90 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
90 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Automated Blog Deployment featuring Obsidian, Hugo and Gitea Actions
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date: 2025-05-02
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draft: true
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tags:
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---
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Over the past few days, I set up an automated pipeline to build and deploy my blog using **Gitea Actions**. This post explains how it works and the design decisions behind it.
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## 🧠 Goals
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- Write blog posts in my [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md) vault
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- Automatically detect changes in the `Blog/` folder
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- Sync changes to a separate **blog repository**
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- Let the blog repository handle **site generation and deployment**
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- Use Hugo as the static site generator, with version updates handled automatically
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---
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## 🔁 Workflow Overview
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Here's the flow:
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1. **Edit Blog Content** in the `Blog/` folder of my Obsidian vault.
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2. **Obsidian Repo Workflow** (via Gitea Actions):
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- Detects changes in the `Blog/` folder.
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- Clones the blog repository using a secure token.
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- Syncs content from the Obsidian vault to the blog repository.
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- Commits and pushes changes.
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3. **Blog Repo Workflow** (also using Gitea Actions):
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- Pulls the latest Hugo release version.
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- Compares it with the current version.
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- Downloads it if necessary.
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- Builds the blog using the new version.
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- If the build fails, tries the previous version.
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- Pushes the updated static site to the target branch (e.g., `gh-pages` or `public`)
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---
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## ⚙️ Key Implementation Details
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### 🔐 Secure Token Usage
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A **Gitea secret** is used to securely clone the blog repository. In the Obsidian repo workflow:
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env:
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TOKEN: ${{ secrets.BLOG_DEPLOY_TOKEN }}
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run: |
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git clone https://${TOKEN}@git.example.com/user/blog.git /appli/data/blog
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This avoids exposing any credentials in code or logs.
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### 📦 Hugo Version Check
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The workflow checks for the latest Hugo release from GitHub:
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latest_version=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/gohugoio/hugo/releases/latest | jq -r .tag_name)
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If it's newer than the currently used version, it downloads and installs it in `/appli/data/blog/bin`.
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### 🔄 Sync from Obsidian to Blog Repo
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Using `rsync -ah --delete` ensures the content in `/Blog` is mirrored properly:
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rsync -ah --delete Blog/ /appli/data/blog/content/
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### 🧪 Fallback on Hugo Failure
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If building the site with the new version fails, the old binary is used as a fallback, ensuring the site doesn't break unexpectedly.
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---
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## 🚀 Results
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This setup gives me:
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- A **clean separation** between content editing (Obsidian) and publishing (Blog repo).
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- Automated static site builds without needing GitHub Actions or external CI.
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- Full control over the Hugo version, testing, and rollback.
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---
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## 📍 Next Steps
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- Add preview and validation steps before committing
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- Monitor Hugo releases for breaking changes
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- Expand workflows to manage themes and assets
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---
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If you're self-hosting Gitea and want to build your own blog workflow, I hope this gives you a solid starting point. Feel free to reach out with questions! |