Random notes to myself

Metalsmith Redux began with a simple premise: amid framework overload, reintroduce Metalsmith as an example of stability and simplicity in an ecosystem obsessed with complexity.

Building a Metalsmith plugin with Claude revealed that effective AI collaboration isn't about prompt engineering—it's about exploring problems through dialogue until solutions emerge naturally.

A look at real Metalsmith components to understand how they work, why they're designed this way, and the patterns that make them powerful. From configuration to templates to optimized bundles.

The Metalsmith SEO plugin automatically generates HTML meta tags, Open Graph properties, Twitter Cards, JSON-LD structured data, a robots.txt file and a sitemap from a single source of truth.

Transform how you build static sites with structured content. The Metalsmith2025 structured content starter brings component architecture, smart dependency bundling, and fluid responsive design - no frameworks needed.

Metalsmith Plugin MCP Server is a good example of how AI can assist in development. But what started over a weekend turned into a real development framework, shaped by real-world usage, trial-and-error, and a growing understanding of how AI needs to be guided, not just invited.

Discover how to use Claude AI and MCP servers to automate plugin development. A step-by-step weekend project that transforms repetitive Metalsmith plugin creation into an AI-powered conversation, complete with testing examples and practical insights.

Instead of starting with content and adding MDN components, what if we began with components and composed them into pages?

Developers celebrate migrating blogs to Astro or Next.js, describing complex build processes as 'easier than React.' But why does a blog need to fly? Sometimes simple tools are the sophisticated choice.

While working on the blog series Metalsmith Redux (Static Site Generation in 2025), I developed several new plugins with the assistance of Claude AI, which led me to create a standardized template for Metalsmith plugins.

We explore a common challenge when working with Markdown-based content: how do you include structured, reusable components within your long-text content?

Templating with Nunjucks is central to how Metalsmith transforms content into a polished website. It provides the structure and logic needed to create consistent, maintainable sites while keeping content separate from presentation