The markata.plugins.load plugin is responsible for loading and parsing markdown files with frontmatter into Post objects. It provides parallel loading capabilities and handles both modern Pydantic-based and legacy frontmatter validation.

Installation

This plugin is built-in and enabled by default through the 'default' plugin. If you want to be explicit, you can add it to your list of plugins:

        
hooks = [
    "markata.plugins.load",
]

Uninstallation

Since this plugin is included in the default plugin set, to disable it you must explicitly add it to the disabled_hooks list if you are using the 'default' plugin:

        
disabled_hooks = [
    "markata.plugins.load",
]

Note: Disabling this plugin will prevent Markata from loading any markdown files. This will effectively disable most of Markata's functionality.

Configuration

Configure loading behavior in your markata.toml:

        
[markata]
# Directories containing markdown content
content_directories = [
    "content",
    "posts"
]

# Optional: Set to true to use legacy frontmatter validation
legacy_frontmatter = false

# Optional: Number of worker processes for parallel loading
load_workers = 4

Functionality

File Loading

The plugin:

1. Discovers markdown files in content directories
2. Loads file content and frontmatter
3. Validates frontmatter against Post model
4. Creates Post objects for further processing

Parallel Processing

Loading is parallelized using:

• Process pool for file reading
• Configurable number of workers
• Chunked file processing

Validation Modes

Supports two validation approaches:

1. Modern Pydantic-based validation (default)

   • Strict type checking
   • Automatic type coercion
   • Detailed validation errors

2. Legacy frontmatter validation

   • Looser type checking
   • Compatible with older content
   • Less strict validation

Error Handling

The plugin provides:

• Detailed validation error messages
• Per-file error reporting
• Graceful fallback to legacy mode
• Optional strict validation

Registered Attributes

The plugin adds:

• articles: List of loaded Post objects
• content_directories: List of content source directories

Dependencies

This plugin depends on:

• python-frontmatter for YAML parsing
• pydantic for validation
• multiprocessing for parallel loading

        
def load_file_content(path: Path) -> tuple[Path, dict]:
    """Load file content without validation."""
    try:
        with open(path, "r") as f:
            raw_content = f.read()
        try:
            content = frontmatter.loads(raw_content)
        except Exception:
            content = None
        content["raw"] = raw_content
        return path, content
    except Exception:
        return path, None