Project Gaia

Project Gaia is a Jekyll-based blog theme that turns Markdown posts into a styled static website with a sidebar, table of contents, search, lightbox, and reading progress bar. It runs on GitHub Pages via Jekyll, is developed by szhielelp, and uses Bootstrap 4-Alpha and jQuery 3. Version 2.0 was released as beta on Oct 18th 2019.

What is Project Gaia?

Project Gaia is a Jekyll blog theme with a sidebar layout, table of contents, search, lightbox, and reading progress bar, built on Bootstrap 4 and jQuery 3. It takes Markdown posts as input and generates a static HTML site suitable for GitHub Pages. The theme is created by szhielelp and is open source under the MIT license.

Key Features

• Table of contents — automatically generated TOC for posts, with a dedicated TOC plugin updated in March 2017.
• Search box — added in December 2017, lets visitors search posts on the site.
• Lightbox — integrated in December 2017 for viewing images in an overlay.
• Reading progress bar — added in May 2017 for post pages, showing reading progress.
• Sidebar — updated to a smooth style in March 2018.
• Bootstrap 4-Alpha and jQuery 3 — rebuilt in February 2017 with these frameworks.
• Font styling — global font styles and new fonts added in 2017.
• Syntax highlighting — listed as a repository topic, with syntax highlighter support.

Who is it for?

• Bloggers using Jekyll — set up a personal blog on GitHub Pages with a modern sidebar layout and built-in TOC.
• Technical writers — publish documentation-style posts with search and reading progress indicators.
• Developers migrating to Next.js — use the successor Project Titan, which shares the same styles and offers a migration path from Project Gaia.

What can you do with Project Gaia?

• Create a personal blog — write posts in Markdown and get a static site with navigation, search, and a clean reading experience.
• Build a documentation site — use the TOC and search features to organize technical articles.
• Migrate to Project Titan — follow the 5-step guide to rebuild the same site in Next.js with Material UI and TypeScript.

How does Project Gaia work?

As a Jekyll theme, you add your Markdown posts to a Jekyll project, configure the theme, and build the site. Jekyll generates the static HTML pages that you can deploy to GitHub Pages. The theme's plugins handle TOC, search, and lightbox.

FAQ

Is Project Gaia free?

Yes, the theme is open source under the MIT license, with an additional Anti 996 license badge. You can use it freely on personal and commercial projects.

Is Project Gaia still maintained?

The repository is no longer maintained. The author recommends migrating to Project Titan, a Next.js version with Material UI and TypeScript that retains the same visual styles.

What frameworks does Project Gaia use?

It uses Bootstrap 4-Alpha and jQuery 3, rebuilt in February 2017. It also integrates a syntax highlighter and a reading progress bar.

Can I migrate from Project Gaia to Project Titan?

Yes, the author states you can migrate seamlessly, and a 5-step guide is available at the Project Titan documentation site.