Use dictionary to pass whether to use a secondaryColor for the badge.

layouts/partials/article-meta/basic.html

@@ -103,11 +103,8 @@
             {{ if .Params.showCategories | default (.Site.Params.article.showCategories | default true) }}
               {{ if (eq $taxonomy "categories") }}
                 <a class="relative mt-[0.5rem] me-2" href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">
-                  {{ if .Params.showCategoriesInSecondaryColor | default (.Site.Params.article.showCategoriesInSecondaryColor | default false) }}
-                    {{ partial "badge-secondary.html" .LinkTitle }}
-                  {{ else }}
-                    {{ partial "badge.html" .LinkTitle }}
-                  {{ end }}
+                  {{ $useSecondaryColor := .Params.showCategoriesInSecondaryColor | default (.Site.Params.article.showCategoriesInSecondaryColor | default false) }}
+                  {{ partial "badge.html" (dict "linkTitle" .LinkTitle "useSecondaryColor" $useSecondaryColor) }}
                 </a>
               {{ end }}
             {{ end }}

layouts/partials/badge-secondary.html

@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-<span class="flex cursor-pointer">
-  <span
-    class="rounded-md border border-secondary-400 px-1 py-[1px] text-xs font-normal text-secondary-700 dark:border-secondary-600 dark:text-secondary-400">
-    {{ . }}
-  </span>
-</span>

layouts/partials/badge.html

@@ -1,6 +1,17 @@
 <span class="flex cursor-pointer">
-  <span
-    class="rounded-md border border-primary-400 px-1 py-[1px] text-xs font-normal text-primary-700 dark:border-primary-600 dark:text-primary-400">
-    {{ . }}
+  {{ $linkTitle := . }}
+  {{ $useSecondaryColor := false }}
+  {{ if (reflect.IsMap . ) }}
+    {{ $linkTitle = .linkTitle }}
+    {{ $useSecondaryColor = cond (not .useSecondaryColor) false .useSecondaryColor }}
+  {{ end }}
+  {{ if $useSecondaryColor }}
+    <span
+      class="rounded-md border border-secondary-400 px-1 py-[1px] text-xs font-normal text-secondary-700 dark:border-secondary-600 dark:text-secondary-400">
+  {{ else }}
+    <span
+      class="rounded-md border border-primary-400 px-1 py-[1px] text-xs font-normal text-primary-700 dark:border-primary-600 dark:text-primary-400">
+  {{ end }}
+    {{ $linkTitle }}
   </span>
 </span>