Localcraft

Localcraft is an open-source Hugo theme by Maciej Kosiarski that creates a complete static business website for small local service businesses — hair salons, beauty parlors, massage studios, and pet groomers — from YAML data files.

What is Localcraft?

Localcraft is a static-site theme for Hugo 0.123.0 and later, designed to render the online presence of a local service business from configuration files rather than from a CMS dashboard. Input comes from three places: a hugo.yaml with business data (name, address, phone, coordinates, business type), YAML data files in data/en/ for services, testimonials, team, FAQ, pricing and opening hours, and front matter on the homepage that arranges sections. Output is a set of static pages: homepage, about, pricing, gallery, FAQ, location, and blog. The theme is MIT-licensed, made by Maciej Kosiarski, and the GitHub README cites donpiesko.pl, a grooming salon in Lublin, as a site using the theme.

What makes Localcraft stand out?

• YAML-driven content management — Services, testimonials, team, FAQ, pricing, and opening hours are edited as YAML data files in the Hugo project, so the site needs no separate CMS.
• Image pipeline automation — Images stored in assets/images/ are converted to WebP and resized to 400, 800, 1200, and 1600 pixel variants with srcset, plus lazy loading by default; a 1920×1200 JPEG example in the README drops from 2.5 MB to 145 KB as a 1600px WebP.
• Schema.org business types — Supports HairSalon, BeautySalon, DaySpa, PetGroomer, and HealthAndBeautyBusiness so search engines can interpret the local business details.
• GDPR-friendly Google Tag Manager — GTM is injected only after the visitor accepts the cookie consent banner, with consent stored for 365 days and consent_update dataLayer events.
• Leaflet.js location map — The dedicated location page renders an interactive Leaflet map from the lat and lng values set in site params.
• Built-in before/after gallery — Gallery items display image pairs with a comparison slider and lightbox, useful for showing transformations.
• Multi-language support — The theme ships English and Polish translation files and supports separate content directories and data files per language.
• Overridable design tokens — Default cream, green, terra, and text colors are set as CSS variables that can be overwritten in params.colors, and a project-level assets/css/custom.css is bundled and loaded last.

Who should use Localcraft?

• Hair salons and beauty studios — Present services with price lists, introduce team members with photos, display client quotes, and lead visitors to phone or contact page for booking.
• Pet groomers and day spas — advertise pet-specific and relaxation services, include before/after gallery transformations, open-hours tables, and map directions with Leaflet.
• Hugo developers and freelancers — use as a starting base for many small-business client sites due to configurable colors, custom CSS slot, per-language YAML data, and install via git submodule, Hugo modules, or ZIP download.

What can you do with Localcraft?

• Publish a service price list — Fill data/en/pricing.yaml with categories and items, then the pricing page shows a filterable price list; prices are plain strings, so owners control formatting.
• Create a before/after transformation gallery — Add gallery items with image_before and image_after values in front matter; the theme renders a grid with a comparison slider.
• Optimize hero and blog images automatically — Upload source JPG or PNG files to assets/images/; on every build Hugo converts them to responsive WebP images used through srcset in templates.
• Serve an English and Polish audience — Use language-specific content directories and data files; the announcement banner can display different text for each language.

How do you set up Localcraft?

Localcraft can be installed in one of three documented ways: git submodule add from maciejkosiarski/localcraft to themes/localcraft, as a Hugo module imported in hugo.yaml, or by ZIP download. Site configuration lives in hugo.yaml with a theme declaration, languages block, and params such as logo name, business phone/address/lat/lng, and business type for schema.org; homepage layout is defined as a sections array in content/_index.md. The README also documents optional settings for colors, custom CSS, a floating support button, an announcement banner with date range, and a Google Tag Manager ID with cookie consent.

FAQ

Does Localcraft support multiple languages?

Yes. The theme ships English and Polish i18n files and supports language-specific content directories and data files, e.g., data/en/ and data/pl/. Each language can show its own announcement banner text, and settings like business name are per language.

What Hugo version does Localcraft require?

Hugo 0.123.0 or higher is required, and the extended version is recommended because it includes the full image-processing features the theme uses for WebP generation.

Does Localcraft optimize images automatically?

Only images placed in assets/images/ are processed through Hugo's pipeline. They are converted to WebP, resized to four widths, and served via responsive srcset unless disabled. Files in static/images/ such as logos or favicons are intentionally left unprocessed.

Is Localcraft free?

Yes. The theme is released under the MIT License, which permits free use and modification. Its GitHub repository includes a live demo and a showcase site, donpiesko.pl, that runs on the theme.