{
  "description": "Register generated documents with a layout, output path, props, HTML body, and an optional origin label."
}
---

# Rendering generated documents

`documents.render(request)` is available only in pre-build hooks. It accepts exactly one table.

```lua
documents.render({
  layout = "article",
  output = "journal/first-entry/index.html",
  source = "project:content/first-entry.md",
  props = {
    title = "First entry",
    tags = json.array({ "compiler", "html" }),
  },
  body = document:to_html(),
})
```

| Field | Required | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `layout` | yes | discovered layout name |
| `output` | yes | final path relative to the output root |
| `source` | no | non-empty origin label used in diagnostics |
| `props` | no | structured layout props |
| `body` | no | HTML fragment projected into the layout slot |

Unknown fields and non-string keys are errors. `layout` and `output` must be non-empty strings; `source`, when present, must also be non-empty. The body may be an empty string.

Props accept strings, numbers, booleans, arrays, objects, and explicit `json.null`. The top level must be an object, and prop names are normalised to lowercase without whitespace. Sklair snapshots the entire request at call time, including nested props, so later Lua mutations cannot alter an already queued document.

`source` labels the document's origin for debugging, error messages, and collision reports. It is a descriptive label: changing it does not change the rendered content or output path, and Sklair does not open it as a file. The hook remains responsible for reading the input and supplying the body.