Meta shortcode fails for favicon entry in websites

I have:

• searched the issue tracker for similar issues
• installed the latest version of Quarto CLI
• formatted my issue following the Bug Reports guide

Bug description

The meta shortcode (e.g. {{< meta favicon>}}) does not work for the favicon entry within website in _quarto.yml, but it does for other variables such as title.

Steps to reproduce

This is the structure of my project

.
├── extras.yml
├── favicon.png
├── index.qmd
└── _quarto.yml

1 directory, 4 files

The contents are

_quarto.yml:

project:
  type: website

metadata-files:
  - extras.yml

website:
  title: "{{< meta title >}}"
  favicon: "{{< meta favicon >}}"

format:
  html:
    theme: default

extras.yml:

title: "THE TITLE"
favicon: "favicon.png"

index.qmd:

This is a minimal Quarto website.

And favicon.png is

Actual behavior

I don't see the favicon, but I do see the title

If I inspect the page HTML, I see there's a problem with the evaluation of the shortcode:

Expected behavior

I would expect the shortcode to evaluate to favicon.png and thus see the favicon in the website.

Your environment

Visual Studio Code

Version: 1.107.0
Commit: 618725e67565b290ba4da6fe2d29f8fa1d4e3622
Date: 2025-12-10T07:43:47.883Z
Electron: 39.2.3
ElectronBuildId: 12895514
Chromium: 142.0.7444.175
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Linux x64 6.8.0-90-generic

Quarto check output

Quarto 1.9.16
[✓] Checking environment information...
      Quarto cache location: /home/tomas/.cache/quarto
[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
      Pandoc version 3.6.3: OK
      Dart Sass version 1.87.0: OK
      Deno version 2.4.5: OK
      Typst version 0.13.0: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
      Version: 1.9.16
      Path: /opt/quarto/bin

[✓] Checking tools....................OK
      TinyTeX: v2024.09
      Chromium: (not installed)

[✓] Checking LaTeX....................OK
      Using: TinyTex
      Path: /home/tomas/.TinyTeX/bin/x86_64-linux
      Version: 2024

[✓] Checking Chrome Headless....................OK
      Chrome:  (not detected)

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

[✓] Checking R installation...........OK
      Version: 4.5.2
      Path: /usr/lib/R
      LibPaths:
        - /home/tomas/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.5
        - /usr/local/lib/R/site-library
        - /usr/lib/R/site-library
        - /usr/lib/R/library
      knitr: 1.50
      rmarkdown: 2.30

[✓] Checking Knitr engine render......OK

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
Version: 3.12.3
Path: /usr/bin/python3
Jupyter: (None)

  Jupyter is not available in this Python installation.
  Install with python3 -m pip install jupyter

[✓] Checking Julia installation...

Reproduce the issue with _quarto.yml, extras.yml, index.qmd, and favicon.png, then render the minimal website and inspect the generated HTML. Trace how the website favicon and meta shortcode are evaluated; done means the shortcode resolves to favicon.png and the rendered site displays the favicon.