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Pika Variables

You can use various special variables in your posts and pages to do things like add some recent blog posts to a custom home page. Note: They don’t work inside inline code or code blocks. Here’s what Pika supports:

Output your blog posts

There are three variables to output your blog posts:

They can all be customized by a number of parameters, like this example:

{{ posts limit: 10 skip: 5 tag: "Bill Murray" without_tag: "Chevy Chase" has_title: yes sent_as_newsletter: no sort: alpha }}

These lists are paginated by default. Set page_size to control how many posts appear per page (the default is 100 for post lists and 20 for post streams). Add paginate: no to turn pagination off and show the whole list, up to limit.

{{ posts page_size: 10 }}

Optional parameters

limit
With pagination on (the default), limit caps the total number of posts you can page through. There is no maximum — leave it off to page through every post. When pagination is off (paginate: no), limit is the number of posts shown: it defaults to 500 for post list variables and 20 for post stream variables, and is capped at 500 (lists) and 50 (streams).
skip
Skip the first n posts.
tag
Only include posts with the specified tag.
without_tag
Exclude posts with the specified tag.
has_title
yes (only posts with titles) or no (only posts without titles).
sent_as_newsletter
yes (only posts sent as newsletters) or no (only posts not sent as newsletters).
year
Only include posts published in the given year. Example: {{ posts year: 2025 }} Use current to always show posts from the current year: {{ posts year: current }} Use not_current to show posts from every year except the current one: {{ posts year: not_current }}
on_this_month, on_this_week, on_this_day
“On this day”–style filters that show posts from your entire blog history (any year):
  • on_this_month — posts published during the current month. Example: {{ posts on_this_month }}
  • on_this_week — posts published during the current calendar week. Weeks run Monday through Sunday. Example: {{ posts on_this_week }}
  • on_this_day — posts published on the current month and day. Example: {{ posts on_this_day }}
If you include more than one “On this day”–style filter, only the most specific applies: on_this_day beats on_this_week beats on_this_month.
sort
Use alpha to override the default sorting by date. This parameter only works with the {{ posts }} variable.
random
To show posts in random order, use yes to override the default, which is no. Pagination is not allowed with random ordering and will automatically be disabled if you include the random option. A page containing a random list reshuffles periodically (about every 30 seconds) rather than on every single visit. Random ordering is not available on {{ posts_by_year }}. Example: {{ posts random: yes }}
with_excerpts
Use no to override the default, which is yes (showing excerpts with “Continue reading” links). This parameter only works with the {{ posts_in_stream }} variable.
paginate
Pagination is on by default. Use no to disable it and render the entire list (up to limit) with no page navigation. Each list variable on a post or page paginates independently, each with its own page link. Pages are navigated on the web; in email newsletters the list shows its first page.
page_size
When paginating, the number of posts shown per page. Defaults to 100 for post list variables and 20 for post stream variables. The maximum page size is 500 for post list variables and 50 for post stream variables. limit still caps the total number of posts paginated across all pages.

Output your blog tags

There are two variables to output your blog post tags:

Optional parameters

separator
Use a custom tag separator in place of a comma in the {{ tags }} variable. Example: {{ tags separator: " | " }}

Output your Letterbird contact form

Letterbird is another service from Good Enough that allows you to create a simple contact form. While it has its own embed code, Pika has a first-class variable for you to embed your form (like on a contact page):

{{ letterbird_form user: yourusername }}

Optional parameters

user
Your Letterbird username. This is a required parameter.
showheader
Include your Letterbird form header.

Output your Newsletter subscribe form

While there’s an option in Newsletter Settings to automatically include your subscription form on your site, you can also embed your form anywhere with this variable:

{{ newsletter_subscription_form }}

There are no parameters for this variable.

Output your Search form

If you have Site Search enabled, you can embed a search form anywhere with this variable:

{{ search_form }}

There are no parameters for this variable.

Output a table of contents

Automatically generate a linked table of contents from all the headings (h1–h6) in the body of your post or page:

{{ table_of_contents }}

It can be customized by a couple of parameters, like this example:

{{ table_of_contents heading: "On This Page" only_headers: "h2 h3" }}

Optional parameters

heading
A title to display above the table of contents as an H2, which is not included in the table of contents list itself.
only_headers
A space-separated list of heading levels (h1-h6) to include.