Quarto Authoring

Quarto Authoring

> This skill is based on Quarto CLI v1.9.36 (2026-03-24).

When to Use What

Task: Write a new Quarto document

Use: Follow "QMD Essentials" below, then see specific reference files

Task: Add cross-references

Use: references/cross-references.md

Task: Configure code cells

Use: references/code-cells.md

Task: Add figures with captions

Use: references/figures.md

Task: Create tables

Use: references/tables.md

Task: Add citations and bibliography

Use: references/citations.md

Task: Add callout blocks

Use: references/callouts.md

Task: Add diagrams (Mermaid, Graphviz)

Use: references/diagrams.md

Task: Control page layout

Use: references/layout.md

Task: Use shortcodes

Use: references/shortcodes.md

Task: Add conditional content

Use: references/conditional-content.md

Task: Use divs and spans

Use: references/divs-and-spans.md

Task: Configure YAML front matter

Use: references/yaml-front-matter.md

Task: Find and use extensions

Use: references/extensions.md

Task: Apply markdown linting rules

Use: references/markdown-linting.md

Task: Choose or configure a compute engine (knitr, jupyter, julia)

Use: references/engines.md

Migration (only when converting an existing project)

Do NOT read these references when writing new Quarto documents.

Only read the one matching the source format when the user explicitly asks to convert or migrate an existing project.

• R Markdown (.Rmd) to Quarto: references/conversion-rmarkdown.md
• bookdown project: references/conversion-bookdown.md
• xaringan slides: references/conversion-xaringan.md
• distill article: references/conversion-distill.md
• blogdown site: references/conversion-blogdown.md
• Jupyter notebook (.ipynb) to/from Quarto: references/conversion-jupyter.md

QMD Essentials

Basic Document Structure

---
title: "Document Title"
author: "Author Name"
date: today
format: html
---

Content goes here.

A Quarto document consists of two main parts:

• YAML Front Matter: Metadata and configuration at the top, enclosed by ---.
• Markdown Content: Main body using standard markdown syntax.

Divs and Spans

Divs use fenced syntax with three colons:

::: {.class-name}
Content inside the div.
:::

Spans use bracketed syntax:

This is [important text]{.highlight}.

Details: references/divs-and-spans.md

Code Cell Options Syntax

A code cell starts with triple backticks and a language identifier between curly braces.

Code cells are code blocks that can be executed to produce output.

Quarto uses the language's comment symbol + | for cell options. Options use dashes, not dots (e.g., fig-cap not fig.cap).

• R, Python, Julia: #|
• Mermaid: %%|
• Graphviz/DOT: //|

| label: fig-example

| echo: false

| fig-cap: "A scatter plot example."

code that produces a figure

Set document-level defaults in YAML front matter:

execute:
  echo: false
  warning: false

Caching — critical engine difference: Only suggest #| cache: true for R code cells (knitr engine).

Never suggest it for other language cells — it does not work and will be silently ignored.

The only correct approach is execute: cache: true in the top-level YAML front matter when using engines other than knitr.

Python/Jupyter requires jupyter-cache (pip install jupyter-cache):

execute:
  cache: true

Details: references/code-cells.md

Cross-References

Labels must start with a type prefix. Reference with @:

• Figure: fig- prefix, e.g., #| label: fig-plot → @fig-plot
• Table: tbl- prefix, e.g., #| label: tbl-data → @tbl-data
• Section: sec- prefix, e.g., {#sec-intro} → @sec-intro
• Equation: eq- prefix, e.g., {#eq-model} → @eq-model

| label: fig-plot

| fig-cap: "A caption for the plot."

code that produces a figure

See @fig-plot for the results.

Details: references/cross-references.md

Callout Blocks

Five types: note, warning, important, tip, caution.

::: {.callout-note}
This is a note callout.
:::

::: {.callout-warning}

## Custom Title

This is a warning with a custom title.

:::

Details: references/callouts.md

Figures

![Caption text](image.png){#fig-name fig-alt="Alt text"}

Subfigures:

::: {#fig-group layout-ncol=2}
![Sub caption 1](image1.png){#fig-sub1}

![Sub caption 2](image2.png){#fig-sub2}

Main caption for the group.
:::

Details: references/figures.md

Tables

::: {#tbl-example}

| Column 1 | Column 2 |
| -------- | -------- |
| Data 1   | Data 2   |

Table caption.
:::

Details: references/tables.md

Citations

According to @smith2020, the results show...
Multiple citations [@smith2020; @jones2021].

Configure in YAML:

bibliography: references.bib
csl: apa.csl

Details: references/citations.md

Common Workflows

Creating an HTML Document

title: "My Report"
author: "Your Name"
date: today
format:
  html:
    toc: true
    code-fold: true
    theme: cosmo

Creating a PDF Document

title: "My Report"
format:
  pdf:
    documentclass: article
    papersize: a4

Creating a RevealJS Presentation

---
title: "My Presentation"
format: revealjs
---

## First Slide

Content here.

## Second Slide

More content.

Setting Up a Quarto Project

Create _quarto.yml in the project root:

project:
  type: website

website:
  title: "My Site"
  navbar:
    left:
      - href: index.qmd
        text: Home
      - href: about.qmd
        text: About

format:
  html:
    theme: cosmo

Resources

• Quarto Documentation
• Quarto Guide
• Quarto Extensions
• Community Extensions List