> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ghost.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# authors

***

`{{authors}}` is a formatting helper for outputting a linked list of authors for a particular post. It defaults to a comma-separated list (without list markup) but can be customised to use different separators, and the linking can be disabled. The authors are output in the order they appear on the post, these can be reordered by dragging and dropping.

You can use the [translation helper](/themes/helpers/utility/translate/) for the `prefix` and `suffix` attribute.

### Example code

The basic use of the authors helper will output something like ‘sam, carl, tobias’ where each author is linked to its own author page:

```handlebars theme={"dark"}
{{authors}}
```

You can customise the separator between authors. The following will output something like ‘sam | carl | tobias’

```handlebars theme={"dark"}
{{authors separator=" | "}}
```

Additionally you can add an optional prefix or suffix. This example will output something like ‘More about: sam, carl, tobias’.

```handlebars theme={"dark"}
{{authors separator=" | " prefix="More about:"}}
```

You can use HTML in the separator, prefix and suffix arguments. So you can achieve something like ‘sam • carl • tobias’.

```handlebars theme={"dark"}
{{authors separator=" • "}}
```

If you don’t want your list of authors to be automatically linked to their author pages, you can turn this off:

```handlebars theme={"dark"}
{{authors autolink="false"}}
```

If you want to output a fixed number of authors, you can add a `limit` to the helper. E.g. adding a limit of 1 will output just the first author:

```handlebars theme={"dark"}
{{authors limit="1"}}
```

If you want to output a specific range of authors, you can use `from` and `to` either together or on their own. Using `to` will override the `limit` attribute.

E.g. using from=“2” would output all authors, but starting from the second author:

```handlebars theme={"dark"}
{{authors from="2"}}
```

E.g. setting both from and to to `1` would do the same as limit=“1”

`{{authors from="1" to="1"}}` is the same as `{{authors limit="1"}}`

## The `visibility` attribute

As of Ghost 0.9 posts, tags and users all have a concept of `visibility`, which defaults to `public`.

By default the `visibility` attribute is set to the string “public”. This can be overridden to pass any other value, and if there is no matching value for `visibility` nothing will be output. You can also pass a comma-separated list of values, or the value “all” to output all items.

```handlebars theme={"dark"}
{{authors visibility="all"}}
```

### Advanced example

If you want to output your authors completely differently, you can fully customise the output by using the foreach helper, instead of the authors helper. Here’s an example of how to output list markup:

```handlebars theme={"dark"}
{{#post}}
  {{#if authors}}
    <ul>
    {{#foreach authors}}
      <li>
        <a href="{{url}}" title="{{name}}" class="author author-{{id}} {{slug}}">{{name}}</a>
      </li>
    {{/foreach}}
    </ul>
  {{/if}}
{{/post}}
```

### List of author attributes

* **slug** - Unique URL-friendly identifier for the author. Used in routing.
* **id** - Unique database identifier for the author.
* **name** - Full display name of the author.
* **profile\_image** - URL of the author's profile avatar image.
* **cover\_image** - URL of the author's cover/banner image.
* **bio** - Short biography or description of the author.
* **website** - Personal website or portfolio link.
* **location** - Author’s geographical location.
* **facebook** - Facebook username (without full URL).
* **twitter** - Twitter/X handle.
* **threads** - Threads profile username.
* **bluesky** - Bluesky handle.
* **mastodon** - Mastodon handle or full URL.
* **tiktok** - TikTok username.
* **youtube** - YouTube channel handle.
* **instagram** - Instagram username.
* **linkedin** - LinkedIn username.
* **meta\_title** - Custom SEO title for the author page.
* **meta\_description** - Custom SEO description for the author page.
* **url** - Absolute URL to the author’s public profile page.

## primary\_author

To output just the singular, first author, use the `{{primary_author}}` helper to output a simple link. You can also access all the same attributes as above if you need more custom output.

```handlebars theme={"dark"}
{{#primary_author}}
<div class="author">
    <a href="{{url}}">{{name}}</a>
    <span class="bio">{{bio}}</span>
</div>
{{/primary_author}}
```