Ruby, Middleman & Tailwind Starter Blog

The Ruby, Middleman & Tailwind Starter Blog is a static-site blog template built on Middleman v4.6 that outputs a lightweight personal blog styled with Tailwind CSS v4.2. It turns markdown posts into a fully static site with code highlighting, an RSS feed, and an XML sitemap, and is designed to deploy to any static host.

What is the Ruby, Middleman & Tailwind Starter Blog?

It is a ready-to-use blog template for Middleman, a Ruby-based static site generator. The template takes markdown files and YAML configuration as input and generates a static HTML site with Tailwind CSS, syntax highlighting, and automatic sitemap and feed files. It was created by Harrison Broadbent, who built it from his experience maintaining a personal website on Middleman.

Key Features

• Middleman v4.6 — the static site generator that provides the template and plugin system.
• Tailwind CSS v4.2 — the CSS framework, installed as an npm package and built with a separate process.
• Markdown support via kramdown — write posts in markdown, rendered to HTML automatically.
• Blogging support via middleman-blog — adds archives, tags, and pagination to organize posts.
• Syntax highlighting via middleman-syntax — highlights code blocks in blog posts.
• Live-reloading via middleman-livereload — combined with the bin/dev script, it runs Middleman and Tailwind watch processes together.
• Automatic sitemap.xml and feed.xml — generated at build time without extra configuration.
• SEO-friendly meta tags — automatic title and description tags for each page.
• GitHub Action for image compression — a workflow file that compresses images when pushed.
• Performance — the template claims a perfect 100/100 PageSpeed score on desktop and near-perfect on mobile.

Who is it for?

• Ruby developers — anyone comfortable with Ruby who wants a Middleman blog without setting up the configuration from scratch.
• Minimalist bloggers — writers who want a fast, static blog without a database or CMS.
• Personal site owners — people who need a simple blog section on their personal website, deployable to Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, or Vercel with one click.

What can you do with it?

• Launch a personal blog — clone the repo, install dependencies, and write your first markdown post; then build and deploy.
• Create a portfolio with a blog — use the built-in archives and tags to organize project write-ups.
• Learn Middleman and Tailwind — study a minimal, working configuration that shows how the two tools integrate.

How does it work?

After cloning, run bundle to install Ruby gems and npm install for the Tailwind package, then start the development server with bin/dev. The template supports one-click deployment to Cloudflare, Netlify, and Vercel via their deploy buttons; the author recommends Cloudflare for hosting.