Polyglow is a static-first Astro 7 theme for multilingual editorial publishing, shipping 11 locale-prefixed routes, Pagefind search, and optional x402 agent payments.
What is Polyglow?
Polyglow is a multilingual Astro 7 blog theme that turns Markdown and MDX content collections into a static site with localized routes, category and tag archives, author pages, RSS, sitemap, and SEO metadata. It uses Astro's Satteri Markdown pipeline and runs on Node.js 24 with pnpm. The theme is published under the zbzailabs GitHub organization and requires no database, private service, analytics account, ad account, or wallet to operate.
Key Features
- Astro-native i18n — 11 locales (en, zh, fr, es, ru, ja, ko, pt, de, id, ar) with locale-prefixed routes, RTL support for Arabic,
hreflang, and multilingual sitemap output. - Static-first architecture — no CMS or database; content is authored as Markdown/MDX files in
src/contentunder per-locale folders for authors, pages, and posts. - Pagefind static search — full-text search compiled at build time, with a separate
/pagefind/<locale>/index bundle per locale so language-specific search fragments can update independently. - Tailwind CSS v4 design system — CSS-first design tokens, light/dark themes, CJK-friendly typography with
text-autospace, and expressive code blocks with light/dark syntax themes. - SEO and structured data — uses
astro-seofor standard metadata, project-owned JSON-LD generation,robots.txt, sitemap, and optionalseoTitle,seoDescription, andcanonicalfrontmatter fields. - Image optimization — Astro image optimization with responsive AVIF/WebP output; remote images are restricted to Unsplash and an optional
PUBLIC_ASSET_BASE_URLhost, withheroImageWidth/heroImageHeightrequired for remote images. - Agent-native discovery — ships
llms.txt,llms-full.txt,openapi.json,auth.md, and.well-knownAPI catalog, OAuth/OIDC discovery metadata, plus an RFC 9727 API catalog. - Optional integrations — Google AdSense and Google Tag Manager (GTM loaded via Partytown), plus x402 payment support through static metadata or a Cloudflare Worker gateway that can return
402 Payment Required.
Who is it for?
- Multilingual bloggers and editorial teams — publish content in up to 11 languages with per-locale archives, tags, and categories, while keeping SEO metadata and hreflang correct.
- Developers building static content sites — use the Astro 7, Markdown/MDX, and Tailwind stack to produce a fast, SEO-oriented blog or news site with no backend.
- AI-agent-focused publishers — use the built-in
llms.txt,openapi.json, and optional x402 integration to expose content to agents and charge bots for access when deployed on Cloudflare Workers.
What can you do with Polyglow?
- Global editorial sites: publish articles in 11 locales, automatically generating locale-prefixed URLs, category and tag archives, author pages, RSS, and sitemaps.
- Developer blogs: write posts in Markdown/MDX with rich frontmatter (title, description, category, tags, pubDate, heroImage) and get automatic image optimization, view transitions, and dark mode.
- Agent-ready content hubs: serve AI agents with static discovery files and API catalog; optionally enforce x402 payments for bot requests using the included Cloudflare Workers adapter.
How does Polyglow work?
Content is organized in src/content by locale and type (authors, pages, posts). Run pnpm install and pnpm dev to start the Astro dev server with live preview; pnpm build runs astro check and builds a static dist directory. Pagefind search indexes and RSS feeds are generated automatically at build time. Optional environment variables (e.g., PUBLIC_GTM_ENABLED, PUBLIC_ADSENSE_ENABLED, PUBLIC_X402_ENABLED) turn on integrations that are disabled by default.
FAQ
Does Polyglow require a database?
No. Polyglow is static-first and works entirely with Markdown/MDX content files and build-time generation. There is no database, private service, or analytics account required to run the theme.
Which Node.js version does Polyglow need?
Polyglow requires Node.js 24 or newer, and the package manager is pnpm. The repository includes an pnpm dev, pnpm build, and pnpm deploy workflow, and uses Astro 7's managed background dev server via pnpm dev:background.
Does Polyglow support right-to-left languages?
Yes. Arabic is among the 11 configured locales and uses RTL layout through locale metadata. The theme also includes CJK-friendly typography with text-autospace support for Chinese content.
How does the x402 payment integration work?
x402 is optional and disabled by default. When enabled via environment variables, Polyglow publishes x402 metadata and, when deployed with the included Cloudflare Workers Static Assets adapter, the /api and /api/v1 probe routes return 402 Payment Required with a payment-required header. On platforms without the runtime adapter, the site remains static and payment cannot be enforced.
