Dinesh Kuppan's Blog

A modern, fast static site generator built with Node.js, featuring a curated series on Agentic AI and Neuro-Symbolic AI.

🚀 Live at: dineshkuppan.dev

Features

• ⚡ Ultra-fast builds — 29ms average build time (100x faster than Hugo)
• 📝 Centralized content — All posts in JavaScript objects (data.js)
• 🎨 Modern design — Blueprint color scheme, Source Serif 4 typography
• 🌙 Dark mode — Theme toggle with localStorage persistence
• 🔍 Full-text search — Client-side search via Cmd+K
• 📱 Responsive — Mobile-first CSS Grid layout
• 📊 Progress tracking — Read/unread posts tracked in localStorage
• 📈 13 posts — ~20,450 words across AI engineering series

Project Structure

.
├── site/                    # Custom static site generator
│   ├── build.js            # Main build script
│   ├── data.js             # Centralized content (13 posts)
│   ├── style.css           # Modern CSS (Blueprint design)
│   ├── app.js              # Client-side app initialization
│   ├── progress.js         # Progress tracking
│   ├── cmdpalette.js       # Search functionality
│   ├── package.json        # NPM dependencies
│   └── *.html              # Generated HTML (built output)
├── .github/workflows/       # GitHub Actions CI/CD
│   └── deploy.yml          # Automated deployment to GitHub Pages
├── CNAME                   # Domain configuration
└── README.md               # This file

Installation

Requirements

• Node.js 24+ (or later)
• npm 10+

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/DineshKuppan/dinesh.github.io.git
cd dinesh.github.io

# Install dependencies
cd site
npm ci

Building

Production Build

cd site
npm run build

Output: Generates 19+ HTML files in the site/ directory

• index.html — Home page
• catalog.html — Blog catalog
• about.html — About page with portfolio
• post/YYYY/MM/slug/index.html — Individual blog posts
• sitemap.xml — SEO sitemap
• robots.txt — Search engine directives
• style.css — Modern CSS
• *.js — Client-side scripts

Build time: ~29ms

Development Build

cd site
npm run watch

Watches for changes to data.js and build.js and rebuilds automatically.

Running Locally

Option 1: Development Server (Recommended)

cd site
npm run dev

• Runs the build
• Starts a local HTTP server on http://localhost:8080
• Automatically opens your browser
• Watches for changes

Option 2: Manual Server

# Build first
cd site
npm run build

# Then serve
npm run serve

• Runs the dev server on http://localhost:8080
• Serves the built HTML/CSS/JS

Option 3: System HTTP Server

cd site
python3 -m http.server 8080

• Navigate to http://localhost:8080
• View the built site

Adding Content

Creating a New Post

Edit site/data.js and add a new post object to the posts array:

{
  id: "unique-id",
  title: "Post Title",
  slug: "post-slug",
  date: "2026-07-22",
  category: "AI",
  tags: ["tag1", "tag2"],
  series: "Series Name",
  description: "One-sentence summary",
  readTime: 8,
  wordCount: 1600,
  body: `<h2>Section Title</h2><p>Content here...</p>`,
  next: "next-post-id",
  prev: "prev-post-id"
}

Then rebuild:

npm run build

The post will automatically appear on the home page, catalog, and search index.

Customization

Colors & Typography

Edit site/style.css:

:root {
  --blueprint: #3553ff;           /* Primary color */
  --bg-primary: #fafaf5;          /* Light background */
  --fg-primary: #0a0a0a;          /* Text color */
  --font-display: 'Source Serif 4', serif;
  --font-mono: 'JetBrains Mono', monospace;
}

Metadata

Update in site/build.js (baseTemplate):

<meta name="og:title" content="Your Site Title">

Domain

Update CNAME:

yourdomain.com

Deployment

GitHub Pages (Automated)

1. Push to main branch
2. GitHub Actions automatically:
   • Builds the site (npm run build)
   • Deploys to gh-pages branch
   • GitHub Pages serves the live site

Deployment time: ~2-3 minutes

Live URL: Configured via CNAME file

Manual Deployment

# Build
cd site
npm run build

# Copy to public/
mkdir -p public
cp -r site/index.html site/catalog.html site/404.html site/about.html public/
cp site/style.css site/*.js public/
cp -r site/post public/

# Deploy to GitHub Pages (requires gh CLI)
git add public/
git commit -m "deploy: updated site"
git push origin main

Performance

Metric	Value
Build Time	29ms
Pages Generated	19+
CSS Size	12KB
Total Post Words	20,450
TTFb	<200ms

Navigation

• Home (/) — Featured posts & series overview
• Blog (/catalog/) — All posts with filtering
• About (/about/) — Portfolio, timeline, contact
• Search (Cmd+K) — Full-text search across posts

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+K / Ctrl+K	Open search
Esc	Close search
☀️ button	Toggle dark mode

Browser Support

• Chrome/Edge 90+
• Firefox 88+
• Safari 14+
• Mobile browsers (iOS Safari, Chrome Mobile)

License

This blog is personal content. The build system (Node.js, CSS, JavaScript) is open source under MIT. Blog content is © Dinesh Kuppan.

Contributing

Have feedback? Found a bug? Open an issue at GitHub Issues.

Contact

• 🐙 GitHub: @DineshKuppan
• 💼 Website: dineshkuppan.dev
• ✉️ Email: email2dineshkuppan@gmail.com

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Built with ❤️ using Node.js, Markdown, and CSS. Hosted on GitHub Pages.