gohugoio/hugo · error

invalid Page received in RelRef

Error message

invalid Page received in RelRef

What it means

The urls.RelRef template function type-asserts its first argument to urls.RefLinker (urls.go:108-110), identical in structure to Ref. Only Hugo Page objects satisfy this interface. A non-Page first argument causes the assertion to fail and this error to be returned.

Solutions

1. Ensure the first argument is a Page object (use . in page scope or an explicitly captured $page)
2. Pass the page explicitly into partials that use relref
3. Confirm the template executes in page context

Example fix

{{/* before */}}
{{ relref . "posts/my-post" }}
{{/* after */}}
{{ relref $page "posts/my-post" }}

// Check the value satisfies urls.RefLinker before calling relref.
func isRefLinker(v any) bool {
    _, ok := v.(urls.RefLinker)
    return ok
}

{{ if partial "is-page.html" . }}{{ relref . "path" }}{{ else }}{{ warnf "relref: not a page" }}{{ end }}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling {{ relref .NonPageValue "path" }} where the first argument is nil, a string, .Site, .Params, or any non-Page object.

Common situations: Same as Ref: partials without page context, passing the wrong dot value, calling relref on resources or term objects.

Related errors

• invalid Page received in Ref
• invalid number of arguments to ref
• argument must be a slice
• arguments must be slices or arrays
• arguments to complement must be slices or arrays

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@52c9bd7908 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/01173f4c2853db4a. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at tpl/urls/urls.go:110

// Ref returns the absolute URL path to a given content item from Page p.
func (ns *Namespace) Ref(p any, args any) (string, error) {
	pp, ok := p.(urls.RefLinker)
	if !ok {
		return "", errors.New("invalid Page received in Ref")
	}
	argsm, err := ns.refArgsToMap(args)
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}
	s, err := pp.Ref(argsm)
	return s, err
}

// RelRef returns the relative URL path to a given content item from Page p.
func (ns *Namespace) RelRef(p any, args any) (string, error) {
	pp, ok := p.(urls.RefLinker)
	if !ok {
		return "", errors.New("invalid Page received in RelRef")
	}
	argsm, err := ns.refArgsToMap(args)
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}

	s, err := pp.RelRef(argsm)
	return s, err
}

func (ns *Namespace) refArgsToMap(args any) (map[string]any, error) {
	var (
		s  string
		of string
	)

	v := args
	if _, ok := v.([]any); ok {

View on GitHub (pinned to 52c9bd7908)