Den is a simple, responsive blog theme for Hugo, ported from the Nest Pelican theme and built with Bootstrap 4.
What is hugo-theme-den?
hugo-theme-den is a minimal Hugo theme created by shaform that turns Markdown content into a static blog site. It is a direct port of the Nest theme from the Pelican static site generator. The theme is installed by cloning into the themes/den folder and ships with an exampleSite directory containing a config.toml to copy into your site root.
Key Features
- Bootstrap 4 styling — Uses Bootstrap 4 for its responsive, mobile-friendly layout, as indicated by the project's topics.
- Responsive design — The theme adapts to screen sizes, making it suitable for reading on phones, tablets, and desktops.
- i18n language support — Translations are collected from the theme's built-in
i18n/directory and merged with any translations in your project's rooti18n/folder, with project translations taking precedence. - Configurable default language — Set the site language using the
defaultContentLanguagesetting, such asenorzh-tw. - Quick installation — Install by running
git clone https://github.com/shaform/hugo-theme-den themes/denin your Hugo site directory. - Easy updates — Update the theme by running
git pullinside thethemes/den/folder. - exampleSite included — A ready-to-use example configuration in the
exampleSitedirectory helps you get started quickly. - Free and open source — Released under the GPLv2 license, so it can be freely used and modified.
Who is it for?
- Hugo bloggers — If you run a Hugo site and want a simple, no-frills theme for publishing posts, Den provides a clean, responsive layout.
- Pelican users migrating to Hugo — Because Den is a port of the Nest Pelican theme, former Pelican users will find a familiar design and structure.
- Developers seeking a starting point — The minimal design and included example configuration make it easy to fork and customize for a personal blog or project site.
What can you do with Den?
- Personal bloggers: publish Markdown-based articles as a static site with a responsive layout and built-in language switching.
- Multilingual sites: set
defaultContentLanguage = "zh-tw"or another language and provide translations in your project'si18n/directory to serve content in multiple languages. - Fast static site deployment: because Hugo outputs static HTML, the resulting site can be hosted on any web server or CDN without a backend.
How does Den work?
To get started, clone the repository into your Hugo theme folder, copy the config.toml from exampleSite to your site root, then run Hugo to generate your static site. You can customize the configuration and add your own content. The theme handles rendering, responsive layout, and language selection automatically.
FAQ
Is Den free to use?
Yes. Den is released under the GPLv2 license, so you can use it freely, modify it, and redistribute it under the same license terms.
How do I install hugo-theme-den?
Run git clone https://github.com/shaform/hugo-theme-den themes/den from your Hugo site's root directory, then copy the config.toml from the theme's exampleSite directory into your site root and edit it to match your site.
How do I update the theme?
Navigate to the theme directory with cd ./themes/den/ and run git pull to fetch the latest changes from the repository.
Does Den support multi-language sites?
Yes. Den reads translations from the theme's built-in i18n/ directory and lets you override or extend them by adding translations to your project's own i18n/ folder. Set your default language with the defaultContentLanguage config option.
What is Den based on?
Den is a port of the Nest theme for the Pelican static site generator. It also acknowledges hugo-theme-jane as an influence in its README.
License
Den is released under the GPLv2 License. You can read the full text in the LICENSE file in the repository.
