George Cushen
b67f09b8fd
First-class image gallery block. Two layouts ship today - grid (uniform tiles, configurable columns 1-6, aspect-ratio presets) and masonry (CSS-columns Pinterest packing). Click-to-zoom lightbox built in Preact, portalled to <body> so it escapes the section's `isolation: isolate` stacking context; keyboard navigation (← → Esc), touch swipe, and body scroll-lock included. Two source modes: explicit items[] for curated galleries with per-image captions/credits/links, or album: <folder> for drop-in folder loading sorted by filename. Remote URLs (Unsplash/Pexels/CDNs) are passed through unprocessed; local images get the full responsive variants + inline base64 LQIP placeholder for instant first-paint over the eventual sharp image. Captions, titles, and credits are rendered through Hugo's RenderString at build time (display: inline) - users get full Markdown (bold/italic/ code/links) in any of those fields with zero JS markdown parser. Alt text falls back to plainified caption → humanised filename so screen readers always have something useful. Caption positions: below (default - accessibility-first), overlay (magazine gradient), hover (clean grid reveal), none (lightbox-only). Block-scoped CSS in the co-located style.css is picked up by the existing block-CSS auto-discovery. Test site: two demos under home.yaml (curated grid + auto-loaded masonry) with 9 sample Picsum images stored under test/assets/media/albums/gallery/ at varied aspect ratios.
Describe your site. AI builds it. You own it as Markdown.
HugoBlox is the open-source framework for building professional sites from structured Markdown — landing pages, portfolios, blogs, publications, docs, and more.
Pick a template, let Hugo Chat AI generate your pages, and deploy anywhere. Every file is plain Markdown you can read, edit, and own forever.
Generate Pages with AI | Browse Templates | Ownable CMS for VS Code
Trusted since 2016 · 150,000+ sites (Meta, Stanford, NVIDIA) · Rated 4.9/5 by users (official survey) · Used by teams at NVIDIA Research, MIT, and King's College London · Featured by GitHub Release Radar
⚡ How it works
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1. 🎨 Pick a template Choose a template or scaffold with the CLI. Landing pages, portfolios, blogs, research sites, docs — ready in seconds. |
2. ✨ Generate pages with AI Open Hugo Chat and describe what you need. "Create a landing page with hero, pricing, and testimonials" — done. |
3. 🚀 Deploy anywhere Push to GitHub. Deploy on Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare — or any static host. No database. No runtime. Free hosting. |
🏆 Why HugoBlox
Every other tool makes you choose. HugoBlox doesn't.
| AI site builders (Lovable, v0, Bolt) | CMS platforms (WordPress, Webflow) | HugoBlox | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI generates your pages | Yes | No | Yes |
| You own the output as readable files | No — React code | No — locked in a database | Yes — plain Markdown |
| Works without a runtime server | Sometimes | No | Yes — static HTML |
| Structured content types (publications, projects, team pages) | No | Partial | Yes — 20+ built-in types |
| Human-editable after AI generates it | Barely | Through the CMS only | Yes — it's Markdown |
| Free to host forever | No | No | Yes |
| Open source | No | No | Yes — MIT licensed |
Important
The pitch: other tools generate code you can't maintain or lock your content in a database you can't leave. HugoBlox gives you AI-generated pages as plain Markdown on a Tailwind + Hugo stack — readable, portable, and yours.
🧱 What you can build
HugoBlox includes 20+ structured content types with proper front matter, metadata, and layouts. Tell Hugo Chat what you need and it generates the right one:
- 🚀 Landing pages — hero, features, pricing, testimonials, CTA sections via the block system
- 📝 Blogs & articles — posts with tags, categories, authors, and SEO metadata
- 💼 Portfolios & project pages — showcase your work with descriptions, tech stacks, and images
- 📚 Publication pages — academic papers with BibTeX/DOI citation workflows
- 📖 Documentation — searchable docs with sidebar navigation and versioning
- 👥 Team & author profiles — bio, avatar, social links, publication lists
- 🎤 Event & talk pages — conferences, workshops, presentations with slides
- 🎞️ Slide decks — Markdown-powered presentations using reveal.js
- 📄 Resumes & CVs — structured career pages, exportable to PDF
- 🔬 Jupyter notebooks & LaTeX — render
.ipynband math-heavy pages natively
🛠️ Get started
Step 1: Create your site
Option A: Start from a template (fastest)
Tip
Pick a template and launch in your browser in 60 seconds: Browse templates
Option B: Use the CLI (full control)
# Requires Hugo Extended & Node.js
npm install -g hugoblox
hugoblox create site
Step 2: Customize with AI + visual editing
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Hugo Chat — AI page generation Describe what you need in plain English. Hugo Chat generates structured Hugo pages with correct front matter, shortcodes, and HugoBlox blocks.
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Ownable CMS — visual editing in VS Code Drag-and-drop blocks, live preview, and YAML validation without leaving your editor. The power of a visual website builder inside VS Code.
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Note
Need docs? See docs.ownable.dev for guides, configuration reference, and best practices.
🔓 Open source. No lock-in. No catch.
- ✅ MIT licensed. The framework is and will always be open source.
- ✅ Plain Markdown files. Your content is never locked in a database or proprietary format. Take it anywhere.
- ✅ Static output. No server to maintain, no database to patch, no vendor to depend on.
- ✅ Free hosting. Deploy to Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages — all free tier.
- ✅ AI is free to start. Hugo Chat includes free messages every day. No credit card needed.
- ✅ Future-proof. Markdown has been readable since 2004. Your content will outlast any platform.
Important
"Every AI website builder generates React code you'll throw away in six months. Every CMS locks your content in a database you'll never migrate. HugoBlox is the gap between them."
Want more? Upgrade to Pro for visual editing, AI automations, BibTeX import, and priority support. Compare plans →
🌍 Who uses HugoBlox
HugoBlox powers sites for researchers, consultants, founders, developer advocates, and teams at organizations including:
150,000+ sites created since 2016. Rated 4.9/5 by users.
"We tried Lovable and v0 first. They generated a landing page in minutes — but it was 400 lines of React we couldn't touch. Hugo Chat generated the same page as Markdown files our whole team could edit. We shipped that afternoon. Hosting: $0/month." — Priya Ramanathan, Co-founder & CTO
"I described our research areas to Hugo Chat and it generated 30 publication pages with correct BibTeX metadata, team profiles, and a news section. My postdocs were editing their own pages within an hour — it's just Markdown. No CMS training, no tickets to IT." — Dr. James Park, Principal Research Scientist, Applied AI Lab
"I've rebuilt my site four times — Jekyll, Gatsby, Next.js, Notion. HugoBlox is the first time I know I won't have to again. My content is plain Markdown. If something better exists in five years, I take my files and leave. Nothing has come close." — Marcus Oliveira, Senior Developer Advocate
🚀 Ready to build?
Pick a template, let AI generate your pages, and deploy for free.
Your content stays as Markdown you own forever.
Generate Pages with AI | Browse Templates | Read the Docs
Community & support
- Questions? Join the Discord or search the Docs
- Bug? Open an Issue
- Want to contribute? Read the Contributing Guide
- Love it? Star this repo — it helps others find it
Sponsors
❤️ Sponsor on GitHub | 🏢 Become a Partner
License
Copyright 2016-present Lore Labs. Released under the MIT License.
HugoBlox is a trademark of Lore Labs.