When I decided to build a personal site, I had a few requirements:
- Static site - fast, cheap to host, SEO-friendly
- Markdown blog - write posts in markdown, no CMS needed
- Modern stack - TypeScript, Tailwind, component-based
- Simple deployment - push to GitHub, site updates automatically
SvelteKit with mdsvex turned out to be the perfect solution.
The Tech Stack
- SvelteKit - Full-stack framework with excellent DX
- Svelte 5 - The latest version with runes and improved reactivity
- mdsvex - Markdown preprocessor that integrates seamlessly
- Tailwind CSS - Utility-first styling
- GitHub Pages - Free, reliable static hosting
How It Works
The blog uses a simple but powerful pattern: markdown files in a posts folder become pages at build time. Each file’s frontmatter contains metadata like title, date, and tags.
// Load all posts
const modules = import.meta.glob('/src/posts/*.md');GitHub Actions handles the build and deploy on every push. The repository itself becomes the CMS - create a new .md file, commit, and the site updates.
Conclusion
This setup gives me the best of both worlds: the simplicity of static HTML with the power of a modern framework. No database, no CMS login, just git and markdown.