Generating new content

How archetypes work

Hugo uses archetypes as templates for new content. When you run hugo new, it looks for a matching archetype in archetypes/ based on the content section, and uses it to pre-fill the frontmatter and body of the new file.

archetypes/
  default.md        ← fallback for any new content
  blog.md           ← used for content/blog/
  books/
    index.md        ← used for content/books/ (directory archetype)
    cover.jpg       ← copied into every new book folder

Directory archetypes (a folder with index.md) are used when the content needs bundled files alongside it — like a book with a cover image.

Blog post

Create a new file under content/blog/:

hugo new content -k blog blog/my-new-post.md

Fill in the frontmatter and write your content, then preview locally:

hugo server

Push to main to deploy — the pipeline handles the rest.

Book

Use the script with the book’s ISBN (found on the back cover, Amazon, or Google Books):

./new-book.sh <slug> <isbn>

This creates content/books/<slug>/ with the cover downloaded and author pre-filled. Then open index.md and fill in:

• date_started — when you started reading
• date_finished — when you finished (leave empty if still reading)
• Notes and Thoughts in the body

Styling

All overrides go in layouts/partials/custom_head.html — loaded after the theme’s CSS so everything here takes precedence. For syntax highlighting theme, change style in hugo.toml under [markup.highlight].