Source</th>	Total</th>	Subscribers (EOY)</th></tr></thead>
ICUL</td>	$7877</td>	95</td></tr>
GitHub Sponsors</td>	$3629</td>	67</td></tr>
Ko-Fi</td>	$358</td>	4</td></tr>
YouTube</td>	$206</td>	6328</td></tr> </tbody></table> GitHub Sponsors</a></h2> Within a couple of months of the availability of the ICUL, the number of license holders had surpassed the number of GitHub Sponsors, and this trend shows no sign of reversing.</p> Generally I am happy with this because I would much rather that the majority of funding for komorebi come from corporate expense reimbursements than the salaries of workers.</p> In the last quarter of 2025 I started working on komorebi for Mac and made early access available as a perk to GitHub sponsors on the $10/month and $20/month tiers, which accounts for a significant portion of the $3629 figure attributed to GitHub Sponsors.</p> There were a number of people who generously paid for 12 months of the sponsorship tier up-front (I didn't know this was even possible until recently).</p> There were also many curious people who paid $10/month for one month of access before cancelling who either 1) found the current build stable enough to last them until the public release or 2) felt that komorebi's model wasn't a good fit for their workflow.</p> I think there is definitely more to explore in the area of giving sponsors early access to nightly releases and WIP features before they become generally available to the public in an official versioned release.</p> I am convinced that Sponsors remains GitHub's killer feature at this point, and that this is a table-stakes feature for any serious competitor in this space.</p> YouTube</a></h2> I made fewer videos this year and spent time exploring different formats which were more time consuming, but more personally rewarding for me.</p> The videos which got the most views (and ad revenue) were the scripted tutorial and quickstart videos, which I guess I should probably put more time into this year.</p> I'm less interested in YouTube as a source of funding for komorebi now and more interested in the creative medium of video.</p> Ko-Fi</a></h2> I mainly introduced Ko-Fi upon request when GitHub Sponsors made some changes which made it difficult for users in Europe to continue sponsoring on that platform.</p> It has a nice integration with Discord, but outside of that I didn't really engage much with it.</p> Individual Commercial Use License</a></h2> Before introducing the ICUL, both my research and my experience in 2023 and 2024 had demonstrated that:</p> Corporations do not make voluntary financial contributions to software that improves the working conditions of their employees</li> Voluntary contributions in the form of sponsorship from individuals do not scale and are not sustainable in an environment where workers are a mass layoff and a medical emergency away from having their life savings wiped out</li> </ol> So I introduced the ICUL with a few thoughts in mind:</p> I want to normalize making employers pay for the ICUL</li> The ICUL should function as a mechanism to empower end users to mediate corporate contributions to the financial sustainability of independent software</li> If this goes well, the number of licenses should surpass the number of GitHub sponsors</li> If this goes well, other independent developers will start reaching out to me to learn more</li> </ol> The numbers from this year are very encouraging. There are currently 95 active ICULs and with the impending release of komorebi for Mac, I see that number crossing 100 within a month or two.</p> Many ICUL users have successfully had their licensing costs either reimbursed after paying out of pocket, or have had their licenses purchased on their behalf directly by their employers.</p> Unsurprisingly, many licenses have been purchased for workers in highly regulated industries.</p> More surprisingly, licenses have also been purchased by independent contractors, who told me that they simply increased their rate slightly to cover the cost of the tools required to do what they were contracted for.</p> In December 2025 both komorebi for Windows and komorebi for Mac started identifying potential corporate devices based on MDM enrollment status</a>. This resulted in a wave of new ICUL purchases and a total payout of $1375 at the end of the month (~17% of the 2025 ICUL total in the table above).</p> This month, to coincide with the upcoming release of komorebi for Mac (and once again, upon request), I am also introducing a new multi-platform variant of the ICUL which covers both komorebi for Windows and komorebi for Mac at 1.5x the price of a single-platform license.</p> The Big Question</a></h2> I assume many people will have clicked to read this article with some variation of the question "can I make a living independently selling my own software?" in mind.</p> I have been working on komorebi since 2020, and for me the answer to that question is still "no"; I still need a full-time job to be able to pay my rent and to have health insurance coverage.</p> However, when I look back at the last 3 years, the progress made towards this goal that many of us in this industry have is undeniable.</p> Year</th> Total</th></tr></thead> 2023</td> $593</td></tr> 2024</td> $1861</td></tr> 2025</td> $12,070</td></tr> </tbody></table> I think that I am on to something, and I think that my approach to building a financially sustainable independent software project is one that can be reproduced by other independent software developers focused on developer and/or power-user tooling.</p> If you have any questions or comments you can reach out to me on Bluesky</a> and Mastodon</a>.</p> If you're interested in what I read to come up with solutions like this, you can subscribe to my Software Development RSS feed</a>.</p> If you'd like to watch me writing code while explaining what I'm doing, you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel</a>.</p> If you would like early access to komorebi for Mac</a>, you can sponsor me on GitHub</a>.</p> Consider a Nix Flake for your windows-rs Project lgug2z — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 01:36:54 -0800 I have been working hard on getting komorebi for Mac</a> ready for the initial public release in January 2026</a>, and a large part of that work has focused on improving the documentation and creating a new unified docs website for both komorebi for Windows and komorebi for Mac.</p> I am all-in on generating documentation from rustdoc, for both komorebi for Windows and komorebi for Mac.</p> I'm so deep in on this that not only am I generating configuration API documentation</a> in Markdown, I am also generating Nix module options</a> for komorebi for Mac users to be able to define their configuration in Nix with completions, documentation, and automatic JSONSchema validation of the generated JSON file.</p> In order to enable the generation of better documentation from rustdoc, I have been making a lot of updates to my rustdoc comments across both codebases.</p> The thing that sucks about having two similar codebases for two different platforms which implement a common configuration API is keeping documentation in sync.</p> (I think the future of komorebi is probably going to be a single repo for both komorebi for Windows and komorebi for Mac, but that's a whole separate article...</em>)</p> To do this I have spent way too much time switching inputs on my display to go from my Mac Mini to my PC and back. Although this is made significantly easier by having a cross-platform tiling window manager with all the same semantics and key bindings on both platforms, it still sucks and takes me out of my flow state.</p> The reason for having to do this display input switching dance is that cross-compilation of Rust projects that depend on the Windows MSVC toolchain is a pain; I can't (or rather, couldn't - past tense) just make an equivalent change in the komorebi for Windows repo checked out on the Mac Mini and run `cargo clippy</code> to make sure everything is okay, or cargo run</code> to inspect the output of one of the documentation generation commands.</p>` `I reached my breaking point with this workflow today and decided to tackle it head on: by adding a flake.nix</code> to komorebi for Windows which allows me to both build the entire project and run all of those cargo</code> with the Windows MSVC toolchain on both NixOS and macOS.</p>` `I took the flake.nix</code> from komorebi for Mac as a template and went diving into projects like``cargo-xwin</a> and the discussions in crane</a>, and eventually got something working.</p>` `You can check it out here: LGUG2Z/komorebi/flake.nix@6e36b816699ef3f1c7ea3e9ab70f78dca9fe6008</a></p>` `One of my favorite components to set up in a flake is treefmt-nix</code></a>, and integrating all of the formatters and linters it provides for different languages into nix flake check</code>.</p>` `So once I got the flake.nix</code> for komorebi for Windows working, I ran nix fmt</code> followed by nix flake check</code>, and I was very happy to see everything "just work" - as evidenced by all of the TOML files in the repo suddenly being formatted correctly (I had not been running taplo</code> on Windows).</p>` `The initial lift to get this working is quite big (hopefully a little less now that you can copy and paste from my example), but I can already feel that this is going to have a huge payoff on the medium-to-long term as I work on both komorebi for Windows and komorebi for Mac concurrently and make refactors which will extract common duplicated code out of both codebases.</p>` `Even if you are not going cross-platform with whatever you're building (yet, or ever), being able to leverage flake checks, dev shells and excellent tooling like treefmt-nix</code> in WSL can have a significant positive impact on the ergonomic experience of a long-lived project.</p>` `If you have any questions or comments you can reach out to me on Bluesky</a> and Mastodon</a>.</p> If you're interested in what I read to come up with solutions like this, you can subscribe to my Software Development RSS feed</a>.</p> If you'd like to watch me writing code while explaining what I'm doing, you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel</a>.</p> If you would like early access to komorebi for Mac</a>, you can sponsor me on GitHub</a>.</p>` Rescue Complex Automatic lgug2z — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Cover art by Zahra al Zuwayed</a></p> Purchase on Bandcamp</a></p> Stream on Apple Music</a></p> Stream on Spotify</a></p> Is this a Core Graphics Framework Bug in macOS Tahoe? lgug2z — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 01:43:15 -0800 I've been daily driving my tiling window manager for macOS</a> on macOS Sequoia for a few months now and things have been pretty stable.</p> I've had a few reports of issues on macOS Tahoe, but it wasn't until setting up a new machine that came with Tahoe preinstalled that I was able to reproduce and debug them myself.</p> One of the things that a tiling window manager should do is listen for changes to connected displays. The main changes that should be handled gracefully are changes in screen resolution, scaling, and display (dis)connection.</p> The code below is for a DisplayReconfigurationListener</code> which emits events to another component when any of the above changes are communicated by the operating system.</p> Existing Code in Rust</a></h2> use crate</span>::core_graphics::error::CoreGraphicsError; </span>use crate</span>::monitor_reconciliator; </span>use crate</span>::monitor_reconciliator::MonitorNotification; </span>use </span>objc2_core_graphics::CGDirectDisplayID; </span>use </span>objc2_core_graphics::CGDisplayChangeSummaryFlags; </span>use </span>objc2_core_graphics::CGDisplayRegisterReconfigurationCallback; </span>use </span>objc2_core_graphics::CGDisplayRemoveReconfigurationCallback; </span>use </span>std::ffi::</span>c_void</span>; </span> </span>pub struct </span>DisplayReconfigurationListener {} </span> </span>unsafe extern </span>"</span>C-unwind</span>" </span>fn </span>callback</span>( </span> </span>display_id</span>: CGDirectDisplayID, </span> </span>flags</span>: CGDisplayChangeSummaryFlags, </span> </span>_user_info</span>: </span>*mut</span> c_void, </span>) { </span> </span>if</span> flags.</span>contains</span>(CGDisplayChangeSummaryFlags::DesktopShapeChangedFlag) { </span> tracing::debug!("</span>display: {display_id} resized</span>"); </span> monitor_reconciliator::send_notification(MonitorNotification::Resize(display_id)); </span> } </span> </span> </span>if</span> flags.</span>contains</span>(CGDisplayChangeSummaryFlags::AddFlag) { </span> tracing::debug!("</span>display: {display_id} added</span>"); </span> monitor_reconciliator::send_notification(MonitorNotification::DisplayConnectionChange( </span> display_id, </span> )); </span> } </span> </span> </span>if</span> flags.</span>contains</span>(CGDisplayChangeSummaryFlags::RemoveFlag) { </span> tracing::debug!("</span>display: {display_id} removed</span>"); </span> monitor_reconciliator::send_notification(MonitorNotification::DisplayConnectionChange( </span> display_id, </span> )); </span> } </span>} </span> </span>impl </span>DisplayReconfigurationListener { </span> </span>pub fn </span>init</span>() -> Result<(), CoreGraphicsError> { </span> tracing::info!("</span>registering display reconfiguration listener callback</span>"); </span> </span> </span>unsafe </span>{ </span> </span>match </span>CoreGraphicsError::from(CGDisplayRegisterReconfigurationCallback( </span> Some(callback), </span> std::ptr::null_mut(), </span> )) { </span> CoreGraphicsError::Success => Ok(()), </span> err => Err(err), </span> } </span> } </span> } </span>} </span> </span>impl </span>Drop </span>for </span>DisplayReconfigurationListener { </span> </span>fn </span>drop</span>(&</span>mut </span>self</span>) { </span> tracing::info!("</span>removing display reconfiguration listener callback</span>"); </span> </span> </span>unsafe </span>{ </span> </span>match </span>CoreGraphicsError::from(CGDisplayRemoveReconfigurationCallback( </span> Some(callback), </span> std::ptr::null_mut(), </span> )) { </span> CoreGraphicsError::Success => {} </span> error => { </span> tracing::error!( </span> "</span>failed to remove display reconfiguration listener callback {error}</span>" </span> ) </span> } </span> } </span> } </span> } </span>} </span></code></pre> When initialized, a call is made to CGDisplayRegisterReconfigurationCallback</code></a> to register the callback which listens for specific CGDisplayChangeSummaryFlags</code> and then emits appropriate events to another component which handles the state changes required.</p> After adding some debug logs at the beginning of the callback, it was clear that the callback was not being triggered at all on macOS Tahoe. Strange.</p> Reproduction in Swift</a></h2> I wanted to make sure this wasn't a "Rust thing" so I put together something in Swift (which I presume has first-class support on this platform) to validate that registered callbacks were being triggered on Sequoia but not Tahoe.</p> import </span>Foundation </span>import </span>CoreGraphics </span>import </span>AppKit </span> </span>func </span>displayReconfigurationCallback( </span> displayID: CGDirectDisplayID, </span> flags: CGDisplayChangeSummaryFlags, </span> userInfo: UnsafeMutableRawPointer? </span>) { </span> </span>let</span> timestamp = ISO8601DateFormatter().string(from: Date()) </span> print(</span>"</span>\n</span>[</span>\(timestamp)</span>] Display reconfiguration event received!"</span>) </span> print(</span>" Display ID: </span>\(displayID)</span>"</span>) </span> print(</span>" Flags raw value: </span>\(flags.rawValue)</span>"</span>) </span> </span> </span>var</span> flagDescriptions: [String] = [] </span> </span> </span>if</span> flags.contains(.beginConfigurationFlag) { </span> flagDescriptions.append(</span>"BeginConfiguration"</span>) </span> } </span> </span>if</span> flags.contains(.movedFlag) { </span> flagDescriptions.append(</span>"Moved"</span>) </span> } </span> </span>if</span> flags.contains(.setMainFlag) { </span> flagDescriptions.append(</span>"SetMain"</span>) </span> } </span> </span>if</span> flags.contains(.setModeFlag) { </span> flagDescriptions.append(</span>"SetMode"</span>) </span> } </span> </span>if</span> flags.contains(.addFlag) { </span> flagDescriptions.append(</span>"Add"</span>) </span> } </span> </span>if</span> flags.contains(.removeFlag) { </span> flagDescriptions.append(</span>"Remove"</span>) </span> } </span> </span>if</span> flags.contains(.enabledFlag) { </span> flagDescriptions.append(</span>"Enabled"</span>) </span> } </span> </span>if</span> flags.contains(.disabledFlag) { </span> flagDescriptions.append(</span>"Disabled"</span>) </span> } </span> </span>if</span> flags.contains(.mirrorFlag) { </span> flagDescriptions.append(</span>"Mirror"</span>) </span> } </span> </span>if</span> flags.contains(.unMirrorFlag) { </span> flagDescriptions.append(</span>"UnMirror"</span>) </span> } </span> </span>if</span> flags.contains(.desktopShapeChangedFlag) { </span> flagDescriptions.append(</span>"DesktopShapeChanged"</span>) </span> } </span> </span> </span>if</span> flagDescriptions.isEmpty { </span> print(</span>" Flags: (none/unknown)"</span>) </span> } </span>else</span> { </span> print(</span>" Flags: </span>\(flagDescriptions.joined(separator: </span>", "</span>)</span>)"</span>) </span> } </span> </span> fflush(stdout) </span>} </span> </span>print(</span>"=== Display Reconfiguration Listener Test ==="</span>) </span>print(</span>"macOS version: </span>\(ProcessInfo.processInfo.operatingSystemVersionString)</span>"</span>) </span>print(</span>""</span>) </span> </span>let</span> app = NSApplication.shared </span>print(</span>"NSApplication.shared initialized: </span>\(app)</span>"</span>) </span> </span>let</span> maxDisplays: UInt32 = </span>16 </span>var</span> displays = [CGDirectDisplayID](repeating: </span>0</span>, count: Int(maxDisplays)) </span>var</span> displayCount: UInt32 = </span>0 </span>CGGetActiveDisplayList(maxDisplays, &displays, &displayCount) </span> </span>print(</span>"</span>\n</span>Currently active displays: </span>\(displayCount)</span>"</span>) </span>for</span> i </span>in </span>0</span>..<Int(displayCount) { </span> </span>let</span> id = displays[i] </span> </span>let</span> bounds = CGDisplayBounds(id) </span> </span>let</span> isMain = CGDisplayIsMain(id) != </span>0 </span> print(</span>" Display </span>\(i)</span>: ID=</span>\(id)</span>, bounds=</span>\(bounds)</span>, isMain=</span>\(isMain)</span>"</span>) </span>} </span> </span>print(</span>"</span>\n</span>Registering CGDisplayReconfigurationCallback..."</span>) </span>let</span> result = CGDisplayRegisterReconfigurationCallback(displayReconfigurationCallback, </span>nil</span>) </span> </span>if</span> result == .success { </span> print(</span>"✓ Callback registered successfully (CGError.success)"</span>) </span>} </span>else</span> { </span> print(</span>"✗ Failed to register callback: </span>\(result.rawValue)</span>"</span>) </span> exit(</span>1</span>) </span>} </span> </span>print(</span>"</span>\n</span>>>> Listening for display changes. Try:"</span>) </span>print(</span>"</span>\n</span>Press Ctrl+C to exit.</span>\n</span>"</span>) </span> </span>RunLoop.current.run() </span></code></pre> Results on macOS Sequoia</a></h2> === Display Reconfiguration Listener Test === </span>macOS version: Version 15.6.1 (Build 24G90) </span> </span>NSApplication.shared initialized: <NSApplication: 0x11080cfa0> </span> </span>Currently active displays: 1 </span> Display 0: ID=3, bounds=(0.0, 0.0, 3840.0, 1620.0), isMain=true </span> </span>Registering CGDisplayReconfigurationCallback... </span>✓ Callback registered successfully (CGError.success) </span> </span>>>> Listening for display changes </span> </span>Press Ctrl+C to exit. </span> </span>[2025-11-25T23:57:23Z] Display reconfiguration event received! </span> Display ID: 3 </span> Flags raw value: 1 </span> Flags: BeginConfiguration </span> </span>[2025-11-25T23:57:23Z] Display reconfiguration event received! </span> Display ID: 3 </span> Flags raw value: 4104 </span> Flags: SetMode, DesktopShapeChanged </span> </span>[2025-11-25T23:57:35Z] Display reconfiguration event received! </span> Display ID: 3 </span> Flags raw value: 1 </span> Flags: BeginConfiguration </span> </span>[2025-11-25T23:57:36Z] Display reconfiguration event received! </span> Display ID: 3 </span> Flags raw value: 4104 </span> Flags: SetMode, DesktopShapeChanged </span></code></pre> Results on macOS Tahoe</a></h2> === Display Reconfiguration Listener Test === </span>macOS version: Version 26.1 (Build 25B78) </span> </span>NSApplication.shared initialized: <NSApplication: 0x10d47f180> </span> </span>Currently active displays: 1 </span> Display 0: ID=2, bounds=(0.0, 0.0, 3840.0, 1620.0), isMain=true </span> </span>Registering CGDisplayReconfigurationCallback... </span>✓ Callback registered successfully (CGError.success) </span> </span>>>> Listening for display changes. Try: </span> </span>Press Ctrl+C to exit. </span></code></pre> What next?</a></h2> The Apple Developer website</a> continues to mark CGDisplayRegisterReconfigurationCallback</code> as supported on macOS 10.3+</code>, and there are no deprecation warnings or notes of additional permissions required to call this API as of Tahoe.</p> It looks like it is also possible to register for various NSNotification</code>s such as didChangeScreenParametersNotification</code></a> which can also be mapped to the behaviors described by CGDisplayChangeSummaryFlags</code></a> with a little trial and error, and this should work for both Sequoia and Tahoe.</p> The imposter syndrome that never really goes away is telling me that I probably missed something somewhere, which is why I'm sharing these details - hopefully someone can shed some light on where I may have gone wrong.</p> But if that's not the case, it would be great if the folks at Apple could just... stop breaking things.</p> If you have any questions or comments you can reach out to me on Bluesky</a> and Mastodon</a>.</p> If you're interested in what I read to analyze problems like this, you can subscribe to my Software Development RSS feed</a>.</p> If you'd like to watch me writing code while explaining what I'm doing, you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel</a>.</p> If you would like early access to komorebi for Mac</a>, you can sponsor me on GitHub</a>.</p> Version Control External Content Referenced in Your Blog lgug2z — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 16:11:23 -0800 It seems like most blogs I read these days are built using a static site generator (SSG).</p> Some of these SSGs come with shortcodes</a> for embedding content from popular websites, others don't, but shortcodes are generally the accepted way of embedding a reference to something someone else said on the internet in one of your posts.</p> I recently wrote</a> about how brittle I find these shortcodes that call out to external websites, and instead wrote One Shortcode to Rule Them All</em> which references things directly from my own personal knowledge base.</p> But we can still do better.</p> michael </p> m.mtlynch.io</a> </p> </div> </a> </div> </div> </div> @LGUG2Z I wish that SSGs would store the data from the remote URL in a file you could keep under version control. e.g., for tweets, I do something like {{<tweet id="12345">}}</code> and on first build, it downloads the profile image, name, tweet content, and timestamp and renders that, and it works forever.</p> I keep finding broken tweets on my Hugo site because Twitter's rate limiting something or the user deleted their tweet. I've resorted to just screenshotting, which feels sloppy.</div> </div> Michael is on to something... Embedding his comment here didn't trigger a HTTP request when this article was built! </div> This is also something that I have thought about before, but writing a middleware layer to cache referenced content from disparate sources to plug in to SSG codebases I'm not really familiar with was never an idea that really pulled me in.</p> I too had previously resorted to screenshotting and embedding images, but that process doesn't feel</em> good, and I don't like adding more and more image files to my git repo. My requirements are also a bit simpler because I don't really care about rendering a user's profile picture from an external site or showing a timestamp.</p> Since I'm now pulling in all my quoted external content from a single data source, I can implement a pre-build step which will allow me to version control all of the external content referenced in my articles. I just need three things:</p> A list of sources</li> </ol> # sources </span> </span>https://m.mtlynch.io/@michael/115538492543985760 </span></code></pre> A file which maps those sources to the data required to render them</li> </ol> // library.json </span>{ </span> "</span>https://m.mtlynch.io/@michael/115538492543985760</span>": { </span> "</span>title</span>": "</span>michael</span>", </span> "</span>source_display</span>": "</span>m.mtlynch.io</span>", </span> "</span>source_url</span>": "</span>https://m.mtlynch.io/@michael/115538492543985760</span>", </span> "</span>content</span>": "</span>@LGUG2Z I wish that SSGs would store the data from the remote URL in a file you could keep under version control. e.g., for tweets, I do something like `{{<tweet id=</span>\"</span>12345</span>\"</span>>}}` and on first build, it downloads the profile image, name, tweet content, and timestamp and renders that, and it works forever.</span>\n\n</span>I keep finding broken tweets on my Hugo site because Twitter's rate limiting something or the user deleted their tweet. I've resorted to just screenshotting, which feels sloppy.</span>" </span> } </span>} </span></code></pre> A shortcode which can look up and render the data using the source URL</li> </ol> <!-- library.html --> </span> </span>{% if url %} </span> {% set library = load_data(path="library.json") %} </span> {% set quote_data = library \| get(key=url) %} </span> {% set use_markdown = markdown \| default(value=false) %} </span> </span> <</span>div </span>class</span>="</span>notado-quote</span>" </span> </span>style</span>="border: </span>1px </span>solid </span>var</span>(--border-color); </span> background-color: </span>var</span>(--bg-primary) </span>!important</span>; </span> position: relative; </span> margin-block: </span>1em</span>; </span> border-radius: </span>5px</span>; </span> padding-left: </span>1rem</span>; </span> padding-right: </span>1rem</span>; </span> padding-top: </span>1.25rem</span>; </span> padding-bottom: </span>1.25rem</span>; </span> {% if caption %} margin-bottom: </span>0em</span>; </span> border-bottom-right-radius: </span>0px </span>!important</span>; </span> border-bottom-left-radius: </span>0px </span>!important</span>; </span> {% endif %}"> </span> </span> <</span>div </span>style</span>="padding-bottom: </span>1.25rem</span>"> </span> <</span>div </span>style</span>="display: flex; gap: </span>0.75rem</span>"> </span> <</span>div </span>style</span>="min-width: </span>0</span>; </span> flex: </span>1 1 0%</span>; </span> display: flex; </span> flex-direction: column; </span> justify-content: center"> </span> <</span>p </span>style</span>="text-overflow: ellipsis; </span> overflow: hidden; </span> white-space: nowrap; </span> margin: </span>0em</span>"> </span> {{ quote_data.title }} </span> </</span>p</span>> </span> <</span>p </span>style</span>="color: </span>var</span>(--text-1); margin: </span>0em</span>"> </span> {% if quote_data.source_url %} </span> <</span>a </span>href</span>="</span>{{ quote_data.source_url }}</span>">{{ quote_data.source_display }}</</span>a</span>> </span> {% else %} </span> {{ quote_data.source_display \| split(pat=" - ") \| first }} </span> {% endif %} </span> </</span>p</span>> </span> </</span>div</span>> </span> </span> <</span>div </span>style</span>="flex-shrink: </span>0</span>; </span> display: flex; </span> flex-direction: row-reverse; </span> align-items: center"> </span> <</span>a </span>class</span>="</span>notado-icon</span>" </span>href</span>="</span>https://notado.app</span>" </span>style</span>="border: none"> </span> <</span>img </span>style</span>="height: </span>3rem</span>; </span> width: </span>3rem</span>" </span> </span>src</span>="</span>https://notado.app/static/notado-icon.png</span>" </span> </span>alt</span>="</span>notado</span>" /> </span> </</span>a</span>> </span> </</span>div</span>> </span> </</span>div</span>> </span> </</span>div</span>> </span> </span> {# djlint:off #} </span> {% if use_markdown %} </span> <</span>div</span>>{{ quote_data.content \| markdown(inline=true) \| safe }}</</span>div</span>> </span> {% else %} </span> <</span>div </span>style</span>="white-space: pre-line">{{ quote_data.content }}</</span>div</span>> </span> {% endif %} </span> {# djlint:on #} </span> </</span>div</span>> </span> </span> {% if caption %} </span> <</span>div </span>class</span>="</span>notado-quote-caption</span>" </span> </span>style</span>="border: </span>1px </span>solid </span>var</span>(--border-color); </span> background-color: </span>var</span>(--bg-2) </span>!important</span>; </span> position: relative; </span> margin-bottom: </span>1em</span>; </span> border-bottom-left-radius: </span>5px</span>; </span> border-bottom-right-radius: </span>5px</span>; </span> padding-left: </span>1rem</span>; </span> padding-right: </span>1rem</span>; </span> padding-top: </span>0.5rem</span>; </span> padding-bottom: </span>0.5rem</span>"> </span> {{ caption }} </span> </</span>div</span>> </span> {% endif %} </span>{% endif %} </span> </span></code></pre> The first two pieces are the really interesting ones.</p> I maintain a CLI tool for my knowledge base</a> which I extended with a command which takes a list of source URLs and updates a library file.</p> ❯ notado-cli quote-gen </span>Adding quote data for https://bsky.app/profile/hmsnofun.bsky.social/post/3lmr6sm5k4k2b to library.json </span>Adding quote data for https://defcon.social/@corbden/113473397794111625 to library.json </span>Adding quote data for https://discourse.nixos.org/t/should-organizations-relating-to-the-defense-sector-being-able-to-sponsor-nixos/41252/6 to library.json </span>Adding quote data for https://lobste.rs/s/rzskjk/i_think_i_m_done_thinking_about_genai_for#c_l9x7we to library.json </span>Adding quote data for https://old.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/udzo11/i_miss_the_days_of_server_browsers_and_community/i6lga1o/ to library.json </span>Adding quote data for https://programming.dev/comment/5789966 to library.json </span>Adding quote data for https://tildes.net/~tech/17xe/permanent_archival_formats_do_they_exist#comment-9feo to library.json </span>Adding quote data for https://twitter.com/mitchellh/status/1744850961309597855?s=12 to library.json </span>Adding quote data for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0J0Dxf5JKc&lc=Ugwsmg7c0JpYiXyADQV4AaABAg to library.json </span></code></pre> Whenever a new source is added and the command is run again, requests will only be made to fill in the library file with new data:</p> ❯ notado-cli quote-gen </span>Skipping https://bsky.app/profile/hmsnofun.bsky.social/post/3lmr6sm5k4k2b as data is already in library.json </span>Skipping https://defcon.social/@corbden/113473397794111625 as data is already in library.json </span>Skipping https://discourse.nixos.org/t/should-organizations-relating-to-the-defense-sector-being-able-to-sponsor-nixos/41252/6 as data is already in library.json </span>Skipping https://lobste.rs/s/rzskjk/i_think_i_m_done_thinking_about_genai_for#c_l9x7we as data is already in library.json </span>Adding quote data for https://m.mtlynch.io/@michael/115538492543985760 to library.json </span>Skipping https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41841873 as data is already in library.json </span>Skipping https://old.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/udzo11/i_miss_the_days_of_server_browsers_and_community/i6lga1o/ as data is already in library.json </span>Skipping https://programming.dev/comment/5789966 as data is already in library.json </span>Skipping https://tildes.net/~tech/17xe/permanent_archival_formats_do_they_exist#comment-9feo as data is already in library.json </span>Skipping https://twitter.com/mitchellh/status/1744850961309597855?s=12 as data is already in library.json </span>Skipping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0J0Dxf5JKc&lc=Ugwsmg7c0JpYiXyADQV4AaABAg as data is already in library.json </span></code></pre> In order to make diffs more pleasant after updates to the library file, I decided to serialize it using a BTreeMap</a> so that the serialized JSON object will be sorted alphabetically by the URL keys.</p> With all these pieces in place, I can call my new shortcode to render this data without making any outgoing HTTP requests at build-time... Just like I did earlier in this article!</p> {{ </span> </span>library</span>( </span> </span>url</span>="</span>https://m.mtlynch.io/@michael/115538492543985760</span>", </span> </span>caption</span>="</span>Michael is on to something... Embedding his comment here didn't trigger a HTTP request when this article was built!</span>", </span> </span>markdown</span>=</span>true </span> ) </span>}‌} </span></code></pre> One of my greatest pleasures in life is building my own tools</a> which work the way that I want them to work.</p> The initial feeling of gratification upon their completion soon fuels even more creativity in me as I slowly uncover new ways to integrate all of the different tools that I have built to target more and more of the papercuts that are just waiting to be addressed in the background of my life.</p> If you have any questions or comments you can reach out to me on Bluesky</a> and Mastodon</a>.</p> If you're interested in what I read to come up with solutions like this, you can subscribe to my Software Development RSS feed</a>.</p> If you'd like to watch me writing code while explaining what I'm doing, you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel</a>.</p> If you would like early access to komorebi for Mac</a>, you can sponsor me on GitHub</a>.</p> Subtleties to Consider When Parsing RSS Feeds in Zola Shortcodes lgug2z — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:23:49 -0800 I have steadily been working on migrating this website to Zola</a>, and documenting parts of the process</a> which I think might be valuable for others who want to do the same in the future.</p> On the previous version</a> of this website, I used a Hugo shortcode to display the last 3 posts from my Mastodon account on the landing page</a>.</p> The shortcode rendered each Mastodon post differently depending on whether or not it had one or more pieces of attached media such as images and videos.</p> (warning: it ain't pretty)</p> {{ if .Get "url" }} </span>{{ $url := .Get "url" }} </span>{{ $limit := .Get "limit" }} </span> </span>{{ with resources.GetRemote $url \| transform.Unmarshal }} </span>{{ range first $limit .channel.item }} </span><</span>div </span>style</span>="padding: </span>10px</span>; background-color: </span>#373641</span>; word-wrap: break-word"> </span> {{ $type := (printf "%T" .content) }} </span> {{ if eq $type "[]interface {}" }} </span> </span> {{ range .content }} </span> {{ if index . "-url" }} </span> {{ $url := index . "-url" }} </span> </span> {{ if hasSuffix $url "mp4" }} </span> <</span>video </span>controls style</span>="width: </span>100% </span>!important</span>; height: auto </span>!important</span>;"> </span> <</span>source </span>src</span>="</span>{{ $url }}</span>"> </span> </</span>video</span>> </span> {{ else }} </span> <</span>img </span>src</span>="</span>{{ $url }}</span>"> </span> {{ end }} </span> {{ end }} </span> {{ end }} </span> </span> {{ else }} </span> </span> {{ if index .content "-url" }} </span> {{ $url := index .content "-url" }} </span> </span> {{ if hasSuffix $url "mp4" }} </span> <</span>video </span>controls style</span>="width: </span>100% </span>!important</span>; height: auto </span>!important</span>;"> </span> <</span>source </span>src</span>="</span>{{ $url }}</span>"> </span> </</span>video</span>> </span> {{ else }} </span> <</span>img </span>src</span>="</span>{{ $url }}</span>"> </span> {{ end }} </span> {{ end }} </span> </span> {{ end }} </span> </span> {{ if .description }} </span> {{ .description \| safeHTML }} </span> {{ end }} </span> <</span>p</span>>(<</span>a </span>href</span>="</span>{{ .link }}</span>">View</</span>a</span>>)</</span>p</span>> </span></</span>div</span>> </span><</span>br </span>/> </span>{{ end }} </span>{{ end }} </span> </span>{{ end }} </span></code></pre> Below is what an Item</code> entry for a post that has attached media looks like. Notably, it contains a media:content</code> with url</code>, type</code>, fileSize</code> and medium</code> attributes.</p> <</span>item</span>> </span> <</span>guid </span>isPermaLink</span>="</span>true</span>">https://hachyderm.io/@LGUG2Z/115543625965938161</</span>guid</span>> </span> <</span>link</span>>https://hachyderm.io/@LGUG2Z/115543625965938161</</span>link</span>> </span> <</span>pubDate</span>>Thu, 13 Nov 2025 17:43:36 +0000</</span>pubDate</span>> </span> <</span>description</span>></span>&</span>lt;</span>p</span>&</span>gt;</span>Wild how often I</span>&</span>amp;</span>#39;m being asked if komorebi is currently on or will in the future be coming to Linux</span>&</span>lt;</span>/p</span>&</span>gt;</span></</span>description</span>> </span> <</span>media:content </span>url</span>="</span>https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/115/543/625/239/633/063/original/b3acc14a489784cb.png</span>" </span>type</span>="</span>image/png</span>" </span>fileSize</span>="</span>40820</span>" </span>medium</span>="</span>image</span>"> </span> <</span>media:rating </span>scheme</span>="</span>urn:simple</span>">nonadult</</span>media:rating</span>> </span> </</span>media:content</span>> </span></</span>item</span>> </span></code></pre> My first pass at translating this shortcode for Zola looked like this.</p> {% </span>if </span>url </span>%} </span> {% </span>set </span>feed_data </span>= </span>load_data</span>(</span>url</span>=</span>url</span>, </span>format</span>="</span>xml</span>") %} </span> {% </span>set </span>items </span>= </span>feed_data</span>.</span>rss</span>.</span>channel</span>.</span>item </span>%} </span> {% </span>set </span>limit </span>= </span>limit </span>\| </span>default</span>(</span>value</span>=3) %} </span> </span> {% </span>for </span>item </span>in </span>items </span>\| </span>slice</span>(</span>end</span>=</span>limit</span>) %} </span> <div style="word-wrap: break-word"> </span> </span> {% </span>if </span>item</span>["</span>media:content</span>"] %} </span> {% </span>set </span>media_content </span>= </span>item</span>["</span>media:content</span>"] %} </span> </span> {% </span>if </span>media_content </span>is </span>iterable </span>and </span>media_content</span>.</span>url </span>is </span>not defined </span>%} </span> {% </span>for </span>media_item </span>in </span>media_content </span>%} </span> {% </span>if </span>media_item</span>.</span>url </span>%} </span> {% </span>set </span>media_url </span>= </span>media_item</span>.</span>url </span>%} </span> </span> {% </span>if </span>media_url </span>\| </span>split</span>(</span>pat</span>="</span>.</span>") \| </span>last </span>== "</span>mp4</span>" %} </span> <video controls style="width: 100% !important; height: auto !important;"> </span> <source src="{{ </span>media_url </span>}}"> </span> </video> </span> {% </span>else </span>%} </span> <img src="{{ </span>media_url </span>}}" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"> </span> {% </span>endif </span>%} </span> {% </span>endif </span>%} </span> {% </span>endfor </span>%} </span> {% </span>else </span>%} </span> {% </span>if </span>media_content</span>.</span>url </span>%} </span> {% </span>set </span>media_url </span>= </span>media_content</span>.</span>url </span>%} </span> </span> {% </span>if </span>media_url </span>\| </span>split</span>(</span>pat</span>="</span>.</span>") \| </span>last </span>== "</span>mp4</span>" %} </span> <video controls style="width: 100% !important; height: auto !important;"> </span> <source src="{{ </span>media_url </span>}}"> </span> </video> </span> {% </span>else </span>%} </span> <img src="{{ </span>media_url </span>}}" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"> </span> {% </span>endif </span>%} </span> {% </span>endif </span>%} </span> {% </span>endif </span>%} </span> {% </span>endif </span>%} </span> </span> {% </span>if </span>item</span>.</span>description </span>%} </span> {{ </span>item</span>.</span>description </span>\| </span>safe </span>}} </span> {% </span>endif </span>%} </span> </span> <p> </span> (<a href="{{ </span>item</span>.</span>link </span>}}">View</a>) </span> </p> </span> </div> </span> <br /> </span> {% </span>endfor </span>%} </span>{% </span>endif </span>%} </span></code></pre> I thought everything was working because at the time, my recent posts did not contain any media attachments. Today however, I noticed that a media attachment I expected to see rendered with a post was not there.</p> After a little manual debugging to see if the {% if item["media:content"] %}</code> clause ever returned true</code> (it didn't) and trying different variations of the media:content</code> key to try and access that data in the RSS Item</code>, I decided to just take a look at how xml</code> data is deserialized and reserialized in Zola.</p>