Phase Shift — Post Writing Guide

Creating a New Post

Use the new-post.sh script:

# Basic post
./new-post.sh "My Post Title"

# Post with a splash/header image
./new-post.sh "My Post Title" --image my-image.jpg

This creates _posts/YYYY-MM-DD-my-post-title.md with front matter pre-filled and prints the filename.

Open the file in your editor, write your content in Markdown below the --- closing line, then save.

Front Matter Reference

---
title: "My Post Title"
date: 2026-02-22
categories:
  - Technology        # one or more categories
tags:
  - ai
  - ethics
excerpt: "Optional custom excerpt shown on the homepage and archive pages."
header:
  overlay_image: /assets/images/my-image.jpg
  overlay_filter: 0.5    # 0.0–1.0 darkness overlay for text readability
  caption: "Photo credit: Source Name"
---

All fields except title and date are optional.

Adding a Splash / Header Image

Drop your image into assets/images/:
```
assets/images/my-image.jpg
```

Reference it in the post front matter:

header:
  overlay_image: /assets/images/my-image.jpg
  overlay_filter: 0.5

The image appears as a full-width banner at the top of the post with the title overlaid.

Previewing Locally

# First time: install dependencies
bundle install

# Serve with live reload at http://localhost:4000
bundle exec jekyll serve

Publishing

git add .
git commit -m "New post: My Post Title"
git push

GitHub Pages builds and deploys automatically within ~1 minute.

Directory Structure

.
├── _config.yml          # Site configuration
├── _data/
│   └── navigation.yml   # Top navigation links
├── _pages/
│   ├── about.md         # /about/
│   ├── categories.md    # /categories/
│   ├── posts.md         # /posts/
│   └── tags.md          # /tags/
├── _posts/              # Blog posts (YYYY-MM-DD-title.md)
├── assets/
│   └── images/          # Splash images for posts
├── Gemfile              # Ruby dependencies for local dev
├── index.html           # Homepage (uses Minimal Mistakes 'home' layout)
└── new-post.sh          # Script to scaffold a new post