Show HN: Git-based front-end interface for Hugo (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

32 pointsarashThr6d ago12 comments

I built simple Git-based CMS for Hugo static site generators. No backend, no database, no configs. Just login with Github, select your repo and start editing. If you use Hugo for blogging, feel free to check it out at https://github.com/arashthr/hugo-flow

> Why did you make it? I wanted to be able to write posts on my phone, and it's not easy to do that with Markdown. Adding images is also always a headache: copy them, minimize and compress them, remember the correct syntax for images, and type the path.

> How did you make it? I used Google Stitch for the design and Antigravity for coding.

> What about alternatives? Check out Front-end interfaces page in Hugo website. None of them is as simple and dumb as I wanted.

> But is it actually working? It's not perfect, but it works well for me. You're welcome to open issues if you find problems.

12 comments

albert_e2d ago

I have used hugo both dircetly and also via Netlify hosting.

Maintaining the side on a PC became tedious.

Netlify made life easier by emoving dependency on a local machine and offering an online CMS -- but the UX of editing is very irksome and not conducive to writing.

There were a few nagging bugs in the Netlify CMS editor -- like cursor always jumping to end of line if you are trying to edit in middle of a line. I finnaly fixed this bug by spending 30 mintes with Claude Code.

But yeah -- I have been meaning to build my own online CMS to allow frictionless editing and blog posting. Will either use this or take some inspiration from this for sure. Good work - looks nice!

arashThrOP1d ago

(Author here) Correction for the title: "Front-end interface for Hugo blogs on GitHub" would be right title.

To clarify, this web application only works with repositories hosted on GitHub. Authentication and repository updates are handled entirely through the GitHub API, which allows the app to remain completely stateless, secure, and configuration-free.

Although the idea of making it more generic by supporting different git providers or self-hosted VPS instances is appealing (hence the initial title), there are already much better solutions out there for that use case (like DecapCMS). The goal here was to trade generality for total zero-setup simplicity.

hiAndrewQuinn2d ago

Very cool, fills a niche. Could you put a link to the demo right in the README.md? It's hard to click through on mobile

swyx2d ago

> fills a niche

theres a lot of git based CMSes out there. what is the niche you perceive? (not being critical just want to see what you see)

1 more reply

gregman12d ago

Is it similar to battle tested DecapCMS? https://decapcms.org/

swyx2d ago

i did a bit of work on netlifycms, and am a bit disappointed that decapcms's website doesnt seem to acknowledge that history.

davidcollantes2d ago

Not to nickpick, but it seems GitHub centric. Is there a way it could be used simply with git (running on a VPS, on the user space, that is, accessed via SSH)?

devansh07182d ago

just curious, is there even a need for that? It's good for learning though

loloquwowndueo2d ago

You could have told your LLM to NOT use node/js/npm and made the thing far more secure from day one. Npm is a security nightmare.

Also you say it’s git-based but it depends on GitHub. GitHub is not git. What if I want to use another git forge or god forbid a local repo?

I have a similar thing but it doesn’t assume GitHub and is coded in Python (by hand, it’s like 100 lines of Python and flask). Serves my needs! Simple and dumb.

arashThrOP1d ago

Author here. You're completely right about the GitHub specific implementation. I made a mistake in the title! Right now only GitHub auth is supported. Although the design should work with any Git repo down the line. Sorry for causing confusion. Unfortunately I can't edit the title now. I will add a comment to explain this limitation.

As for the tech stack, I chose JS because the main goal was a lightweight web UI that handles online editing and easy image uploads, and JS sounded like a better fit. Having said that, I'm also not happy with current state of npm and I will look into an implementation with Go and tmpl.

e-Minguez2d ago

Link?

Terretta4d ago

You know who else used git backed pages?

https://github.com/gollum/gollum/wiki

This is pretty simple and dumb :-)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

12 comments

albert_e2d ago

I have used hugo both dircetly and also via Netlify hosting.

Maintaining the side on a PC became tedious.

Netlify made life easier by emoving dependency on a local machine and offering an online CMS -- but the UX of editing is very irksome and not conducive to writing.

But yeah -- I have been meaning to build my own online CMS to allow frictionless editing and blog posting. Will either use this or take some inspiration from this for sure. Good work - looks nice!

arashThrOP1d ago

(Author here) Correction for the title: "Front-end interface for Hugo blogs on GitHub" would be right title.

hiAndrewQuinn2d ago

Very cool, fills a niche. Could you put a link to the demo right in the README.md? It's hard to click through on mobile

swyx2d ago

> fills a niche

theres a lot of git based CMSes out there. what is the niche you perceive? (not being critical just want to see what you see)

1 more reply

gregman12d ago

Is it similar to battle tested DecapCMS? https://decapcms.org/

swyx2d ago

i did a bit of work on netlifycms, and am a bit disappointed that decapcms's website doesnt seem to acknowledge that history.

davidcollantes2d ago

Not to nickpick, but it seems GitHub centric. Is there a way it could be used simply with git (running on a VPS, on the user space, that is, accessed via SSH)?

devansh07182d ago

just curious, is there even a need for that? It's good for learning though

loloquwowndueo2d ago

You could have told your LLM to NOT use node/js/npm and made the thing far more secure from day one. Npm is a security nightmare.

Also you say it’s git-based but it depends on GitHub. GitHub is not git. What if I want to use another git forge or god forbid a local repo?

I have a similar thing but it doesn’t assume GitHub and is coded in Python (by hand, it’s like 100 lines of Python and flask). Serves my needs! Simple and dumb.

arashThrOP1d ago

e-Minguez2d ago

Link?

Terretta4d ago

You know who else used git backed pages?

https://github.com/gollum/gollum/wiki

This is pretty simple and dumb :-)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse