Target Factories

Target factories generate targets programmatically. Instead of specifying every target in your config, a factory can add multiple targets from an external data source or file list.

Example use case

Say you have a folder of .md files and want a separate PDF for each. Without factories, you’d need a target for each file. With a target factory, add a new target by just adding a new .md file — no config change needed.

Built-in: Glob factory

The glob factory creates a target for each file matching a pattern:

target_factories:
  - glob:
      path: "*.md"
  - glob:
      name_levels: 2
      path: "*/*.md"
      glob_variables:
        jinja_template: template.jinja

Parameters

Parameter	Description
path	Glob pattern (e.g., *.md, */*.md)
name_levels	Directory levels in target name (default: 0)
inherit_from	Optional target to inherit settings from
glob_variables	Additional variables for generated targets

Custom target factories

Create your own factories as Python packages.

1. Define the factory function

def my_factory(cfg):
    """Return a dict of target_name: target_config pairs."""
    targets = {}
    for item in get_items():
        targets[item.name] = {
            'jinja_template': 'template.jinja',
            'output_file': f'{item.name}.pdf',
            'data': {'variables': {'title': item.title}}
        }
    return targets

2. Register as entry point

In pyproject.toml:

[project.entry-points."markmeld.factories"]
my_factory = "mypackage:my_factory"

3. Use in config

target_factories:
  - my_factory:
      custom_param: value