ymlthis: write YAML for R Markdown, bookdown, blogdown, and more

ymlthis makes it easy to write YAML front matter for R Markdown and related documents. yml_*() functions write functions and use_*() functions let you write the resulting YAML to your clipboard or to .yml files related to your project.

Installation

You can install ymlthis from CRAN with:

install.packages("ymlthis")

Or you can install the development version of ymlthis from GitHub with:

# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("r-lib/ymlthis")

Example

yml() creates a basic yml object returns simple YAML with the author and date.

library(ymlthis)

yml()
#> ---
#> author: Malcolm Barrett
#> date: '`r format(Sys.Date())`'
#> ---

ymlthis supports many YAML arguments, with YAML-generating functions prefixed with yml_*():

yml() %>% 
  yml_author(c("Yihui Xie", "Hadley Wickham"), affiliation = "RStudio") %>% 
  yml_date(lubridate::today()) %>% 
  yml_output(
    word_document(keep_md = TRUE), 
    bookdown::html_document2()
  ) %>% 
  yml_citations(bibliography = "references.bib", csl = "aje.csl")
#> ---
#> author:
#> - name: Yihui Xie
#>   affiliation: RStudio
#> - name: Hadley Wickham
#>   affiliation: RStudio
#> date: '2022-06-24'
#> output:
#>   word_document:
#>     keep_md: true
#>   bookdown::html_document2: default
#> bibliography: references.bib
#> csl: aje.csl
#> ---

Add-in

ymlthis also includes an add-in that will create YAML for you and put it in a file, such as an .Rmd file, or on your clipboard.