sidebar items not ordered

[tall oasis]

starlight; sidebar items not ordered alphabetically

[keen lion]

Hi @tall oasis. I'm kapa.ai, your friendly support bot. I will try to answer your question by searching through the knowledge base. :wave:

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By default, Starlight’s autogenerated sidebar groups are ordered alphabetically by file slug/filename. [Autogenerated groups; Sidebar sorting]

Key points to check:

1. Autogenerated groups only
   Alphabetical sorting applies when you use autogenerate:

   starlight({
     sidebar: [
       {
         label: 'Constellations',
         autogenerate: { directory: 'constellations' },
       },
     ],
   });
   

   This will sort pages in that directory alphabetically by slug/filename. [Autogenerated groups]

2. Manual items are not auto‑sorted
   If you define items yourself, Starlight keeps the order you specify:

   {
     label: 'Constellations',
     items: [
       'constellations/centaurus',
       'constellations/andromeda',
     ],
   }
   

   This will show Centaurus before Andromeda because that’s the order in the array. [Groups]

3. Per‑page ordering in autogenerated groups
   Within autogenerated groups, you can override the default alphabetical order using frontmatter:

   ---
   title: My page
   sidebar:
     order: 1   # lower = higher in the list
   ---
   

   [Sidebar frontmatter]

If your items still appear “unsorted,” the most likely causes (based on the docs) are:

• You’re using manual items and expecting automatic sorting.
• You’re using sidebar.order in frontmatter, which intentionally overrides the alphabetical default in autogenerated groups.

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@tall oasis Kapa.ai is still learning and improving, please let me know how I did by reacting below.

[tall oasis]

@keen lion Can I somehow specifiy to automatically sort it alphabetically?

[keen lion]

Let me check the knowledge base for you again. One moment! :books:

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The knowledge sources only state that autogenerated groups are sorted alphabetically by default; they do not mention any option to auto‑sort manually defined items. [Autogenerated groups; Sidebar sorting]

So, based on the docs:

• autogenerate: { directory: '...' } → items are automatically sorted alphabetically.
• Manually listed items: [...] → order is exactly as you write them; there is no documented config to auto‑sort these alphabetically.

If you need automatic alphabetical sorting for a group, the documented way is to use an autogenerated group instead of a fully manual list.

Note: you can ask me a follow up question by @ mentioning me again :speech_balloon: