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SSG logo Static Site Generators in the Age of AI

Building and Maintaining Content with AI Agents

One small website, built from its first Markdown page through publication, review, and long-term maintenance, with an AI agent helping and a person deciding what goes live. No prior HTML, Git, or command-line experience is assumed.

Start reading: Chapter 1 Choose a learning path

The book in four numbers

Each one is checkable against the chapters.

19Chaptersfrom a first page to your own project
33Learning topicspractised or explained along the way
4Learning pathsfrom beginner to site maintainer
0Prior experience assumedno programming, Git, or terminal

How every chapter works

  1. See the result first

    Each chapter opens with what you will have at the end and what you will be able to do.

  2. Make one small change early

    A working edit comes before the explanation, so every idea has something real to attach to.

  3. Break something on purpose

    A deliberate mistake, how to recognise it, and how to recover. The build passing is never the whole check.

  4. Try it your way, then save

    An independent variation shows you understood the idea. A checklist and a saved checkpoint close the chapter.

Learning paths

No experience needed

The complete path

All nineteen chapters in order. Your site is published by Chapter 7.

See the path

HTML, CSS, JSON, YAML

Web-literate

Skim the markup and format explanations; slow down for Hugo, Git, publishing, and agents.

See the path

Hugo and CI/CD

Software engineers

A brisk setup, then Hugo’s templates and data, the Pages pipeline, and checks on every change.

See the path

An existing website

Maintainers and teams

Bring AI agents into a site you already run, with review, required checks, and maintenance.

See the path

The arc of the book

  1. Build and understand a first site

    A local preview, Markdown, sections and navigation, then the HTML and CSS behind the pages.

  2. Record it and publish it

    Git history you can recover from, then a public address through GitHub Pages.

  3. Bring in an agent and give content a structure

    One bounded agent task, then content models, Hugo templates, reusable layouts, and JSON data.

  4. Contribute, check, and reach readers

    Sourced agent content, checks on every change, search, a second language, and a contact form.

  5. Keep it running, then make your own

    Maintenance and recovery after a change is live, then a project planned from your own brief.

Learning topics

What Tools you will use

Hugo

Builds the website

Git

History and recovery

GitHub

Collaboration, Pages, and Actions

Codex CLI

The AI agent used in the exercises

FAQ

Who is this book for?

Anyone who can manage files, use a browser, and install software, and who wants to publish a useful website they understand. No prior programming, Git, terminal, or web-publishing experience is assumed.

What do I need?

A desktop or laptop computer on which you can install software, and an internet connection. From Chapter 7 you need a free GitHub account to publish; from Chapter 8, an account with access to an AI agent. Each chapter states its requirements before its exercises.

Does it cost anything?

Hugo, Git, and VS Code are free, and a public repository publishes to GitHub Pages without charge. AI agent access depends on your own account and its usage limits, and Chapter 8 asks you to check them before you begin.

Will the AI agent build the website for me?

It will help, and you stay responsible for what gets published. The book teaches you to give an agent a bounded task, read every change it makes, check its claims against your sources, and decide publication yourself.

Why Hugo?

One generator keeps every exercise consistent. The ideas it teaches (content, templates, structured data, a build step, and a publishing workflow) carry over to other static site generators.

Is the book finished?

All nineteen chapters are written, and the book is a working draft. Each chapter opens with a note recording how far it has been tested. Lecture slides are being added chapter by chapter, starting with the course introduction, and a playground is in preparation.

Principles of SSG

01

Plain text you control

Your content is Markdown in folders you can copy, so it outlives any one tool or host.

02

Every change is reviewable

Git records what changed and why, whether a person or an agent made the change.

03

Machines check rules; people judge meaning

A passing build proves the site renders. Only a person can decide that it is true.

Read the Complete Book Online or DownloadView all 19 chapters entirely in your browser, download the full PDF with covers and bookmarks, or read chapter by chapter.

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