Project: demo-blog-engine · Branch: main · Mode: default · Model: claude-sonnet-4-6

Summary

Bootstrapped a small static-site generator in Rust. Chose pulldown-cmark for markdown parsing over comrak after weighing compile-time vs. GFM support. Scaffolded the cargo new project, added a Post struct, and wrote a first pass of the markdown → HTML pipeline.

Conversation

Turn 1 — User

I want to build a minimal static blog engine in Rust. Start a new crate, pick a markdown library, and write the skeleton of the build step.

Turn 1 — Assistant

Kicking off with cargo new --bin demo-blog-engine. For markdown I'll compare pulldown-cmark and comrak:

- pulldown-cmark — tiny, pure-Rust, CommonMark-only, fast
- comrak — full GFM (tables, strikethrough, task lists), slightly heavier

Since we want something minimal, I'll start with pulldown-cmark and we can switch if we need GFM.

Tools used in this turn:
- Bash: cargo new --bin demo-blog-engine — exit 0
- Write: Cargo.toml

 

- Write: src/main.rs

 

Turn 2 — User

Good. Add a Post struct that holds title, slug, date, and body, and wire up a function that reads a markdown file from content/ and returns a Post.

Turn 2 — Assistant

Added src/post.rs with the struct and a Post::from_markdown_file(path) constructor. It parses a YAML-style frontmatter block (just the five keys we need), then feeds the remaining body through pulldown-cmark to get HTML.

Tools used in this turn:
- Write: src/post.rs

 

- Edit: src/main.rs — added mod post;
- Read: src/main.rs (1–40)

Turn 3 — User

Let's test it. Drop a sample post into content/hello.md and run the build.

Turn 3 — Assistant

Wrote a sample post and ran cargo run. First build took ~14s (clean), subsequent ~0.4s. Output HTML is being written to public/hello.html. Looking good.

Tools used in this turn:
- Write: content/hello.md (5-line preview)
- Bash: cargo run — exit 0

Connections

- demo-blog-engine — project
- Rust — language
- pulldown-cmark — markdown library
- StaticSiteGeneration — concept