From 828ee720cc87c0a1d128b59811f6a672c973dae7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Joe Mooring <joe@mooring.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2026 04:50:37 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] resources/page: Deprecate cascade._target in favor of
 cascade.target

Closes #14341
---
 hugolib/config.go              | 6 +++---
 resources/page/page_matcher.go | 6 +++++-
 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/hugolib/config.go b/hugolib/config.go
index 13167dafd..ddf832249 100644
--- a/hugolib/config.go
+++ b/hugolib/config.go
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ posts = '/posts/:year/:month/:title/'
 category = 'categories'
 series = 'series'
 tag = 'tags'
-  
+
 [module]
 [module.hugoVersion]
 min = '0.80.0'
@@ -138,12 +138,12 @@ precision = 2
 
 [[cascade]]
 background = 'yosemite.jpg'
-[cascade._target]
+[cascade.target]
   kind = 'page'
   path = '/blog/**'
 [[cascade]]
 background = 'goldenbridge.jpg'
-[cascade._target]
+[cascade.target]
   kind = 'section'
 
 
diff --git a/resources/page/page_matcher.go b/resources/page/page_matcher.go
index cb7922e7e..66ab3e77b 100644
--- a/resources/page/page_matcher.go
+++ b/resources/page/page_matcher.go
@@ -199,8 +199,12 @@ func (d cascadeConfigDecoder) mapToPageMatcherParamsConfig(m map[string]any) (Pa
 	}
 
 	for k, v := range m {
-		switch strings.ToLower(k) {
+		klc := strings.ToLower(k)
+		switch klc {
 		case "_target", "target":
+			if klc == "_target" {
+				hugo.Deprecate("cascade._target", "Use cascade.target instead, see https://gohugo.io/content-management/front-matter/#target", "v0.156.0")
+			}
 			var target PageMatcher
 			if err := d.decodePageMatcher(v, &target); err != nil {
 				return pcfg, err
-- 
2.39.5