Deno QuickBlog Template

A simple blog generator powered by Deno, GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) and a little preact.
It's an all-in-one TypeScript static-site-generator for your next blog.

The logic is kept and tested in a separate repository deno-quickblog.

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Features

• Write blog posts in Markdown with GFM support.
• Easy to set up and use with Deno.
• Generates static HTML files for your blog.
• Supports "front matter" for post metadata (TOML and YAML).
• Syntax highlighting for code blocks.
• JSX-Template-Support (others call this "collections" or "data files").
• Customizable templates for blog layout.
• Lightweight and super fast.
• An example of how you could implement a search. /artists.

Screenshots

Click to expand screenshots 📸

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Index (Landing Page)

Post with Code Snippet (Dark Mode)

Data-Driven Page (JSX Template)

How It Works

Deno QuickBlog Template reads markdown files from the pages/ and posts/ directories, processes them to HTML, and generates a static blog in the dist/ directory. It uses a simple template system to create the blog layout and supports "front matter" (TOML and YAML) for post metadata like title and date.

Images and other static assets can be placed in the public/ directory and will be copied to the dist/public/ directory during the build process. So you can link to them in your posts or templates. See index.md for an example of how to link to an image in the public/ directory.

Markdown files in the pages/ directory are treated as standalone pages. The filename will be the route (e.g., about.md becomes /about.html). Pages can also be organized in subdirectories within pages/ (e.g., pages/projects/project1.md becomes /projects/project1.html).

Put your posts in the posts/ directory as markdown files with front matter. For example, see posts/2026-02-03-first-post.md. Posts can also be organized in subdirectories within posts/ for better organization (e.g., posts/2025/2025-08-13-old-post.md).

The naming convention for posts is YYYY-MM-DD-post-title.md. The date in the filename is used for sorting posts by date. This is mandatory for you to follow.

Optional: Posts Without Front Matter

While front matter is recommended, you can also write posts without it. The system will automatically:

• Extract the title from the first #, ##, or ### heading found
• Fall back to the first non-empty line if no heading exists (truncated to 40 characters by default)
• You can customize the fallback title length with the DENO_QUICKBLOG_TITLE_MAX_LENGTH environment variable

Getting Started

One of the easiest ways to use Deno QuickBlog Template is through Docker/Podman.

Use this repo to generate your own posts

Fork this repository to create your own blog. Then clone your fork locally.:

git clone <your-fork-url>
cd <your-fork-repo>

To build the blog into the dist/ directory, run:

deno run -A jsr:@simonneutert/quickblog@0.0.2 build

Features

For the latest and greatest features, check the deno-quickblog repository. Here's a quick overview of some of the features you can use in your blog:

Create a new post

Create a new blog post with TOML as front matter:

# default is toml front matter for the markdown
deno run -A jsr:@simonneutert/quickblog@0.0.2 new "my new blog post"

You can use YAML, of course, too:

# Create a post with YAML frontmatter
deno run -A jsr:@simonneutert/quickblog@0.0.2 new "My Post" --yaml

Template Helpers

The {{ POSTS_LIST }} Helper in Markdown Files

You can generate lists of posts in your pages by using the {{ POSTS_LIST }} or {{ POSTS_LIST(n) }} syntax in your markdown files. The optional n parameter specifies the number of latest posts to list. If n is not provided, all posts will be listed.

Latest Posts with Full Content

Use the {{ LATEST_POSTS }} placeholder to display the full content of the latest post, or {{ LATEST_POSTS(n) }} to display the latest n posts:

# Most Recent Post

{{ LATEST_POSTS }}

# Render 5 of the Most Recent Posts

{{ LATEST_POSTS(5) }}

Upgrading from older versions

The engine is in a separate repository and is versioned independently. Follow the Changelog in the deno-quickblog repository for any breaking changes or updates.

Local Development

1. Fork the repository.
2. Clone your fork locally.
3. Install Deno if you haven't already: https://deno.land/
4. Run locally:

# OPTIONAL: clean deno cache to make sure you get the latest version of the engine
deno clean

# build the blog into the dist/ directory
deno run -A jsr:@simonneutert/quickblog@0.0.2 build
# then serve to check the result on http://localhost:8000
deno run --allow-net --allow-read jsr:@std/http/file-server dist/

Host with Docker/Podman

# --no-cache is important
docker build \
    --no-cache \
    -f Containerfile.prod \
    -v $(pwd)/index.md:/app/index.md:Z \
    -v $(pwd)/nav.md:/app/nav.md:Z \
    -v $(pwd)/footer.md:/app/footer.md:Z \
    -v $(pwd)/pages:/app/pages:Z \
    -v $(pwd)/posts:/app/posts:Z \
    -v $(pwd)/public:/app/public:Z \
    -t deno-quickblog-prod

Then run the container:

docker run --rm -it -p 8080:80 deno-quickblog-prod

Customization / FAQ

Need your language? (Internationalization)

Pass the environment variable DENO_QUICKBLOG_LANG when running the container. For example, for Spanish:

docker run --rm -it -p 8080:80 -e DENO_QUICKBLOG_LANG=es deno-quickblog-prod

Make sure to also update the index.md, nav.md, and footer.md templates with the appropriate translations for your language.

You do not need a footer?

export DENO_QUICKBLOG_HIDE_FOOTER=1

This lets you hide the footer if you don't need it. Just set the environment variable when running/building the blog.

Customize fallback title length

For posts without front matter, the fallback title defaults to 40 characters. You can customize this:

export DENO_QUICKBLOG_TITLE_MAX_LENGTH=60

Help / Troubleshooting

• Check for proper front matter formatting in your markdown files.
• Make sure your posts follow the YYYY-MM-DD-post-title.md naming convention.
• Ensure there are no naming collisions between files in the public/ and pages/ directories.
• Check the console output for any error messages during the build process.