Build or edit the program

The schedule lives in data/events/<YYYY>/<city-slug>/main.yml under two keys: program: and ignites:. A handful of events split it into a sibling program.yml instead — check for that file first, and if it exists, edit it rather than main.yml.

The rule that catches everyone

For type: talk entries and for every ignites: entry, title is a filename slug, not display text. It must match a file in content/events/<YYYY>-<city>/program/ with .md stripped.

  - title: "jane-doe"        # -> content/events/2026-boston/program/jane-doe.md
    type: talk

The real talk title comes from that file's Title field. A title that matches nothing produces a broken entry and nothing fails — no error, no warning.

For every other type (custom, open-space), title is the display text:

  - title: "Registration & Breakfast"
    type: custom

Entry fields

Field	Required	Notes
title	yes	A slug for talk/ignite, display text otherwise
type	yes	custom, talk, ignite, workshop, or open-space
date	yes	YYYY-MM-DD, must fall inside the event's startdate/enddate
start_time	yes	"08:00", quoted, 24-hour
end_time	yes	Same. "late" is accepted for evening events
comments	no	Extra note under the entry. Markdown works
custom_url	no	Point the entry at an external URL
background_color	no	Hex in quotes, e.g. "#FFFA99". Check it against the text color

type sets the color: custom grey, talk blue, ignite green, workshop light blue, open-space orange. talk, ignite and workshop also become links to the page named in title.

Ignites

Ignites get their own list in addition to a program entry for the block:

ignites:
  - title: "sam-patel"
    date: 2026-10-19
  - title: "wil-mckenney"
    date: 2026-10-20
    block: "ignite-1"

Each title is a file in program/, same as talks. Use block: only when one day has more than one group of ignites.

A worked shape

program:
  - title: "Registration, Breakfast, and Sponsor Booths Open"
    type: custom
    date: 2026-10-19
    start_time: "08:00"
    end_time: "09:00"
  - title: "Opening Welcome"
    type: custom
    date: 2026-10-19
    start_time: "09:00"
    end_time: "09:15"
  - title: "jane-doe"
    type: talk
    date: 2026-10-19
    start_time: "09:15"
    end_time: "09:45"
  - title: "Ignite Talks"
    type: ignite
    date: 2026-10-19
    start_time: "13:00"
    end_time: "13:30"
  - title: "Open Space 1"
    type: open-space
    date: 2026-10-19
    start_time: "14:00"
    end_time: "14:45"
  - title: "Evening Event"
    type: custom
    date: 2026-10-19
    start_time: "19:00"
    end_time: "late"
    comments: "At the [Pony Club](https://example.com), 1005 Ponyville Drive"

A typical day is four talks, an ignite block, three open spaces, and breaks between.

The program page

content/events/<YYYY>-<city>/program.md must exist:

+++
Title = "Program"
Type = "program"
Description = "Program for devopsdays <City> <YYYY>"
Icons = "false"
+++

Set Icons = "true" once slides and videos are attached — see .claude/skills/add-talk-media/SKILL.md.

Add the nav entry in main.yml:

nav_elements:
  - name: program

Do this by hand. The sed in utilities/add_program.sh meant to uncomment it no longer matches the template and silently does nothing.

Before you have speakers

Placeholder slugs (talk-1 … talk-8) are the convention; replace them as speakers are confirmed. They will render as broken links until they match real files, which is expected during planning but must be cleaned up before the event.

Verify

Check every talk and ignite slug resolves to a file:

# list slugs referenced by the program, and what actually exists
grep -E '^\s+- title: "' data/events/2026/boston/main.yml
ls content/events/2026-boston/program/

Then confirm:

• Every date falls within startdate..enddate
• Times are quoted strings, not bare numbers — 08:00 unquoted is not what you want
• No overlapping slots unless the event genuinely runs tracks
• If you appended a block, there is only one program: key in the file. utilities/add_program.sh appends blindly and a second run produces a duplicate key

Preview /events/<YYYY>-<city>/program/ and click through to a talk.

Submit

Follow .claude/skills/submit-changes/SKILL.md.

PR title: [BOS-2026] Add day one program.