Optimize static site generation: extract CSS, add minification, consolidate workflow

[Copilot]

Identified and eliminated performance bottlenecks in static site generation: inline CSS preventing browser caching, 84 lines of duplicate CSS in workflow fallback, redundant filesystem operations, and absence of minification.

Changes

CSS Optimization

• Extract inline styles to styles.css (enables caching, reduces HTML 20%)
• Consolidate duplicate properties: .header, .feed, .updated share background, border-radius, box-shadow, padding
• Add minification step: 1.6KB → 1.2KB (25%)

HTML Optimization

• Remove 2KB inline <style> block
• Add minification: 10.6KB → 7.0KB (34%)
• Replace hardcoded feed count with {{FEED_COUNT}} placeholder token

Workflow Optimization

• Remove 84-line CSS fallback (now uses actual index.html + styles.css)
• Consolidate file operations: single find execution for both copy and count (was executed twice)
• Dynamic feed count calculation: FEED_COUNT=$(echo "$FEED_FILES" | wc -l)
• Minify CSS/HTML as build step using clean-css-cli and html-minifier

Before:

if ls feeds/*.xml 1> /dev/null 2>&1; then
  cp feeds/*.xml _site/feeds/
fi
if ls feeds/*.rss 1> /dev/null 2>&1; then
  cp feeds/*.rss _site/feeds/
fi
# ...plus 80 more lines of duplicate CSS

After:

FEED_FILES=$(find feeds -type f \( -name "*.xml" -o -name "*.rss" ... \))
echo "$FEED_FILES" | xargs -I {} cp {} _site/feeds/
FEED_COUNT=$(echo "$FEED_FILES" | wc -l)

Impact

• File sizes: HTML -34%, CSS -25%, workflow -41%
• Build performance: Single filesystem traversal, streamlined operations
• Browser performance: CSS caching enabled, reduced payload
• Maintenance: Feed count auto-updates from filesystem

CodeQL: 0 alerts

Original prompt

Identify and suggest improvements to slow or inefficient code

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