Left

Left is a clean, whitespace-heavy Jekyll blog theme extracted from Zach Holman's personal site that turns a GitHub Pages repository into a minimal personal blog.

What is Left?

Left is a Jekyll layout for personal blogs, originally extracted from zachholman.com, designed to be an easy-to-modify starting point. It takes Markdown blog posts and configuration from _config.yml and renders them into a static HTML site with a clean, whitespace-focused design. The template runs on Jekyll and is optimized for deployment to GitHub Pages, where it uses GitHub repository metadata for your avatar and profile links.

Key Features

• Jekyll-based static generation — content is written in Markdown and built into static HTML; no database or server-side processing.
• Whitespace-happy design — a minimal layout focused on readability, extracted from years of blogging at Zach Holman's site.
• GitHub Pages deployment — works with the gh-pages branch and repository metadata to auto-fill your GitHub URL and avatar.
• Centralized configuration — site name, Twitter username, and other settings live in _config.yml.
• Custom domain ready — edit the CNAME file to point the site at your own domain.
• Brandable icons — replace favicon.ico and apple-touch-icon.png with your own graphics.
• MIT licensed — free to use commercially without attribution or disclaimers.

Who is it for?

• Personal bloggers — set up a clean, minimal blog on GitHub Pages without designing from scratch.
• Jekyll developers — use Left as a base to hack on; it's structured to be easy to modify.
• Fans of Holman's design — reuse the exact layout that powered zachholman.com for years.

What can you do with Left?

• Quick-start a blog — fork the repository, run bundle install, then start a local server with script/server at http://localhost:4000.
• Publish to GitHub Pages — rename your repo to username.github.com, push the gh-pages branch, and your site goes live at http://username.github.io.
• Match your brand — change the CNAME, favicon, and apple-touch-icon files to personalize the site.

How does Left work?

Left follows the standard Jekyll workflow: install dependencies with Bundler, start the local server with script/server, and write posts in Markdown. When you push the gh-pages branch to GitHub, GitHub Pages builds and serves the site automatically using the repository's metadata.

FAQ

Is Left free?

Yes, Left is open-source software released under the MIT license, so you can use, modify, and distribute it freely.

Does Left work with custom domains?

Yes, you can use a custom domain by putting the domain name on the first line of the CNAME file in the repository.

What tools do I need to run Left locally?

You need Ruby, Bundler, and Jekyll. The repository includes a Gemfile, so bundle install handles the dependencies.

Where can I see a live demo?

The live demo is hosted at zachholman.com/left.