Stellar is a feature-rich Hexo theme that merges a blog, wiki, knowledge base, column series, and note-taking system into one static site, with a large library of tag widgets and dynamic data components that update without rebuilding the site.
What is Stellar?
Stellar is a Hexo theme created by xaoxuu, designed to run on Hexo 6.3.0 or newer. It takes Hexo content written in Markdown and produces a static website that can serve as a personal blog, a documentation hub, or a multi-section knowledge base. The theme is highly modular, offering various layout types and built-in components that can be mixed and matched.
Key Features
- Article layouts — Separate visual styles for technical and life-style articles, so writers can match the tone of each post.
- Wiki system — Display multiple project documents or a personal knowledge base alongside regular blog posts.
- Column system — Publish and present series of articles in an immersive reading mode.
- Note system — A dedicated structured layout for organizing notes and quick references.
- Dynamic tag components — Dozens of flexible tag widgets that can be nested and combined inside content.
- Dynamic data components — Add live content without rebuilds: a timeline for short posts (like a social feed), automated friend links that check status and subscribe to linked blogs, and remote Markdown rendering (e.g., embedding a GitHub README).
- Image lazy loading — Images load lazily with the original aspect ratio reserved, preventing layout height jumps.
- Multi-author support — Assign different authors to different posts, each with a dedicated author homepage.
- Community timeline — Subscribe to the "Exploration" timeline data source to see shared experiences from community users.
Who is it for?
Stellar suits independent bloggers who want more than a simple blog layout. It also works for technical writers and open-source maintainers who need to publish project documentation and READMEs from repositories. Teams or organizations running a multi-author blog can use the per-author homepages, and note-takers can build a personal knowledge base without a separate platform.
What can you do with Stellar?
- Independent bloggers: Publish articles in both technical and life styles, using different layouts, tags, and dynamic components for each post.
- Documentation writers: Build a wiki with multiple project sections and render remote Markdown files (like a project README) directly.
- Column authors: Create a series of in-depth articles presented in an immersive column reader.
- Community subscribers: Follow the "Exploration" timeline and subscribe to friend links to see updates from other users of the theme.
How does Stellar work?
To set up Stellar, check that your environment meets the requirements: Hexo 6.3.0 or later, hexo-cli 4.3.0 or later, Node.js LTS version (14.17.3 or later is suggested), and a suitable npm version. Then add theme: stellar to your _config.yml and run npm i hexo-theme-stellar from the terminal. Full usage instructions and examples are in the official docs at https://xaoxuu.com/wiki/stellar/, and an AI-generated docs page is available at https://deepwiki.com/xaoxuu/hexo-theme-stellar/.
FAQ
Does Stellar support multiple authors?
Yes, Stellar supports one site with multiple authors. You can assign different authors to different articles, and each author gets their own dedicated homepage.
Can Stellar pull content from remote Markdown files?
Yes, one of the built-in dynamic data components can render remote Markdown files. This is useful for embedding a project repository's README into your site, so you only maintain the file once.
What Node.js version does Stellar need?
The theme recommends Node.js LTS version 14.17.3 or newer, up to the latest LTS. Very new Node versions may not yet be compatible with Hexo and the theme.
Does Stellar support lazy loading images?
Yes, Stellar's image lazy loading reserves the original width/height ratio of each image, so the page does not jump in height while images load.
Is there a community data source to subscribe to?
Yes, Stellar has a community "Exploration" timeline data source. By subscribing to it, you can receive experience-sharing posts from other Stellar users.
