Smol is a minimal, monospaced blogging theme for Hugo that prioritizes privacy and performance by shipping zero JavaScript and zero external dependencies. It is maintained by colorchestra and based on the Blank theme by Vimux, designed for writers who want a fast, no-tracking personal blog.
What is Smol?
Smol is a Hugo theme that takes Markdown content and static configuration as input and generates a fully static blog with posts, tags, and categories. The theme runs on the Hugo static site generator and requires no client-side processing at runtime. A live demo is available at smol-demo.morph.sh.
Key Features
- No JavaScript — the site works without any client-side scripting; all features are server-rendered.
- No tracking — contains no Google spyware, analytics, or any other third-party tracking.
- No external dependencies — no embedded fonts, comment sections, CDN icons, or other remote resources.
- Dark mode support — automatically matches the OS-level light/dark preference using CSS.
- Monospaced typography — every element uses a monospace font for a distinctive typewriter look.
- Custom header and footer menus — configurable via config.toml to add links like GitHub, Mastodon, or an Imprint page.
- Custom copyright text — add a single config parameter to change the footer copyright notice.
- Image captions — Markdown image titles are rendered as figcaption HTML elements beneath the image.
Who should use Smol?
Privacy-conscious bloggers who want to eliminate all third-party requests from their site and keep the page weight minimal. Writers who prefer a static site generator like Hugo and want a simple, monospaced visual style. Hugo developers who want a clean, well-structured base theme built on Blank to fork and extend.
What can you do with Smol?
- Set up a personal blog — write posts in Markdown, organize them with Hugo's built-in tags and categories, and publish a static site with no backend.
- Customize navigation links — add external profile links to GitHub, Mastodon, or any URL in the footer menu.
- Add image captions — include a title in a Markdown image to automatically get an HTML figcaption.
How does Smol work?
Installation is direct: clone the repository into your Hugo site's themes directory, set the theme option to "smol" in config.toml, and optionally add parameters and menu entries. Hugo then generates the static site locally with the hugo command. No build tools beyond Hugo itself are required.
Pricing
Smol is free and open source, released under the MIT license.
FAQ
Does Smol include JavaScript?
No. Smol contains zero JavaScript. All functionality is provided by server-rendered HTML and CSS, which reduces page weight and potential security issues.
Does Smol support dark mode?
Yes, Smol supports dark mode that follows your operating system's appearance setting. No configuration is needed; the theme detects the OS preference automatically.
Can I customize the footer?
Yes, Smol supports a footer menu in config.toml where you can add links to social profiles, an imprint page, or any other URL.
Does Smol have a comment section?
No, Smol deliberately omits comment sections and external dependency widgets as part of its privacy-focused design.
Can I change the copyright notice?
Yes, add the copyright parameter in config.toml to set your own copyright text.
