Cole is a minimal Hugo theme for building simple blogs and personal websites, distributed under the MIT license with installation via git submodule or clone.
What is Cole?
Cole is a simple Hugo theme created by sfengyuan, designed as a lightweight starting point for Hugo-powered sites. It takes standard Hugo content (Markdown files) and renders a static website; the theme itself is a set of templates and styles that Hugo applies to your content. The repository is hosted on GitHub under the MIT license and includes a live demo at sfengyuan.github.io.
Key Features
- Hugo-based — works with the Hugo static site generator; you place Markdown content in a Hugo site and this theme controls the layout.
- Simple design — the theme's own description calls it "simple," making it suitable for minimal blogs or personal pages rather than feature-heavy sites.
- Two installation methods — add it as a git submodule (recommended for tracking) or clone the repository directly into your Hugo themes folder.
- MIT license — free to use, modify, and distribute, including for commercial projects.
- Live demo — a working example of the theme is available at sfengyuan.github.io, letting you see the default styling before installing.
- Screenshot included — the repository README shows a preview screenshot of the theme's appearance.
Who is it for?
- Hugo users — anyone already using Hugo who needs a clean, minimal theme to start a blog or personal site without extra complexity.
- Developers learning Hugo — a small, readable theme that's easy to inspect and modify to understand how Hugo templates work.
- Personal site owners — individuals who want a no-frills website with a fast static output and no JavaScript build step.
What can you do with Cole?
- Bloggers: create a straightforward blog by adding Markdown posts to your Hugo content folder; the theme renders them as a simple site.
- Personal homepage: use Cole to publish a minimal resume or about page with a single page of content.
- Theme learners: study a compact Hugo theme to see how the layout, templates, and configuration files fit together.
How does Cole work?
Installation is straightforward. Inside your Hugo site's directory, navigate to the themes folder and either run git submodule add https://github.com/sfengyuan/hugo-theme-cole to track it as a submodule, or run git clone https://github.com/sfengyuan/hugo-theme-cole for a direct copy. Then set the theme name in your Hugo config to activate it. The demo link in the README shows what the default look is.
Pros and cons
- Pros: open source under MIT, easy installation via git, minimal footprint for fast static sites.
- Cons: "simple" means limited built-in functionality compared to larger Hugo themes; no documentation beyond the README is provided.
Pricing
Cole is free and open source under the MIT license.
FAQ
Is Cole free?
Yes. The theme is released under the MIT license, so you can use, modify, and distribute it without cost, including in commercial projects.
How do I install Cole?
Inside your Hugo site, cd themes then either git submodule add https://github.com/sfengyuan/hugo-theme-cole or git clone https://github.com/sfengyuan/hugo-theme-cole. After that, set theme = "hugo-theme-cole" in your Hugo configuration file.
Does Cole require a specific Hugo version?
The README does not state a minimum Hugo version requirement. As a simple theme, it likely works with recent Hugo releases, but you should test it with your setup.
