Slick is a Hugo theme for content-driven sites that prioritizes speed and privacy, offering a minimalist design with zero external requests and complete RSS support.
What is Slick?
Slick is an open-source Hugo theme built for fast, clean, responsive content sites. It takes Hugo content (Markdown files and a config file) and renders a static website with all CSS, JavaScript, and fonts bundled locally, so the site makes no external network requests. The theme is maintained on GitHub by spookey, released under the MIT License, and is a fork of the Temple theme, which itself forks Nofancy.
Key Features
- Zero external requests — Everything needed runs from the theme's own files, including Fonts (Source Sans Pro, Source Serif Pro, Source Code Pro), CSS, and JavaScript, keeping sites private and fast.
- Taxonomy support — Tags, categories, and series each get their own generated pages, plus pagination for content lists.
- Complete RSS feed — Built-in RSS feed with full article entries, not just summaries.
- Social metadata — Open Graph, Schema.org, and Twitter Card tags are generated automatically for better sharing and search results.
- Customizable menus — Header menu entries and footer links are fully configurable from the Hugo config file, including RSS icons.
- Dark mode and CSS injection — A CSS dark mode is included, and you can inject your own CSS file and customize the favicon (with correct MIME type for PNG files).
- Syntax highlighting via Chroma — Code blocks are highlighted using Hugo's built-in Chroma engine with the Tomorrow Night color scheme.
- Custom 404 page — A 404 page with customizable text, set up per Hugo's automatic loading instructions.
Who is it for?
- Privacy-focused bloggers — Anyone who wants a site that makes no third-party requests (no Google Fonts, no CDNs) so visitor data doesn't leak to external services.
- Speed-conscious content creators — Writers who need a lightweight theme that loads quickly on slow connections or mobile devices.
- Hugo users who want a minimal design — Developers and authors already using Hugo who want a clean, readable layout with taxonomy pages and RSS without extra bloat.
- Self-hosters — People deploying static sites who want a theme that bundles all assets locally and is easy to customize via the config file.
Use cases
- Personal blogs — Publish posts with tags, categories, and series, and let readers subscribe via the full-content RSS feed.
- Documentation sites — Use the taxonomy pages and Chroma syntax highlighting to organize and display code-heavy technical documentation.
- Privacy-focused portfolios — Showcase work with a no-tracking, no-external-request theme that keeps visitor data off third-party servers.
How does Slick work?
To install Slick, clone the repository into your Hugo site's themes/ directory and set theme = "slick" in your config file (or pass -t slick to the Hugo CLI). The theme is built with rollup.js, postCSS, and TypeScript, and all component dependencies are pulled in via npm; note that files inside the static folder are only updated on tagged releases.
FAQ
Is Slick free?
Yes, Slick is open-source and licensed under the MIT License, so you can use, modify, and redistribute it freely.
Does Slick make external requests?
No. The theme intentionally includes all needed resources—fonts, CSS, and JavaScript—locally, so your site makes no external network requests, preserving visitor privacy and improving load speed.
Which color schemes does Slick use?
Slick uses the Tomorrow theme as its color scheme, with Tomorrow Night applied to syntax highlighting through Hugo's Chroma engine.
What components are included in Slick?
Slick bundles PureCSS, Source Code Pro, Source Sans Pro, and Source Serif Pro fonts, plus the Tomorrow theme. All of these are included locally rather than loaded from external CDNs.
