Icarus-Lite

Icarus-Lite is a single-column Hugo theme that brings the card-based design of the popular Hexo theme Icarus to Hugo, generating static blog pages with all CSS and JavaScript inlined into a single HTML file.

What is Icarus-Lite?

Icarus-Lite is an open-source Hugo theme for building single-column blogs in the card style. It takes Hugo content files—Markdown with YAML or TOML front matter—as input and outputs static HTML pages where each post or note is rendered as a card. The theme is developed by airinghost, hosted on GitHub as hugo-theme-icarus-lite, and demonstrated live at https://icarus-lite.zhangjet.com/.

Key Features

• Card style — Every post and note appears as a card, following the visual language of the original Hexo theme Icarus.
• Single HTML output — All Style Sheet and JavaScript are fully inline or internal, eliminating external file requests for CSS and JS.
• Front matter controls — Set hidden: true to exclude a post from the homepage, date_hidden: true to remove the date, title_hidden: true to remove the title, and no_summary: true to show full content instead of a generated preview.
• Read-more buttons — Enable read_more: true to add a button at the bottom-left of article cards; the default button text comes from the Params section of config.yaml and can be overridden per post with read_more_txt.
• External link buttons — Use link_go and link_txt in front matter to add a button that opens an external URL in a new tab, or set link_same: true to open it in the current tab.
• Summary previews — Insert the standard Hugo more-comment marker in body text to define where the card preview ends; if omitted, the full post content shows on the card unless no_summary is set.
• Hugo-native structure — Uses Hugo's list and index templates for homepage pagination, with code contributions from the Stack, futu, and GoHugo Sites Theme projects.

Who is it for?

• Personal bloggers who want a clean, card-based single-column layout without external CSS/JS dependencies.
• Developers migrating from Hexo who admire the Icarus card aesthetic and want a similar look on Hugo.
• Performance-focused site owners who prefer pages that render with minimal external requests, as the theme inlines all assets.

What can you do with it?

• Hugo users: Build a blog where each post is a card, with per-post control of date, title, summary, and read-more buttons through front matter.
• Content curators: Use hidden: true to keep draft or supplementary pages off the homepage while serving them from direct links.
• Link-driven sites: Use link_go and link_txt to add call-to-action buttons that point to external resources, project pages, or downloads.

How does Icarus-Lite work?

Install the theme in a Hugo site, copy the exampleSite configuration for global parameters, then write Markdown posts with front matter variables to control card behavior. In the body text, add the Hugo summary marker to set where the preview ends; the full post is rendered on its own page.

Alternatives

• Stack — another card-style Hugo theme, acknowledged in the README.
• PaperMod — a popular Hugo theme for blogs, also acknowledged in the README.

FAQ

Is Icarus-Lite free?

Yes, the theme is open source and available on GitHub. The repository lists no pricing or paid tiers.

How do I hide a post from the homepage?

Set hidden: true in the post's front matter. This removes the post from the index/homepage view while keeping it accessible via its direct URL.

How do I add a read-more button to my cards?

Set read_more: true in the post's front matter. The button's text defaults to the value in the Params section of config.yaml and can be overridden per post with read_more_txt.

Does the theme bundle all assets into one HTML file?

Yes, one of its stated features is that CSS and JavaScript are fully inline or internal, producing a single HTML file per page.