The Static Life

A Hugo blog — fast, free, hosted on GitHub Pages.

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How to deploy this site (step by step)

What you need

• A GitHub account (free at github.com)
• Git installed on your Mac (already there — check with git --version in Terminal)
• A code editor like VS Code

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Step 1 — Create a new GitHub repository

1. Go to github.com and sign in
2. Click the + button → New repository
3. Name it the-static-life (or anything you like)
4. Leave it Public (required for free GitHub Pages)
5. Do NOT initialize with a README (you already have one)
6. Click Create repository

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Step 2 — Update the config with your GitHub username

Open hugo.toml and change this line:

baseURL = "https://yourusername.github.io/the-static-life/"

Replace yourusername with your actual GitHub username.

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Step 3 — Push the files to GitHub

Open Terminal, navigate to this folder, and run:

cd path/to/the-static-life
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/yourusername/the-static-life.git
git push -u origin main

Again, replace yourusername with your GitHub username.

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Step 4 — Enable GitHub Pages

1. Go to your repository on GitHub
2. Click Settings → Pages (in the left sidebar)
3. Under Source, select GitHub Actions
4. That's it — GitHub will now use the workflow file to build and deploy

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Step 5 — Watch it build

1. Click the Actions tab in your repository
2. You'll see a workflow called "Deploy Hugo site to GitHub Pages" running
3. Wait about 30 seconds for it to finish
4. Your site is live at https://yourusername.github.io/the-static-life/

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Writing a new post

1. Create a new file in content/posts/ — e.g. my-new-post.md
2. Add this at the top (the "front matter"):

---
title: "Your Post Title"
date: 2024-05-01
tags: ["your", "tags"]
---

3. Write your post below in Markdown
4. Save, commit, and push — your post is live in ~30 seconds

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File structure explained

the-static-life/
│
├── hugo.toml                  ← Site configuration (title, URL, theme, menus)
│
├── content/                   ← All your writing lives here
│   ├── _index.md              ← Homepage content
│   ├── about.md               ← The /about page
│   └── posts/                 ← Your blog posts
│       ├── _index.md
│       ├── why-i-left-wordpress.md
│       └── how-github-pages-works.md
│
├── themes/
│   └── minimal/               ← The theme (controls how everything looks)
│       ├── layouts/           ← HTML templates
│       │   └── _default/
│       │       ├── baseof.html   ← The shell every page shares (header, footer)
│       │       ├── home.html     ← Homepage layout
│       │       ├── single.html   ← Individual post layout
│       │       └── list.html     ← /posts/ listing layout
│       └── static/
│           └── css/
│               └── style.css  ← All the styling
│
└── .github/
    └── workflows/
        └── deploy.yml         ← Tells GitHub how to build and deploy

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Customizing the site

Change the site title or description → edit hugo.toml

Change colors or fonts → edit themes/minimal/static/css/style.css

Change the homepage layout → edit themes/minimal/layouts/_default/home.html

Add a new page → create a .md file in content/

Add your name and social links → edit the [params] section in hugo.toml