Enjoyment Work

Enjoyment Work is a free, open-source Jekyll theme that turns plain Markdown files into a digital garden with Roam Research-style backlinks, wiki-links, and an auto-generated archive.

What is Enjoyment Work?

Enjoyment Work is an academic and research-focused Jekyll theme created by Brennan Brown, built on the Simply Jekyll starter and released under the MIT License. It takes Markdown or HTML notes stored in folders such as _notes, _journals, and _posts and renders them into a static site that supports backlinks, page previews, and a searchable archive. The theme currently relies on Bootstrap 4 for styling and runs on any Jekyll installation with Ruby 2.5.0 or higher.

Key Features

• Roam-style double bracket links — write a note using [[Note Title]] syntax and the theme automatically generates backlinks and context menus showing related posts.
• On-hover page previews — hovering over an internal link shows a preview of the linked page without leaving the current note.
• Context menu on the feed — each entry on the feed displays relevant backlinks and related posts instantly.
• Auto-generated archive, tags, and categories pages — the /archive page lists every item from all collections, while tags and categories pages are built automatically.
• On-site search — uses Simply Jekyll Search to provide fast client-side search over all content.
• Custom collections — separate folders for notes, journals, and standard posts give each content type its own structure.
• Breadcrumbs and author bio — breadcrumb navigation improves SEO, and an author bio block is injected at the end of each post.
• Full Rouge syntax highlighting — ships with the base16.dark theme for highlighted code blocks.
• RSS feed, sitemap, and SEO defaults — all generated automatically by the theme.
• Bootstrap 4 responsive layout — the framework provides the grid, components, and mobile-friendly behavior.

Who should use Enjoyment Work?

Researchers and academics can use it to maintain a public Zettelkasten or knowledge base from plain-text notes. Bloggers and writers can publish long-form posts, shorter notes, and journals in a single static site. Obsidian users can start with wiki-link support and eventually move notes from a local vault to an online blog. Jekyll newcomers can benefit from the ready-made configuration file and example posts that are easy to replace.

What can you do with Enjoyment Work?

• Create a personal digital garden — collect daily thoughts and curated ideas in the _notes collection and connect them with double bracket links.
• Publish a journal — use the _journals collection for periodic entries without mixing them into the blog feed options.
• Run a blog — the standard _posts collection works with author bios, syntax highlighting, and SEO features.
• Self-host a knowledge base — deploy to Netlify with the one-click button or push to any static hosting service that supports Jekyll.

Pros and cons

Pros: the theme is free under the MIT license, requires no database, and creates backlinks automatically. Cons, as the author acknowledges: Bootstrap 4 and the large style.css can slow the site down, and the stylesheet has not yet been fully converted to SASS. Obsidian compatibility is also incomplete, with only wiki-link syntax working so far.

Pricing

Enjoyment Work is free and open source under the MIT License, so you can use it for any project without paying or giving attribution.

FAQ

Is Enjoyment Work free to use?

Yes. The theme is distributed under the MIT License, which allows personal and commercial use without attribution.

What are the prerequisites for installing Enjoyment Work?

You need Ruby 2.5.0 or higher, RubyGems, GCC and Make, plus the jekyll and bundler gems. After cloning the repository, run bundle install and then bundle exec jekyll serve to view the site at localhost:4000.

Does Enjoyment Work support Obsidian?

Partial support is available. Wiki-style double bracket links work, which aligns with Obsidian's format. The roadmap includes image and file embeds and other edge cases so a full Obsidian vault can be published directly from the _notes directory.

Can I deploy Enjoyment Work to Netlify?

Yes. The repository includes a Deploy to Netlify button that sets up a new site with one click, and a GitHub Actions workflow runs HTMLProofer checks on every push or pull request.