gitblog

A git-powered blog where commits ARE the content. No CMS, no database — just git.

Quick Start

1. Fork this repo
2. Enable auto-deployment:

   mv .github/workflows/deploy.yml.disabled .github/workflows/deploy.yml
   git add .github/workflows/deploy.yml
   git commit -m "Enable GitHub Actions deployment"

3. Configure your site with a meta: commit:

   git commit --allow-empty -m "meta: site config" -m "title: My Blog
   author: Your Name
   description: A blog about things"
   

4. Write a post with a blog: commit:

   git commit --allow-empty -m "blog: My First Post" -m "This is my first blog post.
   
   You can use **markdown** here — headings, lists, code blocks, images, everything."
   

5. Enable GitHub Pages in your repo settings (Settings → Pages → Source: GitHub Actions)
6. Push to main and your site deploys automatically

Commit Types

Prefix	Purpose	Example
blog:	Blog post	blog: My First Post
embed:	Post with video/tweet embeds	embed: Cool Video
page:	Static page (shown in nav)	page: About
meta:	Site configuration	meta: site config

Blog Post

Each post automatically displays the git commit author name (git config user.name) alongside the date.

git commit --allow-empty -m "blog: Post Title" -m "Markdown content here.

## Subheading

- List items
- More items

\`\`\`js
console.log('code blocks work too');
\`\`\`"

Embed Post

Put a bare URL on its own line. YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitter/X links are auto-embedded:

git commit --allow-empty -m "embed: Great Talk" -m "Check out this talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

It changed how I think about things."

Static Page

Pages appear in the site navigation:

git commit --allow-empty -m "page: About" -m "# About Me

I write about code and other things."

Site Config

Key-value pairs in the commit body:

git commit --allow-empty -m "meta: site config" -m "title: My Blog
author: Jane Doe
description: Thoughts on code
favicon: https://example.com/icon.png"

Setup

Run the setup script to add a git blog shortcut (alias for git commit --allow-empty):

./bin/setup.sh

Then write posts with:

git blog -m "blog: My Post" -m "Content here"
git blog -m "embed: Video" -m "https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
git blog -m "page: About" -m "About page content"
git blog -m "meta: site config" -m "title: My Blog"

Local Development

npm install
npm run dev

How It Works

The build script reads your git history, filters commits by type prefix, renders markdown to HTML, and outputs a static site to dist/.

By default, the GitHub Actions workflow is disabled (.github/workflows/deploy.yml.disabled). Enable it by renaming the file to deploy.yml — then it will deploy automatically on every push to main.