Static Site Generator (C++)

A lightweight static site generator built in C++. Drop the executable into your content folder, run it, get a complete HTML site ready for GitHub Pages.

No Node.js. No Python. No dependencies. Just the .exe and your Markdown files.

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Quickstart

1. Download site_generator.exe from this repo
2. Set up your content folder (see structure below)
3. Run site_generator.exe
4. Your site is generated in docs/

That's it.

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Folder Structure

Set up your project like this before running the generator:

your-portfolio/
├── site_generator.exe        ← drop it here
├── templates/
│   ├── template.html         ← your HTML shell
│   ├── style.css
│   └── search.js
└── content/
    ├── index.md              ← home page
    ├── about.md              ← about page
    ├── projects.md           ← projects page
    └── blog/                 ← optional, any subfolders become categories
        ├── tech/
        │   └── my-post.md
        └── books/
            └── review.md

The generator discovers everything under content/ automatically. Add a folder, add a post — it appears in navigation without any config.

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Your Content Files

Each .md file becomes a page. Start with these three and add whatever you need:

content/index.md — your landing page

# Your Name

Short bio. What you do. Where you are.

[About →](/about) | [Projects →](/projects)

content/about.md — longer bio, background, what you're looking for

content/projects.md — what you've built

Blog posts go under content/blog/ in any subfolder structure you want. The folder name becomes the category label in navigation.

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Running the Generator

# Windows
site_generator.exe

# Output lands in docs/

Run it again any time you update content. The build cache only regenerates files that changed.

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Deploying to GitHub Pages

1. Push your project folder to a GitHub repo
2. Go to Settings → Pages → Source and set it to the docs/ folder on main
3. Your site is live at https://yourusername.github.io/your-repo

To auto-rebuild on every push, add the included GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/build-site.yml) to your repo. Push a new post, the site updates automatically.

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What Gets Generated

• A page for every .md file in content/
• Navigation menu built from your folder structure
• Category sidebar for blog posts
• Table of contents on long pages
• Paginated blog listing
• Client-side search
• Jupyter notebook pages if you drop .ipynb files in content/

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Customizing the Design

Edit templates/template.html and templates/style.css — these control the look of every page. The template uses simple placeholders:

Placeholder	What it renders
{{TITLE}}	Page title
{{CONTENT}}	Your Markdown, converted to HTML
{{NAVIGATION}}	Auto-generated nav links
{{SIDEBAR}}	Category sidebar
{{TOC}}	Table of contents

Change fonts, colors, layout — the generator just fills in the placeholders.

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Supported Markdown

• Headings (# through ######)
• Bold and italic
• Links and images
• Ordered and unordered lists
• Code blocks and inline code
• Blockquotes
• Horizontal rules

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Requirements

Windows. That's it. The .exe is self-contained.

For other platforms (Mac/Linux), clone the repo and build from source — C++17, standard library only.

Source

The full C++ source is in the repo if you want to modify the generator itself, add features, or build it for a different platform.