Sitemap.xml

A Sitemap is a blueprint of your website that helps search engines find, crawl, and index all of your website's content. Kiln automatically generates a standards-compliant sitemap.xml file every time you build your site.

Why it matters

Without a sitemap, search engines like Google rely on finding links on one page to discover another. If you have a new note that isn't linked from anywhere yet (an "orphan page"), Google might never find it.

The sitemap.xml solves this by providing a complete list of every single public page on your site, ensuring 100% of your content is discoverable.

Configuration

Because a sitemap requires absolute URLs (e.g., https://example.com/page instead of just /page), Kiln needs to know your domain name to generate it.

You must provide the --url flag when running the generate command:

./kiln generate --url "[https://kiln.talesign.com](https://kiln.talesign.com)"

Inclusion Logic

Kiln automatically scans your vault to build the sitemap.

• Included: All Markdown files (.md) and Canvas files (.canvas) are added automatically.
• Excluded: Any file or folder starting with a dot . (hidden files) is automatically excluded from the sitemap to protect your private data or drafts.