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MD025 - Single Top-Level Heading

Multiple top-level headings in the same document.

Why This Rule Exists

A document should have a single H1 heading that serves as its title. Multiple H1 headings suggest the content should be split into separate documents or the heading hierarchy needs adjustment.

Examples

Incorrect

# First Title

Content here.

# Second Title

More content.

Correct

# Document Title

## First Section

Content here.

## Second Section

More content.

Configuration

[MD025]
level = 1        # Heading level to check (default: 1)
front_matter_title = ""  # Regex for front matter title

When to Disable

  • SUMMARY.md files in mdBook (use MDBOOK025 instead)
  • Documents intentionally containing multiple articles
  • Changelog files with version headings as H1

Rule Details

  • Rule ID: MD025
  • Aliases: single-title, single-h1
  • Category: Structure
  • Severity: Warning
  • Auto-fix: No

mdBook Integration

For SUMMARY.md files, this rule is automatically relaxed. Use MDBOOK025 which understands mdBook's multi-section SUMMARY format.

  • MD001 - Heading increment
  • MD002 - First heading H1
  • MD041 - First line top-level heading
  • MDBOOK025 - SUMMARY.md heading structure