zona

<h1>zona</h1>

[zona](https://sr.ht/~ficd/zona) is an _opinionated_ static site generator
written in Python. From a structured directory of Markdown content, zona builds
a simple static website. It's designed to get out of your way and let you focus
on writing.

**What do I mean by opinionated?** I built zona primarily for myself. I've tried
making it flexible by exposing as many variables as possible to the template
engine. However, if you're looking for something stable, complete, and fully
configurable, zona may not be for you. If you want a minimal Markdown blog and
are comfortable with modifying `jinja2` templates and CSS, then you're in luck.

**Note:** This project is in early development, there are no versioned releases
yet, and breaking changes are likely. Versioned releases will be made and zona
will be published to PyPI once it's stable. zona was previously implemented in
Go; I decided to rewrite the project in Python. If you're interested in seeing
the previous codebase (which is feature incomplete), visit the
[~ficd/zona-go](https://git.sr.ht/~ficd/zona-go) repository.

For an example of a website built with zona, please see
[ficd.ca](https://ficd.ca).

<!--toc:start-->
- [Features](#features)
- [Installation](#installation)
- [Usage](#usage)
  - [Getting Started](#getting-started)
  - [Building](#building)
  - [Live Preview](#live-preview)
    - [How It Works](#how-it-works)
  - [Site Layout](#site-layout)
  - [Templates](#templates)
    - [Markdown Footer](#markdown-footer)
  - [Internal Link Resolution](#internal-link-resolution)
  - [Syntax Highlighting](#syntax-highlighting)
  - [Image Labels](#image-labels)
  - [Frontmatter](#frontmatter)
  - [Post List](#post-list)
- [Configuration](#configuration)
  - [Sitemap](#sitemap)
  - [Ignore List](#ignore-list)
  - [Drafts](#drafts)
<!--toc:end-->

## Features

- Live preview server:
  - Automatic rebuild of site on file changes.
  - Live refresh in browser preview.
- `jinja2` template support with sensible defaults included.
  - Basic page, blog post, post list.
- Glob ignore.
- YAML frontmatter.
- Easily configurable sitemap header.
- Site footer written in Markdown.
- Smart site layout discovery.
  - Blog posts are automatically discovered and rendered accordingly (can be
    overridden in frontmatter).
- Extended Markdown renderer:
  - Smart internal link resolution.
  - Syntax highlighting.
    - Includes Kakoune syntax and [Ashen] highlighting.
  - [Image labels](#image-labels).
  - Many `python-markdown` extensions enabled, including footnotes, tables,
    abbreviations, etc.

## Installation

zona is not yet packaged on PyPI. You may use `uv` to install it from this
repository:

```sh
uv tool install 'git+https://git.sr.ht/~ficd/zona'
```

## Usage

_Note: you may provide the `--help` option to any subcommand to see the
available options and arguments._

### Getting Started

To set up a new website, create a new directory and run `zona init` inside of
it. This creates the required directory structure and writes the default
configuration file. The default templates and default stylesheet are also
written.

### Building

To build the website, run `zona build`. The project root is discovered according
to the location of `config.yml`. By default, the output directory is called
`public`, and saved inside the root directory.

If you don't want discovery, you can specify the project root as the first
argument to `zona build`. You may specify a path for the output using the
`--output/-o` flag. The `--draft/-d` flag includes draft posts in the output.

_Note: the previous build is _not_ cleaned before the new site is built. If
you've deleted some pages, you may need to remove the output directory before
rebuilding._

### Live Preview

To make the writing process as frictionless as possible, zona ships with a live
preview server. It spins up an HTTP server, meaning that internal links work
properly (this is not the case if you simply open the `.html` files in your
browser.)

Additionally, the server watches for changes to all source files, and rebuilds
the website when they're modified. _Note: the entire website is rebuilt — this
ensures that links are properly resolved._

Optionally, live reloading of the browser is also provided. With this feature
(enabled by default), your browser will automatically refresh open pages
whenever the site is rebuilt. The live reloading requires JavaScript support
from the browser — this is why the feature is optional.

To start a preview server, use `zona serve`. You can specify the root directory
as its first argument. Use the `--host` to specify a host name (`localhost` by
default) and `--port/-p` to specify a port (default: `8000`). The `--output/-o`
and `--draft/-d` options from `zona build` are also supported. Finally, the
`--no-live-reload/-n` disables the live browser reloading. _Automatic site
rebuilds are not disabled._

**Note**: if the live preview isn't working as expected, try restarting the
server. If you change the configuration or any templates, the server must also
be restarted. The live preview uses the same function as `zona build`
internally; this means that the output is also written to disk.

#### How It Works

The basic idea is this: after a rebuild, the server needs to notify your browser
to refresh the open pages. We implement this using a small amount of JavaScript.
The server injects a tiny script into any HTML page it serves; which causes your
browser to open a WebSocket connection with the server. When the site is
rebuilt, the server notifies your browser via the WebSocket, which reloads the
page.

Unfortunately, there is no way to implement this feature without using
JavaScript. **JavaScript is _only_ used for the live preview feature. The script
is injected by the server, and never written to the HTML files in the output
directory.**

### Site Layout

The following demonstrates a simple zona project layout:

```
config.yml
content/
templates/
public/
```

The **root** of the zona **project** _must_ contain the configuration file,
`config.yml`, and a directory called `content`. A directory called `templates`
is optional, and prioritized if it exists. `public` is the built site output —
it's recommended to add this path to your `.gitignore`.

The `content` directory is the **root of the website**. Think of it as the
**content root**. For example, suppose your website is hosted at `example.com`.
`content/blog/index.md` corresponds to `example.com/blog`,
`content/blog/my-post.md` becomes `example.com/blog/my-post`, etc.

- Internal links are resolved **relative to the `content` directory.**
- Templates are resolved relative to the `template` directory.

Markdown files inside a certain directory (`content/blog` by default) are
automatically treated as _blog posts_. This means they are rendered with the
`page` template, and included in the `post_list`, which can be included in your
site using the `post_list` template.

### Templates

The `templates` directory may contain any `jinja2` template files. You may
modify the existing templates or create your own. To apply a certain template to
a page, set the `template` option in its [frontmatter](#frontmatter). The
following public variables are made available to the template engine:

| Name       | Description                                            |
| ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| `content`  | The content of this page.                              |
| `url`      | The resolved URL of this page.                         |
| `metadata` | The frontmatter of this page (_merged with defaults_). |
| `header`   | The sitemap header in HTML form. Can be `False`.       |
| `footer`   | The footer in HTML form. Can be `False`.               |

#### Markdown Footer

The `templates` directory can contain a file called `footer.md`. If it exists,
it's parsed and rendered into HTML, then made available to other templates as
the `footer` variable. If `footer.md` is missing but `footer.html` exists, then
it's used instead. **Note: links are _not_ resolved in the footer.**

### Internal Link Resolution

When zona encounters links in Markdown documents, it attempts to resolve them as
internal links. Links beginning with `/` are resolved relative to the content
root; otherwise, they are resolved relative to the Markdown file. If the link
resolves to an existing file that is part of the website, it's replaced with an
appropriate web-server-friendly link. Otherwise, the link isn't changed.

For example, suppose the file `blog/post1.md` has a link `./post2.md`. The HTML
output will contain the link `/blog/post2` (which corresponds to
`/blog/post2/index.html`). Link resolution is applied to _all_ internal links,
including those pointing to static resources like images. Links are only
modified if they point to a real file that's not included in the ignore list.

### Syntax Highlighting

Zona uses [Pygments] to provide syntax highlighting for fenced code blocks. The
following Pygments plugins are included:

- [pygments-kakoune](https://git.sr.ht/~ficd/pygments-kakoune)
  - A lexer providing for highlighting Kakoune code. Available under the `kak`
    and `kakrc` aliases.
- [pygments-ashen](https://git.sr.ht/~ficd/ashen/tree/main/item/pygments/README.md)
  - An implementation of the [Ashen](https://git.sr.ht/~ficd/ashen) theme for
    Pygments.

If you want to use any external Pygments styles or lexers, they must be
available in zona's Python environment. For example, you can give zona access to
[Catppucin](https://github.com/catppuccin/python):

```yaml
# config.yml
markdown:
  syntax_highlighting:
    theme: catppucin-mocha
```

Then, run zona with the following `uv` command:

```sh
uvx --with catppucin zona build
```

Inline syntax highlighting is also provided via a `python-markdown` extension.
If you prefix inline code with a shebang followed by the language identifier, it
will be highlighted. For example:

```
`#!python print(f"I love {foobar}!", end="")`
will be rendered as
`print(f"I love {foobar}!", end="")`
(the #!lang is stripped)
```

### Image Labels

A feature unique to zona is **image labels**. They make it easy to annotate
images in your Markdown documents. The alt text Markdown element is rendered as
the label — with support for inline Markdown. Consider this example:

```markdown
![This **image** has _markup_.](static/markdown.png)
```

The above results in the following HTML:

```html
<div class="image-container"><img src="static/markdown.png" title=
""> <small>This <strong>image</strong> has
<em>markup</em>.</small></div>
```

The `image-container` class is provided as a convenience for styling. The
default stylesheet centers the label under the image. Note: _links_ inside image
captions are not currently supported. I am looking into a solution.

### Frontmatter

YAML frontmatter can be used to configure the metadata of documents. All of them
are optional. `none` is used when the option is unset. The following options are
available:

| Key          | Type & Default                    | Description                                                                                            |
| ------------ | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `title`      | `str` = title-cased filename.     | Title of the page.                                                                                     |
| `date`       | Date string = file modified time. | Displayed on blog posts and used for post_list sorting.                                                |
| `show_title` | `bool` = `true`                   | Whether `metadata.title` should be included in the template.                                           |
| `header`     | `bool` = `true`                   | Whether the header sitemap should be rendered.                                                         |
| `footer`     | `bool` = `true`                   | Whether the footer should be rendered.                                                                 |
| `template`   | `str \| none` = `none`            | Template to use for this page. Relative to `templates/`, `.html` extension optional.                   |
| `post`       | `bool \| none` = `none`           | Whether this page is a **post**. `true`/`false` is _absolute_. Leave it unset for automatic detection. |
| `draft`      | `bool` = `false`                  | Whether this page is a draft. See [drafts](#drafts) for more.                                          |

**Note**: you can specify the date in any format that can be parsed by
[`python-dateutil`](https://pypi.org/project/python-dateutil/).

### Post List

Suppose you want `example.com/blog` to be a _post list_ page, and you want
`example.com/blog/my-post` to be a post. You would first create
`content/blog/index.md` and add the following frontmatter:

```markdown
---
title: Blog
post: false
template: post_list
---

Welcome to my blog! Please find a list of my posts below.
```

Setting `post: false` is necessary because, by default, all documents inside
`content/blog` are considered to be posts unless explicitly disabled in the
frontmatter. We don't want the post list to list _itself_ as a post.

Then, you'd create `content/blog/my-post.md` and populate it:

```markdown
---
title: My First Post
date: July 5, 2025
---
```

Because `my-post` is inside the `blog` directory, `post: true` is implied. If
you wanted to put it somewhere outside `blog`, you would need to set
`post: true` for it to be included in the post list.

## Configuration

Zona is configured in YAML format. The configuration file is called `config.yml`
and it **must** be located in the root of the project — in the same directory as
`content` and `templates`.

Your configuration will be merged with the defaults. `zona init` also writes a
copy of the default configuration to the correct location. If it exists, you'll
be prompted before overwriting it.

**Note:** Currently, not every configuration value is actually used. Only the
useful settings are listed here.

Please see the default configuration:

```yaml
sitemap:
  Home: /
ignore:
  - .marksman.toml
markdown:
  image_labels: true
  tab_length: 2
  syntax_highlighting:
    enabled: true
    theme: ashen
    wrap: false
blog:
  dir: blog
```

| Name                                   | Description                                                                                   |
| -------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `sitemap`                              | Sitemap dictionary. See [Sitemap](#sitemap).                                                  |
| `ignore`                               | List of paths to ignore. See [Ignore List](#ignore-list).                                     |
| `markdown.tab_length`                  | How many spaces should be considered an indentation level.                                    |
| `markdown.syntax_highlighting.enabled` | Whether code should be highlighted.                                                           |
| `markdown.syntax_highlighting.theme`   | [Pygments] style for highlighting.                                                            |
| `markdown.syntax_highlighting.wrap`    | Whether the resulting code block should be word wrapped.                                      |
| `blog.dir`                             | Name of a directory relative to `content/` whose children are automatically considered posts. |

### Sitemap

You can define a sitemap in the configuration file. This is a list of links that
will be rendered at the top of every page. The `sitemap` is a dictionary of
`string` to `string` pairs, where each key is the displayed text of the link,
and the value if the `href`. Consider this example:

```yaml
sitemap:
  Home: /
  About: /about
  Blog: /blog
  Git: https://git.sr.ht/~ficd
```

### Ignore List

You can set a list of glob patterns in the [configuration](#configuration) that
should be ignored by zona. This is useful because zona makes a copy of _every_
file it encounters inside the `content` directory, regardless of its type. The
paths must be relative to the `content` directory.

### Drafts

zona allows you to begin writing content without including it in the final build
output. If you set `draft: true` in a page's frontmatter, it will be marked as a
draft. Drafts are completely excluded from `zona build` and `zona serve` unless
the `--draft` flag is specified.

[Ashen]: https://sr.ht/~ficd/ashen
[Pygments]: https://pygments.org/