gatsby-plugin-manifest
The web app manifest (part of the PWA specification) enabled by this plugin allows users to add your site to their home screen on most mobile browsers — see here. The manifest provides configuration and icons to the phone.
This plugin provides several features beyond manifest configuration to make your life easier, they are:
- Auto icon generation - generates multiple icon sizes from a single source
- Favicon support
- Legacy icon support (iOS)[^1]
- Cache busting
- Localization - Provides unique manifests for path-based localization (Gatsby Example)
Each of these features has extensive configuration available so you are always in control.
This guide focuses on configuring the plugin. For more information on the web app manifest, check out the additional resources below.
Install
npm install gatsby-plugin-manifest
How to use
Add plugin and manifest settings - Required
// in gatsby-config.js
module.exports = {
plugins: [
{
resolve: `gatsby-plugin-manifest`,
options: {
name: `GatsbyJS`,
short_name: `GatsbyJS`,
start_url: `/`,
background_color: `#f7f0eb`,
theme_color: `#a2466c`,
display: `standalone`,
},
},
],
}
If you're using this plugin together with gatsby-plugin-offline
(recommended),
this plugin should be listed before the offline plugin so that it can cache
the created manifest.webmanifest
.
For more information on configuring your web app see here.
Configure icons and their generations - Required
There are three modes in which icon generation can function: automatic, hybrid, and manual(disabled). These modes can affect other configurations defaults.
-
Automatic - Generate a pre-configured set of icons from a single source icon.
- Favicon - yes
- Legacy icon support - yes
- Cache busting - yes
- Localization - optional
-
Hybrid - Generate a manually configured set of icons from a single source icon.
- Favicon - yes
- Legacy icon support - yes
- Cache busting - yes
- Localization - optional
-
Manual - Don't generate or pre-configure any icons.
- Favicon - never
- Legacy icon support - yes
- Cache busting - never
- Localization - optional
IMPORTANT: For best results, if you're providing an icon for generation it should be...
- ...at least as big as the largest icon being generated (512x512 by default).
- ...square (if it's not, transparent bars will automatically be added to make it square).
- ...of one of the following formats: JPEG, PNG, WebP, TIFF, GIF or SVG.
Automatic mode configuration
Add the following line to the plugin options
icon: `src/images/icon.png`, // This path is relative to the root of the site.
Automatic mode is the easiest option for most people.
Hybrid mode configuration
Add the following line to the plugin options
icon: `src/images/icon.png`, // This path is relative to the root of the site.
icons: [
{
src: `/favicons/android-chrome-192x192.png`,
sizes: `192x192`,
type: `image/png`,
},
{
src: `/favicons/android-chrome-512x512.png`,
sizes: `512x512`,
type: `image/png`,
},
], // Add or remove icon sizes as desired
If you want to include more or fewer sizes, then the hybrid option is for you. Like automatic mode, you include a high-resolution icon from which to generate smaller icons. But unlike automatic mode, you provide the icons
array config and icons are generated based on the sizes defined in your config.
The hybrid option allows the most flexibility while still not requiring you to create all icon sizes manually.
Manual mode configuration
Add the following line to the plugin options
icons: [
{
src: `/favicons/android-chrome-192x192.png`,
sizes: `192x192`,
type: `image/png`,
},
{
src: `/favicons/android-chrome-512x512.png`,
sizes: `512x512`,
type: `image/png`,
},
], // Add or remove icon sizes as desired
In the manual mode, you are responsible for defining the entire web app manifest and providing the defined icons in the static folder. Only icons you provide will be available. There is no automatic resizing done for you.
Feature configuration - Optional
Localization configuration
Localization allows you to create unique manifests for each localized version of your site. You can add as many languages as you want. Localization requires unique paths for each language (e.g. if your default about page is at /about
, the German (de
) version would be /de/about
).
The default site language should be configured in your root plugin options. Any additional languages should be defined in the localize
array. The root settings will be used as defaults if not overridden in a locale. Any configuration option available in the root is also available in the localize
array.
lang
and start_url
are the only required options in the array objects. name
, short_name
, and description
are recommended to be translated if being used in the default language. All other config options are optional. This is helpful if you want to provide unique icons for each locale.
The lang
option is part of the web app manifest specification and thus is required to be a valid language tag.
Using localization requires name-based cache busting when using a unique icon in automatic mode for a specific locale. This is automatically enabled if you provide an icon
in a specific locale without uniquely defining icons
. If you're using icon creation in hybrid or manual mode for your locales, remember to provide unique icon paths.
// in gatsby-config.js
module.exports = {
plugins: [
{
resolve: `gatsby-plugin-manifest`,
options: {
name: `The Cool Application`,
short_name: `Cool App`,
description: `The application does cool things and makes your life better.`,
lang: `en`,
display: `standalone`,
icon: `src/images/icon.png`,
start_url: `/`,
background_color: `#663399`,
theme_color: `#fff`,
localize: [
{
start_url: `/de/`,
lang: `de`,
name: `Die coole Anwendung`,
short_name: `Coole Anwendung`,
description: `Die Anwendung macht coole Dinge und macht Ihr Leben besser.`,
},
],
},
},
],
}
Iterative icon options
The icon_options
object may be used to iteratively add configuration items to the icons
array. Any options included in this object will be merged with each object of the icons
array (custom or default). Key value pairs already in the icons
array will take precedence over duplicate items in the icon_options
array.
icon_options
may be used as follows:
// in gatsby-config.js
module.exports = {
plugins: [
{
resolve: `gatsby-plugin-manifest`,
options: {
name: `GatsbyJS`,
short_name: `GatsbyJS`,
start_url: `/`,
background_color: `#f7f0eb`,
theme_color: `#a2466c`,
display: `standalone`,
icon: `src/images/icon.png`,
icon_options: {
// For all the options available,
// please see the section "Additional Resources" below.
purpose: `any maskable`,
},
},
},
],
}
Disable legacy icons
iOS 11.3 added support for the web app manifest specification. Previous iOS versions won't recognize the icons defined in the webmanifest and the creation of apple-touch-icon
links in <head>
is needed. This plugin creates them by default. If you don't want those icons to be generated you can set the legacy
option to false
in the plugin configuration:
// in gatsby-config.js
module.exports = {
plugins: [
{
resolve: `gatsby-plugin-manifest`,
options: {
name: `GatsbyJS`,
short_name: `GatsbyJS`,
start_url: `/`,
background_color: `#f7f0eb`,
theme_color: `#a2466c`,
display: `standalone`,
icon: `src/images/icon.png`,
legacy: false, // this will not add apple-touch-icon links to <head>
},
},
],
}
Disable favicon
A favicon is generated by default in automatic and hybrid modes (a 32x32 PNG, included via a <link rel="icon" />
tag in the document head). Additionally, if an SVG icon is provided as the source, it will be used in the document head without modification as a favicon. The PNG will still be created and included as a fallback. Including the SVG icon allows creating a responsive icon with CSS Media Queries such as dark mode and others.
You can set the include_favicon
plugin option to false
to opt-out of this behavior.
// in gatsby-config.js
module.exports = {
plugins: [
{
resolve: `gatsby-plugin-manifest`,
options: {
name: `GatsbyJS`,
short_name: `GatsbyJS`,
start_url: `/`,
background_color: `#f7f0eb`,
theme_color: `#a2466c`,
display: `standalone`,
icon: `src/images/icon.png`, // This path is relative to the root of the site.
include_favicon: false, // This will exclude favicon link tag
},
},
],
}
cache busting"
Disable or configure "Cache Busting allows your updated icon to be quickly/easily visible to your site's visitors. HTTP caches could otherwise keep an old icon around for days and weeks. Cache busting can only be done in 'automatic' and 'hybrid' modes.
Cache busting works by calculating a unique "digest" of the provided icon and modifying links or file names of generated images with that unique digest. If you ever update your icon, the digest will change and caches will be busted.
Options:
-
`query` - This is the default mode. File names are unmodified but a URL query is appended to all links. e.g.
icons/icon-48x48.png?digest=abc123
. -
`name` - Changes the cache busting mode to be done by file name. File names and links are modified with the icon digest. e.g.
icons/icon-48x48-abc123.png
(only needed if your CDN does not support URL query based cache busting). This mode is required and automatically enabled for a locale's icons if you are providing a unique icon for a specific locale in automatic mode using the localization features. -
`none` - Disables cache busting. File names and links remain unmodified.
// in gatsby-config.js
module.exports = {
plugins: [
{
resolve: `gatsby-plugin-manifest`,
options: {
name: `GatsbyJS`,
short_name: `GatsbyJS`,
start_url: `/`,
background_color: `#f7f0eb`,
theme_color: `#a2466c`,
display: `standalone`,
icon: `src/images/icon.png`,
cache_busting_mode: `none`, // `query`(default), `name`, or `none`
},
},
],
}
Using with gatsby-plugin-offline
If using this plugin with gatsby-plugin-offline
you may find that your icons are not cached.
In order to solve this, update your gatsby-config.js
as follows:
// gatsby-config.js
{
resolve: 'gatsby-plugin-manifest',
options: {
icon: 'icon.svg',
cache_busting_mode: 'none'
}
},
{
resolve: 'gatsby-plugin-offline',
options: {
workboxConfig: {
globPatterns: ['**/icon-path*']
}
}
}
Updating cache_busting_mode
is necessary. Otherwise, workbox will break while attempting to find the cached URLs.
Adding the globPatterns
makes sure that the offline plugin will cache everything.
Note that you have to prefix your icon with icon-path
or whatever you may call it
theme-color
meta tag
Remove By default a <meta content={theme_color} name="theme-color" />
tag is inserted into the html output. This can be problematic if you want to programmatically control that tag (e.g. when implementing light/dark themes in your project). You can set theme_color_in_head
plugin option to false
to opt-out of this behavior.
// in gatsby-config.js
module.exports = {
plugins: [
{
resolve: `gatsby-plugin-manifest`,
options: {
name: `GatsbyJS`,
short_name: `GatsbyJS`,
start_url: `/`,
background_color: `#f7f0eb`,
theme_color: `#a2466c`,
display: `standalone`,
icon: `src/images/icon.png`,
theme_color_in_head: false, // This will avoid adding theme-color meta tag.
},
},
],
}
crossorigin
attribute
Enable CORS using Add a crossorigin
attribute to the manifest <link rel="manifest" crossorigin="use-credentials" href="/manifest.webmanifest" />
link tag.
You can set crossOrigin
plugin option to 'use-credentials'
to enable sharing resources via cookies. Any invalid keyword or empty string will fallback to 'anonymous'
.
You can find more information about crossorigin
on MDN.
// in gatsby-config.js
module.exports = {
plugins: [
{
resolve: `gatsby-plugin-manifest`,
options: {
name: `GatsbyJS`,
short_name: `GatsbyJS`,
start_url: `/`,
background_color: `#f7f0eb`,
theme_color: `#a2466c`,
display: `standalone`,
icon: `src/images/icon.png`,
crossOrigin: `use-credentials`, // `use-credentials` or `anonymous`
},
},
],
}
Appendices
Additional information that may be interesting or valuable.
Default icon config
When in automatic mode the following json array is injected into the manifest configuration you provide and the icons are generated from it.
[
{
"src": "icons/icon-48x48.png",
"sizes": "48x48",
"type": "image/png"
},
{
"src": "icons/icon-72x72.png",
"sizes": "72x72",
"type": "image/png"
},
{
"src": "icons/icon-96x96.png",
"sizes": "96x96",
"type": "image/png"
},
{
"src": "icons/icon-144x144.png",
"sizes": "144x144",
"type": "image/png"
},
{
"src": "icons/icon-192x192.png",
"sizes": "192x192",
"type": "image/png"
},
{
"src": "icons/icon-256x256.png",
"sizes": "256x256",
"type": "image/png"
},
{
"src": "icons/icon-384x384.png",
"sizes": "384x384",
"type": "image/png"
},
{
"src": "icons/icon-512x512.png",
"sizes": "512x512",
"type": "image/png"
}
]
Legacy icon support coverage
Currently this feature only covers older versions of iOS Safari.
Internet Explorer is the only other major browser that doesn't support the web app manifest, and its market share is so small no one has contributed support.
Additional resources
This article from the Chrome DevRel team is a good intro to the web app manifest — https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/engage-and-retain/web-app-manifest/
For more information, see the W3C specification, Mozilla documentation or Web.Dev guide. More information about icon_options
can be found in this Web.Dev guide.
Plugin options validation
This plugin validates plugin options set in the gatsby-config.js
. It validates the options used by the plugin and the entire WebAppManifest spec. To see the exact implementation of the validator see src/pluginOptionsSchema.js.
The WebAppManifest spec is not stable at the time of writing. This version of the validator adheres the most recent version of the specification available.
Troubleshooting
Incompatible library version: sharp.node requires version X or later, but Z provides version Y
This means that there are multiple incompatible versions of the sharp
package installed in node_modules
. The complete error typically looks like this:
Something went wrong installing the "sharp" module
dlopen(/Users/misiek/dev/gatsby-starter-blog/node_modules/sharp/build/Release/sharp.node, 1): Library not loaded: @rpath/libglib-2.0.dylib
Referenced from: /Users/misiek/dev/gatsby-starter-blog/node_modules/sharp/build/Release/sharp.node
Reason: Incompatible library version: sharp.node requires version 6001.0.0 or later, but libglib-2.0.dylib provides version 5801.0.0
To fix this, you'll need to update all Gatsby plugins in the current project that depend on the sharp
package. Here's a list of official plugins that you might need to update in case your projects use them:
gatsby-plugin-sharp
gatsby-plugin-manifest
gatsby-remark-images-contentful
gatsby-source-contentful
gatsby-transformer-sharp
gatsby-transformer-sqip
To update these packages, run:
npm install gatsby-plugin-sharp gatsby-plugin-manifest gatsby-remark-images-contentful gatsby-source-contentful gatsby-transformer-sharp gatsby-transformer-sqip
If updating these doesn't fix the issue, your project probably uses other plugins from the community that depend on a different version of sharp
. Try running npm list sharp
or yarn why sharp
to see all packages in the current project that use sharp
and try updating them as well.
APACHE: Error while trying to use the following icon from the Manifest
If you are on an Apache webserver and utilizing the automatic solution, you may receive an error when attempting to access an icon listed in the manifest as residing in the /icons
folder. This is because Apache restricts access to all /icons
folders by default. You can fix this by switching to the hybrid solution and changing the folder name from icons
to something like favicons
.
Example:
// In the gatsby-plugin-manifest section of your gatsby-config.js
icon: `src/images/icon.png`, // This path is relative to the root of the site.
icons: [
{
"src": "favicons/icon-144x144.png",
"sizes": "144x144",
"type": "image/png"
}, // Add or remove icon sizes as desired
]
Alternatively, if you have access to modify Apache, you can resolve this issue by removing the restriction on /icons
folders.
On Debian based systems
Backup the /etc/apache2/mods-available/alias.conf
file:
cp /etc/apache2/mods-available/alias.conf /etc/apache2/mods-available/alias.conf.back
Comment out the Alias /icons/ "/usr/share/apache2/icons/"
row in /etc/apache2/mods-available/alias.conf
file:
cat /etc/apache2/mods-available/alias.conf | grep "Alias /icons/"
Reload Apache service:
service apache2 reload
On Red Hat or CentOS systems
Create a backup of /etc/httpd/conf.d/autoindex.conf
:
cp /etc/httpd/conf.d/autoindex.conf /etc/httpd/conf.d/autoindex.conf.back
Comment out "Alias /icons/"
in /etc/httpd/conf.d/autoindex.conf
:
cat /etc/httpd/conf.d/autoindex.conf | grep "Alias /icons/"
Reload Apache or restart the server:
service httpd reload