Tony Erwin's Tech Blog

A technical blog focused on AI, machine learning, agentic systems, cloud architecture, microservices, and modern software engineering practices.

Technology Stack

• Jekyll: 4.4.1
• Ruby: 3.3.6
• Theme: Chirpy 7.5.0
• Hosting: GitHub Pages with custom domain (www.tonyerwin.com)

Local Development

Prerequisites

1. Install rbenv and Ruby 3.3.6:

   rbenv install 3.3.6
   rbenv local 3.3.6

2. Install dependencies:

   bundle install

Running Locally

Start the development server:

eval "$(rbenv init - bash)"
bundle exec jekyll serve --host 0.0.0.0

The site will be available at http://localhost:4000

Local Configuration Overrides

If you need to override any configuration settings for local development (without committing them), create a _config_local.yml file:

# _config_local.yml (this file is gitignored)
# Add any local overrides here, for example:

# Enable drafts and future posts
show_drafts: true
future: true

# Or override other settings as needed

To use the local config:

bundle exec jekyll serve --config _config.yml,_config_local.yml

Note: The baseurl setting should remain empty ("") for both local and production since we use a custom domain. You don't need to change it.

Deployment

The site automatically deploys to GitHub Pages when changes are pushed to the main branch. GitHub Pages builds and serves the site at www.tonyerwin.com.

Writing Posts

1. Create a new file in _posts/ with the format: YYYY-MM-DD-title.md
2. Add front matter:

   ---
   title: "Your Post Title"
   date: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS -0500
   categories: [Category1, Category2]
   tags: [tag1, tag2, tag3]
   image:
     path: /images/YYYY-MM-DD-post-name/preview-image.png
     alt: "Image description"
   ---

3. Write your content in Markdown

Preview Images

Preview images are used for:

• Home page post listings
• Social media sharing (Open Graph/Twitter Cards)

They are automatically hidden from the post content itself via custom CSS.

Custom Styling

Custom CSS is located in:

• assets/css/custom.scss - Custom styles (compiled to CSS)
• _layouts/default.html - Modified to include custom CSS

Theme Customization

The Chirpy theme can be customized by:

1. Overriding layouts in _layouts/
2. Adding custom styles in assets/css/custom.scss
3. Modifying configuration in _config.yml

Maintenance

Updating Dependencies

bundle update

Updating Ruby Version

1. Update .ruby-version file
2. Install new Ruby version: rbenv install X.X.X
3. Update dependencies: bundle install

Documentation

• Jekyll Documentation
• Chirpy Theme Documentation
• Markdown Guide

License

Content is © Tony Erwin. Theme is MIT licensed.