gohugoio/hugo · error

too many arguments, expected 0 or 1

Error message

too many arguments, expected 0 or 1

What it means

Panic in pageContentOutput.Markup: the variadic opts slice has length > 1. The Markup method accepts zero or one argument (an optional scope string selecting a content scope); passing two or more is a usage error by the template/Go author calling it.

Source

Thrown at hugolib/page__per_output.go:138

	// Make sure to send the *pageState and not the *pageContentOutput to the template.
	res, err := executeToString(ctx, pco.po.p.s.GetTemplateStore(), templ, pco.po.p)
	if err != nil {
		return "", pco.po.p.wrapError(fmt.Errorf("failed to execute template %s: %w", templ.Name(), err))
	}
	return template.HTML(res), nil
}

func (pco *pageContentOutput) Fragments(ctx context.Context) *tableofcontents.Fragments {
	return pco.c().Fragments(ctx)
}

func (pco *pageContentOutput) RenderShortcodes(ctx context.Context) (template.HTML, error) {
	return pco.c().RenderShortcodes(ctx)
}

func (pco *pageContentOutput) Markup(opts ...any) page.Markup {
	if len(opts) > 1 {
		panic("too many arguments, expected 0 or 1")
	}
	var scope string
	if len(opts) == 1 {
		scope = cast.ToString(opts[0])
	}
	return pco.po.p.m.content.getOrCreateScope(scope, pco)
}

func (pco *pageContentOutput) c() page.Markup {
	return pco.po.p.m.content.getOrCreateScope("", pco)
}

func (pco *pageContentOutput) Content(ctx context.Context) (any, error) {
	r, err := pco.c().Render(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	return r.Content(ctx)

View on GitHub (pinned to 52c9bd7908)

Solutions

1. Call Markup with at most one argument: {{ .Markup }} or {{ .Markup "scope" }}.
2. If you need to pass multiple values, bundle them into a single scope string.
3. Check the template/Go call site reported in the stack trace and remove the extra argument.

Example fix

{{/* before */}}
{{ .Markup "main" "extra" }}

{{/* after */}}
{{ .Markup "main" }}

// Call Markup with 0 or 1 argument only.
// Template:  {{ .Markup }}   or   {{ .Markup "scope" }}
// Go:        pco.Markup()        pco.Markup("scope")
// If a variable number is unavoidable, slice to the first element before calling.

// Limit opts before calling Markup.
func safeMarkup(p MarkupProvider, opts ...any) page.Markup {
    if len(opts) > 1 {
        opts = opts[:1]
    }
    return p.Markup(opts...)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling .Markup(a, b) or {{ .Markup "x" "y" }} from a template, or invoking pageContentOutput.Markup with multiple arguments via Go. The method signature is Markup(opts ...any) page.Markup but only 0 or 1 opt is valid.

Common situations: A template author calls Markup with extra arguments by mistake. Passing a slice where individual args are expected. Copy-paste from a different API. A render hook invoking Markup incorrectly.

Related errors

• ContentMediaType not set
• unknown dimension %q
• alignx must be one of left, center, right
• error building site: %w
• failed to render shortcode: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@52c9bd7908 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/baefac242faac9ab. Report an issue: GitHub.