This is a simple plugin to make it possible to put your markdown in a separate file within lektor.
First, change your model so that you are using the markdown-file field.
Original page.ini:
[fields.body]
label = Body
type = markdown
Update to look like this:
[fields.body]
label = Body
type = markdown-file
file = _contents.md
Next, put your Markdown content in a separate file called _contents.md. Your contents.lr file is likely to be very short and just contain metadata
contents.lr:
title: An example of markdown in a file
---
body:
_contents.md:
# Title
This is a Markdown file. Yay!
From there, build as normal.
No, you can configure it to anything you want in the page.ini (or whatever model config file you're using). Just remember that we are relying on the default pattern for the default exclusion pattern for attachments to avoid uploading the Markdown source on deployment.