Hugo Clinic Notes

Hugo Clinic Notes is a Hugo theme for generating, organising, and viewing patient notes written in markdown, built for clinics such as physiotherapy practices. It runs on the Hugo static site generator and converts markdown files in the content/all folder into a browsable web interface where notes are listed by date, appointment time, and patient name.

What is Hugo Clinic Notes?

Hugo Clinic Notes is a Hugo theme that produces a static website of patient notes from markdown files. It takes plain markdown notes — each one named according to a strict convention — and automatically extracts patient name, date, appointment time, and a description from the filename to generate the metadata shown on the site. The output is a self-contained set of HTML pages that can be viewed locally via hugo server or built and uploaded anywhere, though the theme's author recommends running it as a local web app to protect patient privacy. The theme is maintained by jmablog on GitHub.

Key Features

• Date and time organisation — Notes are automatically grouped and sorted by their appointment date and time, extracted from the filename.
• Alphabetical patient list — Every patient who has at least one note appears in a single alphabetical index, making it easy to find a patient’s history.
• Quick navigation shortcuts — The homepage offers one-click links to the most recent note and the most recently modified note.
• Metadata generation from filenames — Hugo fills in the patient, date, appointment time, and description fields automatically based on the filename pattern, so no manual front-matter entry is needed for these fields.
• Three note types — Assessment, follow-up, and other notes. The "other" type creates a folder holding an index.md note plus any linked media such as images, PDFs, or scans.
• Print-friendly output — Browsers that support @media print will hide the top and bottom menus when a note is printed or saved as PDF.
• Built with TailwindCSS — The theme’s CSS is generated with Tailwind and purged to keep the file size small; users can override the stylesheet by installing Tailwind in their project.
• Separate documents section — Any markdown files placed in content/docs are rendered as standalone pages and linked from a "Documents" menu item.

Who is it for?

• Physiotherapy and similar clinics — Clinicians can maintain daily appointment notes for each patient without needing a proprietary EHR system.
• Small practices that value simplicity — The whole system relies on markdown files and the command line, so it fits teams comfortable with those tools.
• Clinicians who want local control of patient data — Running hugo server on a local machine keeps sensitive records off the public internet.
• Hugo users who want a ready-made note theme — Developers can skip building their own layouts and use this theme’s archetypes and templates.

What can you do with Hugo Clinic Notes?

• Create initial assessments — Run hugo new --kind assessment all/john-smith/2020-01-01-10-00-john-smith-assessment.md to start a first-session note with patient name and time pre-filled.
• Record follow-ups — Use the follow-up kind for subsequent sessions; the filename format automatically links the note to the correct patient and date.
• Attach imaging and documents — The other note type creates a folder where you can drop x-rays, scans, PDFs, or photos and link to them from the note text.
• Publish shared patient documents — Place a terms-and-conditions file or other reference material in content/docs so it appears in the site’s Documents section.

How does Hugo Clinic Notes work?

First, install Hugo (via Homebrew on macOS or Chocolatey on Windows), create a new Hugo site, add this theme as a submodule, and copy the example config.toml. To add a note, use hugo new --kind with the appropriate note type and a filename in the format all/patient-name/yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm-patient-name-note-type.md. Then run hugo server -F to preview the site, including future-dated notes. The theme’s archetypes generate the note template and automatically fill in the metadata from the filename.

FAQ

How do I add a new patient?

There is no separate patient-creation step. A patient is added the first time you create a note for them: use the hugo new --kind command and include the patient’s name in the path, for example all/john-smith/. Hugo creates the patient folder and the note file inside it.

What is the filename format for notes?

The required format is all/patient-name/yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm-patient-name-note-type.md. For an "other" note, omit the .md and the note type suffix, and use underscores instead of dashes for the description (e.g., 2020-01-03-14-00-john-smith-description_of_contents), because Hugo creates a folder rather than a file.

Can I include images and PDFs in a note?

Yes. Use the "other" note type, which creates a folder with an index.md file. Place any media files (images, PDFs, scans) directly in that folder and link to them from the markdown. The theme’s example shows this is intended for scans, x-rays, and notes from other professionals.

Can I print a note or save it as a PDF?

Yes, if your browser supports the @media print CSS query. When you print a note or choose "Save as PDF" from the print dialogue, the top and bottom menus are removed and only the document text is printed.

How do I customise the note templates?

Copy the archetype files from themes/hugo-clinic-notes/archetypes into your project’s archetypes folder and edit them there. Your local copies will override the theme’s versions. Do not change the front matter metadata between the --- fences, or the site may stop working.