diff --git a/news/changelog-1.7.md b/news/changelog-1.7.md
index d8540c0c72..738b7db9ce 100644
--- a/news/changelog-1.7.md
+++ b/news/changelog-1.7.md
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ All changes included in 1.7:
 
 ### `website`
 
+- ([#5600](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/5600)): Allow existing-but-empty `_metadata.yml` file in projects.
 - ([#8238](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/8238)): Listing categories are now sorted case-insensitively.
 - ([#10501](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/10501)): Improve documentation of `repo-actions` option.
 - ([#11701](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/11701)): Wrap HTML emitted by EJS templates in `{=html}` blocks to avoid memory blowup issues with Pandoc's parser.
diff --git a/src/project/project-shared.ts b/src/project/project-shared.ts
index bef495a34d..5ddab4a280 100644
--- a/src/project/project-shared.ts
+++ b/src/project/project-shared.ts
@@ -329,6 +329,7 @@ export async function directoryMetadataForInputFile(
         file,
         frontMatterSchema,
         errMsg,
+        "{}",
       )) || {}) as Record<string, unknown>;
 
       // resolve format into expected structure
@@ -611,7 +612,7 @@ export async function projectResolveBrand(
         }
         if (typeof brand.dark === "string") {
           dark = await loadRelativeBrand(brand.dark);
-        } else if(brand.dark) {
+        } else if (brand.dark) {
           dark = new Brand(
             brand.dark,
             dirname(fileName),
diff --git a/tests/docs/smoke-all/2025/04/07/issue-5600/_metadata.yml b/tests/docs/smoke-all/2025/04/07/issue-5600/_metadata.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e69de29bb2
diff --git a/tests/docs/smoke-all/2025/04/07/issue-5600/_quarto.yml b/tests/docs/smoke-all/2025/04/07/issue-5600/_quarto.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e69de29bb2
diff --git a/tests/docs/smoke-all/2025/04/07/issue-5600/index.qmd b/tests/docs/smoke-all/2025/04/07/issue-5600/index.qmd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e69de29bb2