Jason Antman's Blog

This is the repository that backs my Pelican-powered static blog. It's here for anyone to take a peek at.

Requirements

• Python 3.14+ (recommended via pyenv)
• A GitHub personal access token (for fetching pinned repos)

Setup

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/jantman/blog.git
   cd blog

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set up GitHub token for pinned repos (optional but recommended):

   export GITHUB_TOKEN="your_token_here"
   # or
   export GH_TOKEN="your_token_here"

Build and Development

This project uses Invoke for task automation. List all available tasks with:

inv --list

Available Tasks

Task	Description
inv build	Build the site with Pelican
inv clean	Remove output directory and recreate it
inv rebuild	Clean and build (combines both)
inv serve	Start HTTP server in output directory (port 8000)
inv devserver	Start Pelican dev server with live reload
inv reserve	Build and serve
inv regenerate	Watch for file changes and regenerate
inv preview	Build with production settings (publishconf.py)
inv post	Scaffold a new blog post (interactive)
inv drafts	List all draft posts
inv categories	Show all current blog post categories

Common Workflows

Local development with live reload:

inv devserver

Then open http://localhost:8000 in your browser. The site will automatically rebuild when you edit content.

Create a new blog post:

inv post

This will interactively prompt for title and category, then create a new post file and open it in your $EDITOR.

Production preview:

inv preview
inv serve

Deployment

Deployment is automated via GitHub Actions. When you push to the master branch:

1. GitHub Actions builds the site using publishconf.py settings
2. Fetches pinned GitHub repos via GraphQL API
3. Deploys to GitHub Pages

Pull requests trigger a build-only job for validation.

Note: The GitHub repository must have Pages configured to deploy from "GitHub Actions" (not "Deploy from a branch").

Project Structure

blog/
├── content/           # Blog posts (Markdown)
├── pages/             # Static pages
├── theme/             # Vendored pelican-bootstrap3 theme (Flatly)
├── plugins/           # Local Pelican plugins
│   └── i18n_null.py   # Null translations for Jinja2 i18n
├── output/            # Generated site (git-ignored)
├── pelicanconf.py     # Development configuration
├── publishconf.py     # Production configuration
├── tasks.py           # Invoke tasks
├── requirements.txt   # Python dependencies
└── .github/workflows/ # CI/CD configuration

Configuration

Pelican

• pelicanconf.py - Development settings (relative URLs, etc.)
• publishconf.py - Production settings (absolute URLs, feeds enabled)

Theme

The blog uses a vendored fork of pelican-bootstrap3 with the Bootstrap 3 Flatly theme. The theme is located in the theme/ directory.

Plugins

• sitemap - Installed via pip (pelican-sitemap), generates sitemap.xml
• i18n_null - Local plugin in plugins/, provides null translations for Jinja2 i18n extension

Third-Party Integrations

• Google Analytics 4 - Configured via GOOGLE_ANALYTICS in pelicanconf.py
• Disqus Comments - Configured via DISQUS_SITENAME in pelicanconf.py
• Shariff Social Sharing - Privacy-friendly sharing buttons (Facebook, LinkedIn, Diaspora)
• GitHub Pinned Repos - Sidebar widget showing pinned GitHub repositories

Dependencies

See requirements.txt:

• pelican[markdown]==4.11.0.post0 - Static site generator with Markdown support
• pelican-sitemap - Sitemap generation plugin
• typogrify - Typography enhancements
• invoke - Task runner
• requests - HTTP client (for GitHub API)

License

Content is my own; see individual posts for licensing. Code/configuration is provided as-is for reference.