Modules Involved

Trailboss - resolves wikilinks through route data.
Routes JSON - stores aliases and generates redirect pages.