Unknown var specified in a var shortcode.

[rputikar]

I am trying to render README.qmd file that is built using vars.

_variables.yml:

author: John Doe

README.qmd

---
format: gfm
---
author: {{< var author >}}

when I try to render README.qmd, I get following warning
WARNING: Unknown var author specified in a var shortcode.

quarto render .\README.qmd
pandoc
  to: >-
    commonmark+autolink_bare_uris+emoji+footnotes+gfm_auto_identifiers+pipe_tables+strikeout+task_lists+tex_math_dollars
  output-file: README.md
  standalone: true
  default-image-extension: png

WARNING: Unknown var author specified in a var shortcode.
Output created: README.md

Generated README.md

author: **?var:author**

If I rename the file to readme.qmd it generates a readme.md in _site folder with proper content.

quarto render .\readme.qmd
pandoc
  to: >-
    commonmark+autolink_bare_uris+emoji+footnotes+gfm_auto_identifiers+pipe_tables+strikeout+task_lists+tex_math_dollars
  output-file: readme.md
  standalone: true
  default-image-extension: png

Output created: _site\readme.md

author: John Doe

How do I access the variables in README.qmd?

[lucahammer]

I don't know why, but after I added version: 1.2 in the first line of the _variables.yml file from the example in the documentation, it started to work for me. Even after removing it again.

[mcanouil]

To use _variables.yml, your document must be inside a Quarto project.
A quarto project is defined by the presence of _quarto.yml.