diff --git a/docs/make.jl b/docs/make.jl
index afd8a82e..0d0f034d 100644
--- a/docs/make.jl
+++ b/docs/make.jl
@@ -4,6 +4,45 @@ using DocumenterCitations
 using DocumenterInterLinks
 using LaTeXStrings
 
+struct DecomposeInSidebar
+    path::String
+    pages::Any
+end
+
+# So you can only really pull this trick once in a Julia session
+# But because doc.user.pages is a Vector{Any}, we can't really do anything about it.
+function DocumenterVitepress.pagelist2str(doc, ds::Vector{<: Any}, ::Val{:sidebar})
+    println("Hello World!!!")
+    if !all(x -> x isa DecomposeInSidebar, ds)
+        # if this is false, invoke the default method.
+        return invoke(pagelist2str, Tuple{Any, Any, Val{:sidebar}}, doc, ds, Val(:sidebar))
+    end
+    contents = DocumenterVitepress.pagelist2str.((doc,), ds, (Val(:sidebar),))
+    ret = "{\n" * join(contents, ",\n") * "\n}"
+    println(ret)
+    return ret
+end
+
+function DocumenterVitepress.pagelist2str(doc, ds::DecomposeInSidebar, ::Val{:sidebar})
+    raw_contents = DocumenterVitepress.pagelist2str(doc, ds.pages, Val(:sidebar))
+    contents = if raw_contents isa String
+        raw_contents
+    else
+        join(raw_contents, ",\n")
+    end
+
+    return "\"/$(ds.path)/\": {\n$(contents)\n}"
+end
+
+function DocumenterVitepress.pagelist2str(doc, ds::DecomposeInSidebar, ::Val{:navbar})
+    return DocumenterVitepress.pagelist2str(doc, ds.pages, Val(:sidebar))
+end
+
+function Documenter.walk_navpages(ds::DecomposeInSidebar, parent, doc)
+    return Documenter.walk_navpages(ds.pages, parent, doc)
+end
+
+
 # Handle DocumenterCitations integration - if you're running this, then you don't need anything here!!
 documenter_citations_dir = dirname(dirname(pathof(DocumenterCitations)))
 documenter_citations_docs_dir = joinpath(documenter_citations_dir, "docs")
@@ -53,7 +92,7 @@ makedocs(;
     source = "src",
     build = "build",
     pages = [
-        "Manual" => [
+        DecomposeInSidebar("manual", "Manual" => [
             "Get Started" => "manual/get_started.md",
             "Updating to DocumenterVitepress" => "manual/documenter_to_vitepress_docs_example.md",
             "Code" => "manual/code_example.md",
@@ -63,12 +102,11 @@ makedocs(;
             "CSS Styling" => "manual/style_css.md",
             "Authors' badge" => "manual/author_badge.md",
             "GitHub Icon with Stars" => "manual/repo_stars.md",
-        ],
-        "Developers' documentation" => [
+        ]),
+        DecomposeInSidebar("devs", "Developers' documentation" => [
             "The rendering process" => "devs/render_pipeline.md",
             "Internal API" => "devs/internal_api.md",
-        ],
-        "api.md",
+        ]),
     ],
     plugins = [bib, links],
 )
diff --git a/src/DocumenterVitepress.jl b/src/DocumenterVitepress.jl
index 00229d1f..824ccaa2 100644
--- a/src/DocumenterVitepress.jl
+++ b/src/DocumenterVitepress.jl
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ const ASSETS = normpath(joinpath(@__DIR__, "..", "assets"))
 
 include("vitepress_interface.jl")
 include("vitepress_config.jl")
+include("frontmatter.jl")
 include("writer.jl")
 include("ANSIBlocks.jl")
 
diff --git a/src/frontmatter.jl b/src/frontmatter.jl
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f46ecfeb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/frontmatter.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+# In Vitepress you can only have one frontmatter block.
+# But users / other Documenter stages may inject multiple.
+# So, we have a stage that will merge and render all frontmatter blocks
+# before doing anything else.
+
+function merge_and_render_frontmatter(io::IO, mime::MIME"text/yaml", page, doc; kwargs...)
+    frontmatter = String[]
+    for block in page.mdast.children
+        element = block.element
+        if element isa MarkdownAST.CodeBlock && element.info == "@frontmatter"
+            push!(frontmatter, element.code)
+        elseif element isa Documenter.RawNode && startswith(element.text, "---")
+            push!(frontmatter, join(split(element.text, "\n")[2:end-1], "\n"))
+        end
+    end
+
+    if haskey(page.globals.meta, :Title)
+        pushfirst!(frontmatter, "title: \"$(page.globals.meta[:Title])\"")
+    end
+    if haskey(page.globals.meta, :Description)
+        pushfirst!(frontmatter, "description: \"$(page.globals.meta[:Description])\"")
+    end
+    println(io, "---")
+    println(io, join(frontmatter, "\n"))
+    println(io, "---")
+end
diff --git a/src/vitepress_config.jl b/src/vitepress_config.jl
index f3388c53..4af763f8 100644
--- a/src/vitepress_config.jl
+++ b/src/vitepress_config.jl
@@ -89,14 +89,19 @@ function modify_config_file(doc, settings, deploy_decision, i_folder, base)
             @info "Base is \"\" and ENV[\"CI\"] is not set so this is a local build. Not adding any additional base prefix based on the repository or deploy url and instead using absolute path \"/\" to facilitate serving docs locally."
             "/"
         elseif isnothing(settings.deploy_url)
-            "/" * splitpath(settings.repo)[end]  # Get the last identifier of the repo path, i.e., `user/$repo`.
+            "/" * split(settings.repo, '/')[end]  # Get the last identifier of the repo path, i.e., `user/$repo`.
         else
-            s_path = startswith(settings.deploy_url, r"http[s?]:\/\/") ? splitpath(settings.deploy_url)[2:end] : splitpath(settings.deploy_url)
-            s = length(s_path) > 1 ? joinpath(s_path) : "" # ignore custom URL here
+            s_path = if startswith(settings.deploy_url, r"http[s?]:\/\/")
+                frags = split(settings.deploy_url, '/') # "https", "", "my.custom.domain", "sub", "dir"
+                length(frags) >= 4 ? frags[4:end] : [""] #                             |-> "sub", "dir"
+            else
+                split(settings.deploy_url, '/') # "sub", "dir"
+            end
+            s = join(s_path, '/')
             isempty(s) ? "/" : "/$(s)"
         end
 
-    base_str = deploy_abspath == "/" ? "base: '$(deploy_abspath)$(deploy_relpath)'" : "base: '$(deploy_abspath)/$(deploy_relpath)'"
+    base_str = endswith(deploy_abspath, "/") ? "base: '$(deploy_abspath)$(deploy_relpath)'" : "base: '$(deploy_abspath)/$(deploy_relpath)'"
 
     push!(replacers, "REPLACE_ME_DOCUMENTER_VITEPRESS_DEPLOY_ABSPATH" => deploy_abspath)
     push!(replacers, "base: 'REPLACE_ME_DOCUMENTER_VITEPRESS'" => base_str)
@@ -106,10 +111,10 @@ function modify_config_file(doc, settings, deploy_decision, i_folder, base)
     # # Vitepress navbar and sidebar
 
     provided_page_list = doc.user.pages
-    sidebar_navbar_info = pagelist2str.((doc,), provided_page_list)
-    sidebar_navbar_string = join(sidebar_navbar_info, ",\n")
-    push!(replacers, "sidebar: 'REPLACE_ME_DOCUMENTER_VITEPRESS'" => "sidebar: [\n$sidebar_navbar_string\n]\n")
-    push!(replacers, "nav: 'REPLACE_ME_DOCUMENTER_VITEPRESS'" => "nav: [\n$sidebar_navbar_string\n]\n")
+    sidebar_info = sprint(print, pagelist2str(doc, provided_page_list, Val(:sidebar)))
+    navbar_info = sprint(print, pagelist2str(doc, provided_page_list, Val(:navbar)))
+    push!(replacers, "sidebar: 'REPLACE_ME_DOCUMENTER_VITEPRESS'" => "sidebar: $(sidebar_info)\n")
+    push!(replacers, "nav: 'REPLACE_ME_DOCUMENTER_VITEPRESS'" => "nav: $(navbar_info)\n")
 
     # # Title
     push!(replacers, "title: 'REPLACE_ME_DOCUMENTER_VITEPRESS'" => "title: '$(doc.user.sitename)'")
@@ -158,10 +163,9 @@ function modify_config_file(doc, settings, deploy_decision, i_folder, base)
     return
 end
 
-function _get_raw_text(element)
-end
+# Utility methods to get data about pages
 
-function pagelist2str(doc, page::String)
+function get_title(doc, page::AbstractString)
     # If no name is given, find the first header in the page,
     # and use that as the name.
     elements = collect(doc.blueprint.pages[page].mdast.children)
@@ -174,35 +178,50 @@ function pagelist2str(doc, page::String)
     else
         Documenter.MDFlatten.mdflatten(elements[idx])
     end
-    return "{ text: '$(replace(name, "'" => "\\'"))', link: '/$(splitext(page)[1])' }" # , $(sidebar_items(doc, page)) }"
+    return name
 end
+get_title(doc, page::Pair{<: AbstractString, <: Any}) = first(page)
 
-pagelist2str(doc, name_any::Pair{String, <: Any}) = pagelist2str(doc, first(name_any) => last(name_any))
+# Catch all method: just broadcast over any iterable assuming it is a collection
+function pagelist2str(doc, pages, sidenav::Val)
+    contents = map(pages) do page
+        "{ " * pagelist2str(doc, page, sidenav) * " }"
+    end
+    return "[" * join(contents, ",\n") * "]"
+end
+function pagelist2str(doc, page::AbstractString, sidenav::Val)
+    name = get_title(doc, page)
+    return "text: '$(replace(name, "'" => "\\'"))', link: '/$(splitext(page)[1])'" # , $(sidebar_items(doc, page)) }"
+end
 
-function pagelist2str(doc, name_page::Pair{String, String})
+function pagelist2str(doc, name_page::Pair{<: Any, <: Any}, sidenav::Val)
     name, page = name_page
     # This is the simplest and easiest case.
-    return "{ text: '$(replace(name, "'" => "\\'"))', link: '/$(splitext(page)[1])' }" # , $(sidebar_items(doc, page)) }"
+    return pagelist2str(doc, name => page, sidenav) # , $(sidebar_items(doc, page)) }"
 end
 
-function pagelist2str(doc, name_contents::Pair{String, <: AbstractVector})
-    name, contents = name_contents
-    # This is for nested stuff.  Should work automatically but you never know...
-    rendered_contents = pagelist2str.((doc,), contents)
-    return "{ text: '$(replace(name, "'" => "\\'"))', collapsed: false, items: [\n$(join(rendered_contents, ",\n"))]\n }" # TODO: add a link here if the name is the same name as a file?
+function pagelist2str(doc, name_page::Pair{<: Any, <: Nothing}, sidenav::Val)
+    return ""
 end
 
-function sidebar_items(doc, page::String)
-    # We look at the page elements, and obtain all level 1 and 2 headers.
-    elements = doc.blueprint.pages[page].elements
-    headers = filter(x -> x isa Union{MarkdownAST.Heading{1}, MarkdownAST.Heading{2}}, elements)
-    # If nothing is found, move on in life
-    if length(headers) ≤ 1
-        return ""
+function pagelist2str(doc, name_page::Pair{<: AbstractString, <: AbstractString}, sidenav::Val)
+    name, page = name_page
+    # This is the simplest and easiest case.
+    return "text: '$(replace(name, "'" => "\\'"))', link: '/$(splitext(page)[1])'" # , $(sidebar_items(doc, page)) }"
+end
+function pagelist2str(doc, name_contents::Pair{<: AbstractString, <: AbstractArray}, sidenav::Val)
+    name, contents = name_contents
+    # This is for nested stuff.  Should work automatically but you never know...
+    rendered_contents = map(contents) do content
+        "{" * pagelist2str(doc, content, sidenav) * "}"
+    end
+    final_contents = join(rendered_contents, ",\n")
+    collapse = if sidenav === Val(:sidebar)
+        "collapsed: false,"
+    else
+        ""
     end
-    # Otherwise, we return a collapsible tree of headers for each level 1 and 2 header.
-    items = headers
-    return "collapsed: true, items: [\n $(join(_item_link.((page,), items), ",\n"))\n]"
+    return "text: '$(replace(name, "'" => "\\'"))', $collapse items: [\n$(final_contents)\n]" # TODO: add a link here if the name is the same name as a file?
 end
 
 function _item_link(page, item)
diff --git a/src/writer.jl b/src/writer.jl
index d338fb1f..0ed3cf9e 100644
--- a/src/writer.jl
+++ b/src/writer.jl
@@ -64,6 +64,8 @@ Base.@kwdef struct MarkdownVitepress <: Documenter.Writer
     assets = nothing
     "A version string to write to the header of the objects.inv inventory file. This should be a valid version number without a v prefix. Defaults to the version defined in the Project.toml file in the parent folder of the documentation root"
     inventory_version::Union{String,Nothing} = nothing
+    "Whether to write inventory or not"
+    write_inventory = true
     """
     Sets the granularity of versions which should be kept. Options are :patch, :minor or :breaking (the default).
     You can use this to reduce the number of docs versions that coexist on your dev branch. With :patch, every patch
@@ -217,34 +219,47 @@ function render(doc::Documenter.Document, settings::MarkdownVitepress=MarkdownVi
         end
     end
 
-    version = settings.inventory_version
-    if isnothing(version)
-        project_toml = joinpath(dirname(doc.user.root), "Project.toml")
-        version = _get_inventory_version(project_toml)
+    inventory = if settings.write_inventory
+        version = settings.inventory_version
+        if isnothing(version)
+            project_toml = joinpath(dirname(doc.user.root), "Project.toml")
+            version = _get_inventory_version(project_toml)
+        end
+        Inventory(; project=doc.user.sitename, version)
+    else
+        nothing
     end
-    inventory = Inventory(; project=doc.user.sitename, version)
 
     # Iterate over the pages, render each page separately
     for (src, page) in doc.blueprint.pages
         # This is where you can operate on a per-page level.
         open(docpath(page.build, builddir, settings.md_output_path), "w") do io
+            merge_and_render_frontmatter(io, MIME("text/yaml"), page, doc)
             for node in page.mdast.children
-                render(io, mime, node, page, doc; inventory)
+                kwargs = if settings.write_inventory
+                    (; inventory = inventory)
+                else
+                    (;)
+                end
+                render(io, mime, node, page, doc; kwargs...)
             end
         end
-        item = InventoryItem(
-            name = replace(splitext(src)[1], "\\" => "/"),
-            domain = "std",
-            role = "doc",
-            dispname = _pagetitle(page),
-            priority = -1,
-            uri = _get_inventory_uri(doc, page, nothing)
-        )
-        push!(inventory, item)
+        if settings.write_inventory
+            item = InventoryItem(
+                name = replace(splitext(src)[1], "\\" => "/"),
+                domain = "std",
+                role = "doc",
+                dispname = _pagetitle(page),
+                priority = -1,
+                uri = _get_inventory_uri(doc, page, nothing)
+            )
+            push!(inventory, item)
+        end
+    end
+    if settings.write_inventory
+        objects_inv = joinpath(builddir, settings.md_output_path, "public", "objects.inv")
+        DocInventories.save(objects_inv, inventory)
     end
-
-    objects_inv = joinpath(builddir, settings.md_output_path, "public", "objects.inv")
-    DocInventories.save(objects_inv, inventory)
 
     bases = determine_bases(deploy_decision.subfolder; settings.keep)
 
@@ -948,6 +963,9 @@ render(io::IO, mime::MIME"text/plain", node::MarkdownAST.Node, ::Documenter.Setu
 # Raw nodes are used to insert raw HTML into the output. We just print it as is.
 # TODO: what if the `raw` is not HTML?  That is not addressed here but we ought to address it...
 function render(io::IO, ::MIME"text/plain", node::Documenter.MarkdownAST.Node, raw::Documenter.RawNode, page, doc; kwargs...)
+    if startswith(raw.text, "---")
+        return # this was already handled by frontmatter.
+    end
     return raw.name === :html ? println(io, raw.text, "\n") : nothing
 end