A technical publication should start with operational discipline. Fancy features can come later. Reliability cannot.
Why Astro
Astro gives a clean split between presentation and content. That model scales well for a journal:
- writing in Markdown
- strongly typed frontmatter
- static output that is fast and predictable
- straightforward layout customization
Why GitHub Pages
For this project, deployment had to be nearly invisible. GitHub Pages fits that requirement:
- source and deployment live in one repository
- GitHub Actions publishes on each push to main
- operating cost is effectively zero
- maintenance burden stays low
Minimum architecture, maximum longevity
The initial version only needed four capabilities:
- A homepage with clear editorial positioning.
- A journal index for chronological browsing.
- Individual article pages with metadata and readability.
- A zero-friction deployment pipeline.
Everything else can evolve after real usage signals emerge.