BlogGPT

BlogGPT is an Astro blog theme that recreates ChatGPT's focused reading interface, with Markdown/MDX content, Pagefind full-text search, and a built-in English and Simplified Chinese UI.

What is BlogGPT?

BlogGPT is an open-source blog theme for the Astro framework, maintained by the GitHub user Raincarnator in the repository astro-theme-BlogGPT. It takes Markdown and MDX files — posts, standalone pages, categories and tags — and builds a static site with a collapsible sidebar, resizable navigation panel, and client-side page transitions. Output is plain static HTML deployable to any host, with one-click deploy buttons provided for Vercel and Netlify. A separate BlogGPT Starter Template repository ships a sample post, an About page and sensible defaults so a new project can be running in minutes.

Key Features

• ChatGPT-style reading layout — responsive theme with a resizable sidebar, light/dark/system color modes, a collapsible table of contents and keyboard shortcuts for navigation.
• Markdown and MDX content pipeline — posts, standalone pages, categories and tags, plus custom slugs and folder-based content bundles that keep local attachments beside their article.
• Expressive Code and rich embeds — syntax highlighting via Expressive Code, KaTeX math formulas, Mermaid diagrams, callout blocks and an image lightbox.
• Pagefind instant search — static full-text search scoped to article, title/description, body or whole site, with keyword highlighting and slash-prefixed commands.
• Content discovery pages — pinned and featured posts, chronological archives, pagination with page jump, category cover styles, a tag cloud and a grouped blogroll for friend links.
• i18n routing — English and Simplified Chinese UI text, localized URL routing and filename-based translation linking between language versions of a post.
• Writing statistics and sharing — estimated reading time, word count, site-wide writing statistics with an activity heatmap, customizable share snippets and dynamically generated Open Graph cover images.
• SEO and extension hooks — Open Graph tags, Twitter Cards, RSS feeds and a sitemap, with three override files (custom head HTML, custom stylesheet, custom client script) for extending the theme.

Who is it for?

• Technical writers and developers who want a documentation-like blog with full-text search and math/diagram support without configuring a search backend.
• Bilingual bloggers publishing in English and Simplified Chinese, who need localized routes and translation linking between article versions.
• Astro users starting a new site who want a static theme with archives, tags, RSS and social cards already wired up.

What can you do with BlogGPT?

• Publish a personal blog: write posts in Markdown or MDX, assign categories and tags, and get archives, a tag cloud and pinned posts generated from the content folders.
• Ship a bilingual site: maintain parallel English and Simplified Chinese versions linked by filename, with UI strings customizable in the theme config.
• Show writing activity: display a site-wide statistics page with a publishing heatmap and an article-length chart.
• Deploy in one click: clone the starter template to Vercel or Netlify directly from the README buttons, or generate a repository from the GitHub template and connect hosting later.

How does BlogGPT work?

You scaffold a project from the starter template, install dependencies and run the local dev server, as described in the Getting Started guide on the project documentation site. Posts are authored as Markdown or MDX inside content folders, and Pagefind indexes the built output at build time; the theme is customized through the documentation workspace and the extension hook files.

FAQ

Is BlogGPT free?

Yes. The theme code is released under Apache-2.0, and the documentation workspace is licensed under MIT. Third-party notices covering bundled assets and dependencies are included in the repository, so check them before redistributing bundled components.

Which search engine does BlogGPT use?

BlogGPT uses Pagefind, a static full-text search library that indexes the generated site at build time. Search can be scoped to article text, title and description, body, or the whole site, and results highlight matched keywords.

Does BlogGPT support languages other than English and Simplified Chinese?

Built-in UI translations cover English and Simplified Chinese, along with localized URL routing and filename-based translation linking. Interface strings are customizable, but no other language packs are listed on the page.

Can I deploy BlogGPT to Vercel or Netlify?

Yes. The README provides deploy buttons for both Vercel and Netlify that point at the BlogGPT Starter Template repository, and you can alternatively generate a repository from the GitHub template and connect a host afterwards.