Variables

Basic Output

Use double braces to output expressions:

{{ name }}
{{ user.email }}
{{ items[0] }}
{{ 1 + 2 }}

Attribute Access

Access object attributes with dot notation:

{{ user.name }}
{{ page.metadata.title }}

For dictionary keys:

{{ data.key }}
{{ data["key-with-dashes"] }}

Dict-Safe Resolution

For dict objects, dot notation resolves to dictionary keys first, then falls back to attributes. This means{{ data.items }} returns data["items"] (your data), not the dict.itemsmethod:

{# data = {"items": ["a", "b"], "keys": ["x", "y"]} #}

{{ data.items }}    {# → ["a", "b"] — the key, not dict.items() #}
{{ data.keys }}     {# → ["x", "y"] — the key, not dict.keys() #}

For non-dict objects (dataclasses, custom classes), dot notation uses getattr first, then falls back to subscript. This is the safe default for objects with __getitem__.

Jinja2 difference: Jinja2 always triesgetattr first regardless of type, so {{ data.items }} resolves to the dict.itemsmethod. Kida handles this correctly for dicts.

Index Access

Access sequence items by index:

{{ items[0] }}
{{ items[-1] }}  {# Last item #}
{{ matrix[0][1] }}

HTML Escaping

By default, output is HTML-escaped for security:

{{ "<script>" }}

Output: <script>

Mark Content as Safe

Use thesafefilter for trusted HTML:

{{ html_content | safe }}

Or with an optional reason for code review:

{{ cms_block | safe(reason="sanitized by bleach") }}

Pipelines

Chain filters with the pipe operator:

{{ name | upper }}
{{ title | escape | truncate(50) }}

Use the pipeline operator |>for improved readability:

{{ title |> escape |> upper |> truncate(50) }}

Both syntaxes are equivalent:

{# Traditional pipe #}
{{ items | sort(attribute='date') | first }}

{# Pipeline operator #}
{{ items |> sort(attribute='date') |> first }}

Default Values

Handle missing or None values:

{{ user.nickname | default("Anonymous") }}
{{ count | default(0) }}

Shorthand dalias:

{{ missing | d("fallback") }}

Expressions

Full Python expressions are supported:

{{ price * 1.1 }}
{{ "Hello, " + name }}
{{ items | length > 0 }}
{{ value if condition else fallback }}

String Literals

Use single or double quotes:

{{ "Hello" }}
{{ 'World' }}
{{ "It's fine" }}
{{ 'Say "hi"' }}

Method Calls

Call methods on objects:

{{ name.upper() }}
{{ items.count(x) }}
{{ text.split(',')[0] }}

Global Functions

Built-in functions available in all templates:

{{ range(10) }}
{{ len(items) }}
{{ dict(a=1, b=2) }}

Available globals: range, dict, list, set, tuple, len, str, int, float, bool, abs, min, max, sum, sorted, reversed, enumerate, zip, map, filter.