Quick Start Guide#
Get your Hugo site up and running in 5 minutes!
Prerequisites Installed ✅#
- Hugo Extended v0.151.0
- Go 1.20+
- Git
Step 1: Update Basic Configuration (2 minutes)#
Edit config/_default/hugo.toml#
baseURL = "https://yourusername.github.io/" # ← Update this
title = "Your Site Title" # ← Update this
Edit config/_default/params.toml#
Scroll to the author section and update:
[author]
name = "Your Name" # ← Your name
headline = "Your Headline" # ← What you do
bio = "Your bio" # ← Short bio
links = [
{ email = "mailto:your-email@example.com" }, # ← Your email
]
Step 2: Test Locally (1 minute)#
# Start the development server
hugo server -D
# Open in browser: http://localhost:1313
# Press Ctrl+C to stop when done
Step 3: Deploy to GitHub (2 minutes)#
Initialize and Push#
# Initialize git
git init
# Make first commit
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
# Create repository on GitHub, then:
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/yourusername/yourusername.github.io.git
git push -u origin main
Enable GitHub Pages#
- Go to your repository on GitHub
- Click Settings → Pages
- Under Source, select GitHub Actions
- Wait 2-3 minutes
Your site will be live at: https://yourusername.github.io/
That’s It! 🎉#
Your site is now live and will auto-deploy whenever you push changes.
Next Steps#
See the full guides for more details:
- CHECKLIST.md - Complete setup checklist
- SETUP.md - Detailed configuration guide
- README.md - Full project documentation
- IMAGE_HOSTING.md - CDN setup for photos
Common Commands#
# Create new blog post
hugo new content/blog/my-post.md
# Create new project
hugo new content/projects/my-project.md
# Start dev server
hugo server -D
# Build for production
hugo --gc --minify
# Update theme
hugo mod get -u
hugo mod tidy
Adding Your First Real Content#
- Edit About page:
content/about/index.md - Create blog post:
hugo new content/blog/first-post.md - Add project:
hugo new content/projects/my-project.md - Update contact:
content/contact/index.md
Then commit and push:
git add .
git commit -m "Add content"
git push
Your site will automatically rebuild and deploy!
Troubleshooting#
Build fails locally#
# Clear Hugo cache
hugo mod clean
# Rebuild modules
hugo mod get -u
hugo mod tidy
GitHub Actions fails#
- Check Actions tab for error logs
- Verify you selected “GitHub Actions” in Pages settings
- Ensure repository is public
Site shows old content#
- Hard refresh: Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows)
- Clear browser cache
- Wait a few minutes for CDN to update
Need Help?#
- Check PROJECT_SUMMARY.md for architecture overview
- Review Hugo Docs
- Check Blowfish Docs
Remember: You can iterate! Deploy first, refine later. The hard part is done! 🚀
