DPSG is a responsive, content-focused Hugo theme that recreates the official WordPress theme of the DPSG German scout association and is forked from the Mainroad Hugo theme.
What is the DPSG Hugo Theme?
The DPSG Hugo theme is a static-site theme for Hugo that produces clean, content-first websites optimized for scout groups and small organizations. It takes standard Hugo content (posts, pages, front matter) and renders a fully responsive site with support for home, list, single, and photo sections. The theme is maintained by the pfadfinder-konstanz GitHub organization, and its reference implementation is the live website of DPSG Stamm Bruder Klaus Konstanz, whose source is public. The theme is released under the GPLv2 license.
Key Features
The theme bundles several self-contained features that are controlled through config.toml and front matter.
- Internal SEO templates — the theme enables Open Graph, Schema.org, and Twitter Cards directly from Hugo's built-in templates.
- Self-hosted assets — no third-party libraries are loaded; fonts, JavaScript, and icons are hosted locally, reducing external dependencies and improving privacy.
- Flexible sidebar — the sidebar can be placed left, right, or disabled, with positions configured independently for home, list, and single pages, and overridden per page in front matter.
- Widget system — sidebar widgets include search (or an alternative DuckDuckGo search), recent articles, recent photos, categories, tag list, social links, and language switcher, all ordered and toggled via config.toml.
- Menu support — the responsive main menu plus secondary side and footer menus are supported by adding a menu parameter to a page's front matter; nested menu items are not supported.
- Custom social icons — the social widget supports built-in platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Telegram, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, email) and custom links with one-color SVG icons placed in layouts/partials.
- Per-page options — front matter can turn on the author box, pager navigation, table of contents, sidebar, widgets, and custom headers or body scripts for individual pages.
- Theme styling — the main highlight color can be overridden with a CSS variable in config.toml, and custom CSS, JavaScript, and footer text are supported.
Who is the DPSG Hugo Theme for?
The DPSG Hugo Theme suits users who need a clean, content-first website on a static generator.
- German scout groups (DPSG Stämme) — they can build a site that matches the official association's look while adding their local content, photo galleries, and event pages.
- Hugo bloggers — the theme includes an author box, post metadata (author, date, categories, translations), and pager navigation, making it a solid base for a clean personal blog.
- Mainroad users — since DPSG is a fork of Mainroad, those familiar with Mainroad's options will find similar configuration keys and layout logic.
What can you do with the DPSG Hugo Theme?
With its combination of sidebar widgets, photo sections, and per-page overrides, the theme supports a variety of site layouts.
- Scout leaders: publish news and announcements categorized by tag so members can filter updates easily.
- Photo teams: configure a photos section and the recent-photos widget to showcase outing pictures on the homepage.
- Site maintainers: set per-page sidebar positions and widgets, embed custom header/body HTML via front matter, and include tracking partials through the customPartial setting.
How does the DPSG Hugo Theme work?
Install the theme by cloning the repository into the themes directory of a Hugo site or adding it as a git submodule, then set theme = "hugo-dpsg" in config.toml. The theme reads configuration parameters for layout and widgets, and front matter variables on each page for overrides. Contributors can report issues or submit pull requests on the GitHub issue tracker.
