hexojs/hexo

Hexo is a static site generator designed specifically for blogging, built on Node.js. It is particularly popular among developers who want to write blog posts in Markdown and publish them as a fast, lightweight website without running a database or server-side application. The problem Hexo solves is that traditional blogging platforms like WordPress require a server, a database, and ongoing maintenance. Static site generators take a different approach: you write content as plain text files on your computer, run a command to build the site, and the result is a folder of plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that can be hosted anywhere, even for free on GitHub Pages or Netlify. There is nothing to hack, no database to back up, and the pages load instantly. Here is how it works: you install Hexo's command-line tool, run hexo init blog to create a new project, and write posts in Markdown files, a simple text format that is easy to read and write. When you run hexo generate, Hexo processes all your Markdown files, applies a theme template, and produces a complete static website in an output folder. A development server (hexo server) lets you preview your site locally as you write. When you are ready to publish, a single deploy command can push the generated files directly to GitHub Pages, Heroku, or other hosting services. Hexo has an extensive ecosystem of themes (for styling your site) and plugins (for adding features like RSS feeds, sitemaps, search, and comments). You would use Hexo when you want a fast, no-database personal blog or documentation site that you manage through text files in your code editor, with full ownership of your content and hosting. The stack is TypeScript and JavaScript, running on Node.js, with content written in Markdown and themes using template engines like EJS or Nunjucks.