A custom static site generator (SSG) written in Rust, replacing a Hugo + LoveIt stack for hakula.xyz.

kiln is purpose-built for hakula.xyz: strong CJK-friendly authoring, explicit rendering behavior, and a theme system that stays understandable. Instead of chasing broad SSG feature parity, it focuses on a smaller publishing workflow that is easier to reason about and extend.

• TOML frontmatter, GitHub Flavored Markdown, KaTeX math
• CJK-friendly heading IDs and table of contents generation
• ::: directives with theme-template rendering
• Directive template helpers (read_file, parse_csv)
• Image attributes, emoji / icon shortcodes, and code-block presentation helpers

• Pretty URLs, static file copying, co-located content assets
• Home pages, section pages, standalone pages, taxonomy indexes, and paginated term pages
• Configurable site time zones for rendered dates
• RSS feeds, sitemap, custom 404 page
• Full-text search via Pagefind

• MiniJinja templates with layered site overrides and theme parameter merging
• Ships with IgnIt: Tailwind CSS v4, glassmorphism panels with cursor-tracking glow, dark mode, responsive layout, search modal, back-to-top, mobile menu animations, print styles, keyboard accessibility

• Dev server with live reload (kiln serve)
• Hugo-to-kiln content migration (kiln convert)

i18n groundwork, authoring enhancements (code-block attributes, bundled scripts), and further ergonomics polish. See the roadmap for details.

kiln build                                                  # Build the site
kiln build --root /path/to/site                             # Build from a specific root
kiln build --minify                                         # Build, then minify HTML / CSS / JS
kiln serve                                                  # Dev server with live reload
kiln serve --port 3000 --open                               # Custom port, auto-open browser
kiln init-theme my-theme                                    # Scaffold a new theme
kiln convert --source /path/to/hugo --dest /path/to/kiln    # Convert a Hugo site

Passing --minify to kiln build runs a Rust-native pass over the output directory and rewrites each HTML / CSS / JS file in place:

• HTML via minify-html
• CSS via lightningcss
• JS via oxc_minifier

Files matching *.min.css or *.min.js are skipped so that pre-minified vendor bundles (e.g., Pagefind's UI JS) pass through untouched. Unusable inputs log a warning and keep the original file, so --minify never blocks a build.

kiln integrates with Pagefind for full-text search. Install the binary (cargo install pagefind or npm install -g pagefind), then enable it in config.toml:

[search]
enabled = true
# binary = "/path/to/pagefind"    # optional, if not on $PATH

kiln build and kiln serve both run Pagefind automatically after HTML generation.

Requires Rust 1.85+ (edition 2024).

cargo build --release    # Binary at target/release/kiln

Copyright (c) 2026 Hakula. Licensed under the MIT License.