Noos Blog

Where Thought, Code, and Craft Converge

Personal blog about programming, technology, and engineering insights. Topics include Rust, DevOps, Linux, and software craftsmanship.

Live Site: noos.blog

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Features

• 🎨 Modern Design: Clean and responsive design using the Radion theme
• ⚡ Fast Performance: Static site generation with Zola
• 🌓 Dark/Light Mode: Toggle between light and dark themes
• 🔍 Search Functionality: Built-in search for easy content discovery
• 💬 Comments: Giscus integration for post discussions
• 🎨 AI-Generated Covers: Automatic cover image generation using Replicate
• 📱 Mobile Responsive: Optimized for all device sizes
• 🔗 RSS Feed: Atom feed for subscribers
• 📊 Analytics: Google Analytics (GA4) integration

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Technology Stack

• Static Site Generator: Zola (written in Rust)
• Theme: Radion
• Deployment: GitHub Pages with GitHub Actions
• Content: Markdown with TOML front matter
• Comments: Giscus
• Cover Generation: Replicate (SDXL)

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Local Development

Prerequisites

• Zola (v0.19.2 or later)

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone [email protected]:nooscraft/personal-blog.git
cd personal-blog

# Start the development server
zola serve

# The site will be available at http://127.0.0.1:1111

Building for Production

# Build the static site
zola build

# Output will be in the `public/` directory

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Project Structure

personal-blog/
├── content/           # Blog posts and pages
│   ├── posts/        # Blog posts (Markdown)
│   ├── about.md      # About page
│   └── _index.md     # Homepage content
├── templates/         # Custom templates
├── themes/            # Radion theme
├── static/            # Static assets (images, CSS, JS)
├── scripts/           # Build scripts (cover generation, etc.)
├── config.toml        # Site configuration
└── .github/           # GitHub Actions workflows
    └── workflows/
        └── deploy.yml # Build and deployment workflow

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Writing Posts

All posts are written in Markdown with TOML front matter. Create a new file in content/posts/:

+++
title = "Your Post Title"
date = 2025-01-28
description = "A brief description for SEO and listings"
[taxonomies]
categories = ["Category"]
tags = ["tag1", "tag2"]
[extra]
cover_image_static = "images/covers/your-slug.png"
+++

Your post content in Markdown...

Required Fields

• title - Post title
• date - Publication date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• description - Brief description (used for SEO and listings)

Optional Fields

• taxonomies.categories - Post categories
• taxonomies.tags - Post tags
• extra.cover_image_static - Cover image path
• draft = false - Set to true to hide from listings

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Deployment

The site is automatically deployed to GitHub Pages using GitHub Actions whenever changes are pushed to the main branch.

How It Works

1. Push to main branch
2. GitHub Actions triggers the build workflow
3. Zola builds the static site
4. AI covers are generated for posts without covers (if configured)
5. Built site is pushed to gh-pages branch
6. GitHub Pages serves the site

No manual deployment steps needed! Just push to main and GitHub Actions handles everything.

Manual Workflow Trigger

You can manually trigger the workflow with optional parameters:

• force_regenerate: Force regeneration of all AI covers (ignores existing)

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Configuration

Key configuration is in config.toml:

• Site Info: base_url, title, description
• Theme: theme = "radion"
• Taxonomies: Categories and tags
• Comments: Giscus configuration
• Analytics: Google Analytics ID

See config.toml for all available options.

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Features Details

AI Cover Generation

Cover images are automatically generated for posts missing a PNG at static/images/covers/{slug}.png. Uses Replicate (SDXL) to generate 1200×630 PNG images.

Script: scripts/generate-ai-covers.mjs
CI Step: Runs during GitHub Actions build
Config: Requires REPLICATE_API_TOKEN secret in GitHub

Giscus Comments

Comments powered by Giscus (GitHub Discussions). Configured in config.toml:

[extra]
comments = true
giscus_repo = "nooscraft/personal-blog"
giscus_repo_id = "R_kgDOQJ_XNg"
# ... more config

RSS Feed

Atom feed automatically generated at /atom.xml. Includes all posts with full content.

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Contributing

This is a personal blog, but if you find a bug or have a suggestion, feel free to open an issue!

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License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.

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Author

Oshadha G

• Blog: noos.blog
• GitHub: @nooscraft

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Acknowledgments

• Zola - Static site generator
• Radion Theme - Blog theme
• Giscus - Comments system
• Replicate - AI cover generation