Retlab is a minimalist Jekyll theme for personal sites, distributed as a GitHub remote theme that you add to a site with one line in the configuration.
What is Retlab?
Retlab is a minimalist Jekyll theme built for personal sites. It takes a standard Jekyll site with posts and pages and renders them through a pre-built layout that includes header navigation, footer navigation, a contact page, and optional Disqus comments. The theme is installed as a remote theme by setting remote_theme: benbalter/retlab in your site's _config.yml, and it is maintained by Ben Balter.
Key Features
- Remote theme installation — Add
remote_theme: benbalter/retlabto_config.ymlto start using Retlab without copying theme files into your repository. - Header image — Place a 400px by 1140px image at
/assets/img/header.jpgto customize the site's banner. - Header navigation — Choose which pages appear in the top nav by listing them under
nav_pagesin_config.yml. - Footer navigation — Control the bottom nav links via the
footer_pagesconfiguration. - Disqus integration — Set a
disqus.shortnameand enablecomments: truein front matter to add threaded discussion to posts. - Contact page — Configure
contact_linkswith name, URL, and icon to display links to Twitter, Facebook, or other profiles. - Plugin-ready — Ships with configuration for
jekyll-seo-tag,jekyll-avatar,jekyll-github-metadata, andjekyll-feed. - Front matter defaults — Defaults apply the
postlayout with comments on for posts and thepagelayout with comments off for pages.
Who is it for?
- Developers who host a personal blog or portfolio on GitHub Pages and want a clean theme that can be applied with just a remote theme pointer.
- Writers who want a minimal, readable layout with built-in comment support via Disqus.
- Professionals who need a no-frills personal site with a contact page and social links.
How does Retlab work?
After adding remote_theme: benbalter/retlab to your Jekyll configuration, save a header image to /assets/img/header.jpg. Then customize the theme by specifying nav_pages, footer_pages, disqus, and contact_links in _config.yml. The theme reads these settings and automatically generates the navigation and page elements.
What can you do with Retlab?
- Bloggers: Publish Jekyll posts with Disqus comments enabled, using the built-in post layout.
- Open-source developers: Showcase GitHub profile information through
jekyll-avatarandjekyll-github-metadataintegrations. - Individuals: Build a simple contact page with icon links to social media profiles.
FAQ
How do I install Retlab?
Add this line to your site's _config.yml: remote_theme: benbalter/retlab. Then run bundle exec jekyll serve locally or push to GitHub Pages to see the theme applied.
What is the header image size?
The header image should be 400px by 1140px, saved to /assets/img/header.jpg.
Which plugins does Retlab support?
Retlab's setup includes jekyll-seo-tag, jekyll-avatar, jekyll-github-metadata, and jekyll-feed. You can add these plugins to your site's _config.yml as shown in the repository's configuration example.
