Comments & Engagement

Engage with your audience by enabling comments on your posts and pages. HugoBlox supports several providers, ranging from privacy-focused options to social integrations.

Providers

Giscus

Recommended. Uses GitHub Discussions. Great for developer-focused sites. Free and open source.

Disqus

Widely adopted but includes ads and tracking.

Commento

Privacy-focused, lightweight, and ad-free.

Social

Link to Twitter/X threads or other social media posts for discussion.

Note

Migrating from Utterances?
Giscus is the successor to Utterances, using the newer GitHub Discussions API. We recommend Giscus for all new sites.

Configuration

Visual Editor Available

Use HugoBlox Studio to configure comments in a few clicks - no YAML editing!

Install Studio →

Configure your chosen provider in config/_default/params.yaml:

Giscus

1. Install the Giscus App on your repository
2. Visit giscus.app to generate your configuration
3. Add to params.yaml:

hugoblox:
  comments:
    enable: true
    provider: giscus
    giscus:
      repo: 'username/repo'
      repo_id: 'R_kgDO...'
      category: 'Comments'
      category_id: 'DIC_kwDO...'

      # Optional Customization:
      mapping: 'pathname'      # pathname (default) | url | title | og:title
      theme: 'light'           # light | dark | transparent_dark | preferred_color_scheme
      language_code: 'en'      # defaults to 'en'

Disqus

1. Get your Shortname from Disqus admin
2. Update params.yaml:

hugoblox:
  comments:
    enable: true
    provider: disqus
    disqus:
      shortname: 'your-shortname'

Commento

If you self-host Commento, provide your server URL:

hugoblox:
  comments:
    enable: true
    provider: commento
    commento:
      url: 'https://cdn.commento.io'

Enable Comments on Pages

Control exactly where comments appear using a 3-level hierarchy:

1. Global Enable: params.yaml (Master switch)
2. Section Defaults: hugo.yaml (Cascade settings)
3. Per-Page: Front Matter (Granular control)

1. Global Enable

First, ensure the provider is configured and enabled in params.yaml:

hugoblox:
  comments:
    enable: true  # Must be true for any comments to show

2. Section Defaults (Cascade)

Automatically enable/disable comments for entire folders (e.g., all posts) in hugo.yaml:

cascade:
  - target:
      path: /post/**
    params:
      commentable: true
  - target:
      path: /docs/**
    params:
      commentable: false # Disable on docs by default

3. Per-Page Override

Override the section default on a specific page using Front Matter:

---
title: My Controversial Post
commentable: false  # Turn off comments just for this page
---