There is an example lua filter in pandoc.org called:

"Replacing placeholders with their metadata value"

This does exactly what I need but for one exception:

If I set a metadata value on the pandoc command line with --metadata=KEY[:VALUE]

then the placeholder is not replaced with anything and not the command line VALUE

using this example lua filter.

Is there an easy fix for this?

I am pasting the example from https://pandoc.org/lua-filters.html below.

Thanks,

Howard

----

local vars = {}

function get_vars (meta)
for k, v in pairs(meta) do
if pandoc.utils.type(v) == 'Inlines' then
vars["%" .. k .. "%"] = {table.unpack(v)}
end
end
end

function replace (el)
if vars[el.text] then
return pandoc.Span(vars[el.text])
else
return el
end
end

return {{Meta = get_vars}, {Str = replace}}