Targets

A target is a bundle of document class, page layout, and validation rules. Set one value in pandoc.yaml and the infrastructure handles the rest:

target: book

target is an author-friendly abstraction over LaTeX's documentclass — it also pins the preamble, the page-layout package, and which metadata fields are required, so you set one thing instead of assembling several.

The six targets

Each standard target has a KOMA-Script counterpart — same role, modern European book typography. book is the default.

Target	Top-level heading	Layout	Requires
book	chapter	two-sided	description
scrbook	chapter	two-sided	description
report	chapter	single-sided	abstract
scrreprt	chapter	single-sided	abstract
article	section	single-sided	abstract
scrartcl	section	single-sided	abstract

Every target also requires title and author. The chapter-vs-section split is what makes a # heading a chapter (book, report) or a section (article).

Pick by shape of work:

• book — chaptered works with recto/verso layout (novels, monographs).
• report — chaptered, single-sided (theses, manuals).
• article — shorter, section-level work (essays, papers).

Standard vs KOMA

The scr* targets compile the same manuscript with the same handlers, shortcuts, and metadata — only the typography differs. KOMA-Script carries an opinionated set of defaults tuned for European book publishing; choosing a KOMA target opts into them. The most-noticed differences:

• Running headers and footers are italicized.
• Wider margins and a narrower text column (KOMA computes margins as a proportion of the page), so the same manuscript runs a few pages longer.
• Adjusted chapter and section heading spacing.

If a KOMA default looks unexpected, the answer is almost always in the KOMA-Script documentation rather than in Keystone — Keystone's contribution is the page-furniture contract, which is identical on both.

Two-sided layout

book and scrbook are two-sided (twoside): right-hand (recto) and left-hand (verso) pages can carry different running content — the convention of book title on the verso and chapter title on the recto, with the page number on the outside edge. The other targets are single-sided.

Flip either default without changing the class:

classoption: oneside   # or: twoside

On a single-sided layout, the verso variants of running headers compile but never render (every page is treated as recto). See Running headers & footers.

Required fields

Validation runs against the active target and stops the build if a required field is missing:

• book / scrbook need description.
• article / report (and KOMA variants) need abstract.

For the non-book targets, a single abstract flows through to the EPUB description and PDF subject automatically — you don't set those separately unless you want different text in each. See Book metadata.