Debug Layout and Include Failures

Shared templates reduce duplication.

They also make one broken shared file capable of affecting many pages.

That is not a reason to avoid abstraction.

It is a reason to read failure patterns.

Pattern 1: every page fails

Likely suspects become shared:

• default layout;
• shared include;
• site configuration;
• shared asset path.

Do not begin by editing one page's body.

Pattern 2: one page fails

Likely suspects become more local:

• that page's front matter;
• layout selection;
• page-specific data;
• page content.

Pattern 3: only one content type fails

If every project page fails but Home/About work, inspect the project-specific layout or collection/content-type assumptions.

Controlled failures

Create and repair two disposable failures:

Missing include

Reference a non-existent include.

Read the build error.

Wrong layout

Select a missing/incorrect layout.

Record the behavior.

For each:

Scope of failure:
Build or output failure?
Shared/local evidence:
Repair:
Verification:

Generated-output clue

If the build completes but a wrapper is missing, inspect generated nesting.

The source files may all exist while the composition is wrong.

Checkpoint

Complete this claim:

Because the failure appears on __________ pages, I will inspect __________ before __________.

The scope of the symptom should influence the scope of your investigation.