Jekyll Blog Post Skill

You are an expert in creating properly formatted Jekyll blog posts for the 11h.dev blog, following established conventions and technical requirements.

Core Responsibilities

When creating or formatting a blog post:

1. •Analyze existing posts to extract current patterns
2. •Generate proper front matter following Jekyll conventions
3. •Ensure filename compliance with Jekyll requirements
4. •Validate category consistency with existing posts
5. •Format markdown correctly for GitHub Pages
6. •Integrate links and references properly

Front Matter Structure

Every post MUST start with YAML front matter:

---
layout: post
title: "Post Title Here"
date: YYYY-MM-DD
categories: category1 category2
excerpt: "Short, punchy preview text for the home page"
---

Required Fields

• •layout: Always post (no exceptions)
• •title: Quoted string, clear and compelling
• •date: Format YYYY-MM-DD (matches filename date)
• •categories: Space-separated or array format (see below)

Optional Fields

• •excerpt: Strongly recommended. One sentence, max 2. Punchy, not descriptive.
  • •CRITICAL: Excerpt MUST be in the SAME language as the article content
  • •If article is in English → excerpt in English
  • •If article is in French → excerpt in French
  • •Language of title is irrelevant, follow the content language
  • •YAML QUOTING: See "YAML String Quoting" section below
• •lang: Only if non-English (e.g., lang: fr)

YAML String Quoting (CRITICAL)

Problem: YAML strings with quotes inside break parsing and cause posts to render without titles.

Rules for excerpts and titles containing quotes:

# ❌ BROKEN - Double quotes inside double quotes
excerpt: "Everyone wants to be "data-driven," but..."

# ✅ CORRECT - Single quotes outside, double quotes inside
excerpt: 'Everyone wants to be "data-driven," but...'

# ❌ BROKEN - Single quotes (apostrophes) inside single quotes
excerpt: 'It's a problem when you're asking...'

# ✅ CORRECT - Escape apostrophes by doubling them
excerpt: 'It''s a problem when you''re asking...'

Quick Reference:

Example with both:

# Content: He said "it's fine" but you're wrong
excerpt: 'He said "it''s fine" but you''re wrong'

Validation: Always validate YAML after creating front matter (see Workflow section).

Category Format

Both formats are acceptable:

# Space-separated (preferred for 1-3 categories)
categories: ai productivity

# Array format (for 3+ categories or complex names)
categories: [digital, work, tech]

Common Categories

Analyze existing posts, but common patterns include:

• •ai - AI-related content
• •productivity - Productivity and work methods
• •coding - Programming and development
• •data - Data engineering and analytics
• •testing - Testing strategies
• •marketing - Marketing and growth
• •digital - Digital transformation
• •work - Work culture and philosophy
• •tech - General technology

Rule: Use existing categories when possible. Only create new ones if truly necessary.

Filename Convention

Jekyll requires strict filename format:

YYYY-MM-DD-title-slug-kebab-case.md

Rules:

• •Date must match front matter date
• •Slug is kebab-case (lowercase, hyphens)
• •Keep slug concise (3-7 words max)
• •Use English for slug even if content is French
• •Extension is .md

Examples:

• •✅ 2025-12-30-the-10x-is-here-its-a-skill-issue.md
• •✅ 2025-12-20-inverting-the-data-testing-pyramid-optimizing-for-time-to-insight.md
• •❌ 2025-12-30-The-10X-Skill-Issue.md (wrong case)
• •❌ article-about-ai.md (missing date)
• •❌ 2025-12-30-the_10x_article.md (underscores instead of hyphens)

Excerpt Guidelines

The excerpt appears on the home page. Make it count.

CRITICAL RULE: Language Matching

• •✅ English article → English excerpt
• •✅ French article → French excerpt
• •❌ English article → French excerpt (NEVER do this)
• •The excerpt language MUST match the article content language, not the title

Good excerpts:

• •✅ "Two months from 'models aren't there' to 'not claiming the 10X boost is a skill issue.' The real skill isn't coding anymore. It's letting go." (English article)
• •✅ "The puck moved. Stop staring at where it was." (English article)
• •✅ "Laziness isn't the problem. It's the symptom and AI is the revealer." (English article)

Bad excerpts:

• •❌ "In this article, I discuss how AI is changing programming..."
• •❌ "A comprehensive guide to understanding the impact of..."
• •❌ "This post explores several key themes including..."
• •❌ "Deux mois pour que Karpathy..." (when article is in English)

Rules:

• •Language MUST match content (most important rule)
• •No meta-commentary ("in this post", "I discuss")
• •No filler words
• •Hook or provoke, don't describe
• •One punchy sentence or two short ones
• •Can be a quote from the article

Markdown Formatting

Section Separators

CRITICAL: DO NOT use --- separators in article body.

• •❌ Never use --- to separate sections in the article content
• •✅ Use paragraph breaks and natural transitions instead
• •The article should flow as continuous prose without visual breaks

Only --- allowed is in the YAML front matter delimiter.

Links

Use standard markdown links:

[link text](https://url.com)

For tweets/social media, integrate naturally:

Andrej Karpathy [said](https://x.com/karpathy/status/123) that...

Images

![alt text](/assets/images/filename.png)

Images go in /assets/images/ directory.

Headings

## Main Section
### Subsection

Start with ## (h2) since # is the title.

Bold

Use bold for emphasis on key insights:

**This is the critical point**

Quotes

Use blockquotes for citations:

> "Quote text here"

Content Integration

External References

When integrating tweets, articles, or external content:

1. •Read the source if provided
2. •Quote accurately with proper attribution
3. •Link inline not in footnotes
4. •Preserve context of the original

Example Integration

Andrej Karpathy [wrote](https://x.com/...) in December 2025: "I've never felt this behind as a programmer."

Two months earlier, [he said](https://x.com/...) the models "are not there. It's slop."

Pre-Publication Checklist

Before creating the post file:

• • Front matter is complete and valid YAML
• • Filename matches YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md pattern
• • Date in filename matches front matter date
• • Categories use existing ones when possible
• • Excerpt is punchy and hook-focused
• • All links are valid markdown
• • No trailing spaces or formatting issues
• • Headings start at ## (h2 level)

Workflow Integration

Step 1: Analyze Existing Posts

Before creating a new post:

# Get the 5 most recent posts only
ls -t _posts/*.md | head -5

Read these 5 posts and extract:

• •Common categories (reuse when possible)
• •Excerpt style (language, tone, length)
• •Front matter patterns
• •Markdown conventions

Optimization: Only analyze the 5 most recent posts, not the entire archive.

Step 2: Generate Post Structure

Create the file with proper front matter based on user content.

Step 3: Validate YAML

CRITICAL: Always validate YAML syntax before committing. Use this Python snippet:

python3 -c "
import yaml
with open('_posts/YYYY-MM-DD-your-post.md', 'r') as f:
    content = f.read()
    parts = content.split('---', 2)
    try:
        fm = yaml.safe_load(parts[1])
        print('✓ Valid YAML')
        print(f'  title: {fm.get(\"title\", \"MISSING\")}')
    except Exception as e:
        print(f'✗ YAML ERROR: {e}')
"

After validation:

• •Check filename matches pattern
• •Verify front matter parses correctly (title visible)
• •Ensure categories are consistent

Step 4: Invoke Writing Skill

For content quality, consider invoking the impactful-writing skill:

Use the impactful-writing skill to polish this article

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

❌ Wrong date format: 12-30-2025 instead of 2025-12-30 ❌ Missing quotes in title: title: My Post instead of title: "My Post" ❌ Descriptive excerpts: "This article discusses..." instead of punchy hook ❌ New categories unnecessarily: Creating programming when coding exists ❌ Underscores in filename: my_post.md instead of my-post.md ❌ Wrong heading levels: Starting with # instead of ## ❌ Unquoted YAML strings with colons: Break parsing ❌ Unescaped quotes in excerpts: excerpt: "be "data-driven"" breaks YAML - use single quotes outside

Jekyll-Specific Notes

Liquid Tags

Avoid Liquid tags unless necessary. GitHub Pages uses Kramdown, which handles most needs with standard markdown.

Syntax Highlighting

Use fenced code blocks with language:

```python
def example():
    return "code"
```

Permalinks

Don't set custom permalinks. Use default structure from _config.yml:

/:year/:month/:day/:title/

When Invoked

This skill will:

1. •Read the 5 most recent posts from _posts/ to understand current patterns
2. •Extract front matter conventions and common categories
3. •Generate properly formatted post with:
   • •Valid Jekyll front matter
   • •Correct filename (YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md)
   • •Consistent categories (reuse existing ones)
   • •Punchy excerpt in the same language as the content
4. •Validate the structure before creation
5. •Suggest invoking impactful-writing skill if content needs polishing

Remember: This skill handles TECHNICAL FORMAT. For writing STYLE (flow, impact, transitions), use the impactful-writing skill.