can I use createContentLoader in config.js?

[Jiny3213]

I has a data loader using createContentLoader to load all file in post/*.md

Now I want to use it to load my posts in config.js to generate the themeConfig.sidebar, but the createContentLoader is async load.

How can I do this?

[brc-dd]

EDIT: won't work for createContentLoader, see comments below

---

async configs are supported. you can have something like this:

// .vitepress/config.ts

export default async () => {
  // await createContentLoader ...

  return defineConfig({
    // ...
  })
}

Haven't checked, but top level awaits are probably also supported.

[Jiny3213]

It work, top level awaits are also work!
thanks!!!

[Jiny3213]

It seem work when I don't stop the dev server, but clash when I restart the dev server or run build.

error like this:

failed to load config from /my/path/.vitepress/config.ts
failed to start server. error:
Error: content loader invoked without an active vitepress process, or before vitepress config is resolved.

It seem that createContentLoader can not be call before config is resolved. So I can not use it to generate the themeConfig.sidebar :(

[Jiny3213]

Finally, I find a way to override the VPSidebar.vue component like https://vitepress.dev/guide/extending-default-theme#overriding-internal-components

// MyVPSidebar.vue
import { data } from '../../posts.data' // it use createContentLoader
const { hasSidebar } = useSidebar()
const sidebarGroups = [{
  items: data.map(item => ({
    text: item.frontmatter.title,
    link: item.url
  }))
}]
// other code...

in .vitepress/config.ts the themeConfig.sidebar is like:

sidebar: [
        {
          text: 'fake sidebar',
          link: '/'
        }
      ]

to make hasSidebar work

[astorDev]

Can we reopen that since @brc-dd answer doesn't help at all with the following problem:

content loader invoked without an active vitepress process, or before vitepress config is resolved.

I wasn't able to repeat @Jiny3213 work-around because MyVPSidebar.vue code seems incomplete.

[brc-dd]

Yeah my answer above seems wrong. It isn't supported outside data loader files. You'll need to manually use glob to workaround that. Feel free to create a feature request though, will see. There are many third party plugins though for auto-generating sidebar which work fine. For example, https://github.com/jooy2/vitepress-sidebar