I wrote my own static site builder in Go

I know, another one!

I wanted to start learning Go, and I wished for a stupid simple static site builder that I’d understand inside out — so I wouldn’t spend hours digging through docs like I used to with Hugo or Zola. Both are great tools, but they’re already full-grown, feature-rich beasts.

Being a *covid-born software dev, I’ve always cared more about themes first. My usual workflow looked something like this: find a theme I like (usually the most complicated one), tweak it endlessly, never write a single post, delete everything, and start again — either with another theme or a different tool.

Not this time. No, no, no. This time I’m building my own tool — one I fully understand — and I’m finally going to start writing articles.

*A transparent editor and preferably live-wallpaper-demanding coder.

A pure static site builder based on my workflow

Here’s what I had in mind for the first version:

• md → html

• pure static sites

• no (I repeat, no) JavaScript

• configurable themes

• a decent CLI with:

  • blog init, post new, page new, build, and serve commands to start with

• a slightly opinionated design (not too many options)

• mobile-first approach

• a very basic feature set:

  • tag-based structure and search
  • related/next post based on tags

• easy configuration — no more than 10 variables, please

That’s supposed to be the starter pack. I’ll keep adding features gradually, but carefully.

Written in Go

The first language I ever learned was Java. My bootcamp was mostly Java, with a bit of C#. I still like it — and my first CLI app attempt was a little Spring Shell project. Development itself was fine, but building binaries and distributing them was a pain. Plus, Spring Shell is more suitable for long-running, REPL-style apps.

At that time, I was just figuring out which language I wanted to use for building CLI tools. So I moved on and started looking into Rust. I wrote a small CLI tool in Rust that connects to local or remote AI and works nicely with Helix — it takes selected text and fixes typos and grammar. But I’m kind of AI-allergic these days. Feels like LLMs steal some of the joy from software development, but that’s a story for another day.

I enjoyed Rust’s syntax and speed, but man — it’s a tough language. At least for me, at this stage.

So, Go was the next choice. And maaaan, what a pleasant language! It builds insanely fast. I literally rebuild the project every time I notice something to fix while writing this article — and I build the blog alongside it. It doesn’t slow me down at all. Such a nice experience.

This site builder is actually my second project in Go. The first one was a git-based forum CLI app using Bubble Tea. It’s a fun project — it taught me a few git tricks I had no idea existed. Basically, I use git and a bare repo as the “backend” and Bubble TUI as the “frontend,” to give it a forum-like feel. It’s still a work in progress, but I plan to finish it — I like the concept.

So, dear beautiful people of the internet, let me introduce my little static site builder — bib.

Bib the builder

Don’t ask me where the name came from originally. Let’s just say it now stands for “blog I built”, okay?

I’ll share the repo link once I clean it up a bit and finish the main refactor. Right now, Bib’s code is in that “let’s just add this and move it into a separate file later” stage.

And as I’m writing this post, bib is already capable of:

❯ bib
bib - Personal Blog Management Tool

A CLI tool for managing personal blog posts, building static content and deploying to GitHub.

Available Commands:
  init [blog_name]    Create a new blog and configure bib
  post new [title]    Create a new blog post
  post list           List all blog posts
  post list --draft   List only draft posts
  page new [title]    Create a new page
  build               Build all posts and pages to static HTML files
  serve [port]        Start local development server (default port: 8308)

Usage Examples:
  bib init "my-awesome-blog"
  bib init "my-blog" --demo
  bib post new "My First Post"
  bib post new "My Post" --demo
  bib post list
  bib post list --draft
  bib page new "Contact"
  bib build
  bib serve
  bib serve 3000

Use 'bib [command] --help' for more information about a command.

As I mentioned above, more to come, but not that much more 👷‍♂️.

And that is it for now.