Add Content

Add Content to Gas Town Hall

Add blog posts (from Medium) and YouTube videos to the site by updating site.config.json and downloading images.

Workflow

1. Identify New Content

Compare files in docs-fodder/steve-blog-posts/*.md, docs-fodder/sellsbrothers-posts/*.md, and docs-fodder/youtube/*.md against existing entries in site.config.json blogPosts array. New files not yet in the config need to be added.

2. Extract Metadata from Each New File

Medium blog posts (docs-fodder/steve-blog-posts/*.md):

Prefer clean files generated with the user-scope medium-to-markdown skill from the shared skill tree:

python ~/.claude/skills/medium-to-markdown/scripts/medium_to_markdown.py \
  "https://steve-yegge.medium.com/post-slug-id" \
  --frontmatter \
  -o "docs-fodder/steve-blog-posts/Post Title.md"

For medium-to-markdown --frontmatter files:

• Title: YAML title
• Date: YAML date (YYYY-MM-DD), converted to Mon D, YYYY
• URL: YAML source
• Description: First substantive paragraph after the frontmatter, skipping headings, images, and blank lines
• Lead image URL: First ![...](<url>) image in the post body

For legacy manual Medium exports:

• Title: First # heading or underlined heading at the top of the file
• Date: Look for absolute date like Feb 11, 2026 or relative like 3 days ago. If relative or "Just now", search the web: steve yegge "<title>" medium date to get the month
• URL: Extract from the redirect= parameter in the first Medium signin link, e.g. redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fsteve-yegge.medium.com%2Fthe-ai-vampire-eda6e4f07163 → https://steve-yegge.medium.com/the-ai-vampire-eda6e4f07163
• Description: First substantive paragraph after the metadata/image lines (~1-2 sentences)
• Lead image URL: First article image in the post body. Skip the author avatar if present.

Sells Brothers blog posts (docs-fodder/sellsbrothers-posts/*.md):

Generate captures from the RSS feed with the user-scope sellsbrothers-to-markdown skill:

python ~/.claude/skills/sellsbrothers-to-markdown/scripts/sellsbrothers_to_markdown.py \
  "https://sellsbrothers.com/post-slug" \
  --frontmatter \
  -o "docs-fodder/sellsbrothers-posts/Post Title.md"

• Title: YAML title
• Date: YAML date (YYYY-MM-DD), converted to Mon D, YYYY
• URL: YAML source
• Description: First substantive paragraph after the frontmatter, skipping headings, images, and blank lines
• Lead image URL: First ![...](<url>) image in the post body

YouTube videos (docs-fodder/youtube/*.md):

• Title: Filename without .md extension
• Date: First line, e.g. Premiered Feb 18, 2026
• URL: User must provide the YouTube URL (not in the markdown)
• Description: Second line of the file (the description text)
• Thumbnail: https://img.youtube.com/vi/{VIDEO_ID}/mqdefault.jpg where VIDEO_ID is extracted from the URL (use mqdefault.jpg to avoid letterboxing)

3. Update site.config.json

Add new entries to the blogPosts array. Keep newest first date order.

Each entry:

{
  "title": "The Title",
  "url": "https://...",
  "description": "One to two sentence description.",
  "date": "Mon DD",
  "image": "/images/blog/kebab-case-name.jpg"
}

• date format: Abbreviated month + day + year. Examples: Jan 1, 2026, Feb 11, 2026, Mar 4, 2026
• image path: /images/blog/ + kebab-case title + .jpg

4. Download Images

File naming

Use kebab-case title + .jpg extension, matching the image path in site.config.json:

• "The AI Vampire" → the-ai-vampire.jpg
• "Gas Town Refinery #1" → gas-town-refinery-1.jpg

Save to BOTH locations

Images must exist in two places:

1. src/static/images/blog/ — source of truth, copied to publicDir during build
2. tmp/public/images/blog/ — Astro's publicDir (astro.config.mjs sets publicDir: './tmp/public'), served directly by the dev server

If you only save to src/static/, images will 404 on the dev server until a full build runs. Always copy to both.

Medium and Sells Brothers images

Extract the lead image URL from the markdown. Clean medium-to-markdown and sellsbrothers-to-markdown files use the first ![...](<url>) in the body; legacy manual exports may require skipping the author avatar first. Medium image URLs may be from miro.medium.com or cdn-images-1.medium.com; Sells Brothers image URLs are usually from cdn.blot.im:

curl -sL -o src/static/images/blog/kebab-name.jpg "<miro_url>"
cp src/static/images/blog/kebab-name.jpg tmp/public/images/blog/

These download as webp files despite the .jpg extension. This is normal and matches existing images. Medium CDN images are typically wide aspect ratio without letterboxing — they work well with object-fit: cover.

YouTube thumbnails

Use mqdefault.jpg (not hqdefault.jpg or sddefault.jpg — those have black letterbox bars baked into the image):

curl -sL -o src/static/images/blog/kebab-name.jpg "https://img.youtube.com/vi/{VIDEO_ID}/mqdefault.jpg"
cp src/static/images/blog/kebab-name.jpg tmp/public/images/blog/

• mqdefault.jpg = 320x180 (16:9, minimal/no letterboxing)
• hqdefault.jpg = 480x360 (4:3, thick black bars top/bottom) — avoid
• sddefault.jpg = 640x480 (4:3, thick black bars top/bottom) — avoid

YouTube videos may also have a link: field on the last line of their markdown file.

How images display

Images render in src/pages/index.astro in the Town Crier section as:

• 112x112px square (desktop) or 80x80px (mobile, ≤768px)
• object-fit: cover — image fills the square, cropping overflow while maintaining aspect ratio (no black bars, no distortion)
• Wrapped in a blog-image-frame div with a brass/bronze gradient border (4px padding)
• The image field in site.config.json is used directly as the <img src> attribute

Image requirements: Any aspect ratio works since object-fit: cover crops to fill the square. Avoid images with letterboxing/black bars baked in — those bars become visible content that won't be cropped away. Landscape-oriented images work best.

5. Verify

Run npm run dev and check localhost:4321 to confirm the Town Crier section renders the new entries with images loading correctly and filling their frames without black bars.