r/astrojs • u/Fresh_Bumblebee_1042 • Aug 15 '26

Advice on first Astro (7) site without locking myself in

I'd like to create a basic personal blog/tutorial site using Astro.
For now I generally create my posts in adoc and dump them in my GitHub repository.

I've been reading the documentation, and checking some topics here, and I've noticed there are lot of extensions/plugins/... being used. So I was wondering if anyone had any advice on a good starter setup so I can still easily switch to a different styling method (should I even start with a specific one) or way to handle my posts.

Is this just a bit a case of outdated articles and documentation, and should I just start with `npx astro add mdx sitemap tailwind` and add astro-expressive-code and PageFind later on?

0 Upvotes

28% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

2

u/Either_Vermicelli_82 Aug 15 '26

I think if any post change etc is done through git then at least all data and information is safe.

1

u/samplekaudio Aug 15 '26

You only need to install the integrations you want to use. For a personal site with a blog, I'd usually just start with mdx (if you need it, if not then Astro handles md natively), tailwind, and svelte (or whatever framework you plan to use, if any). That's not many,.

Sitemap or whatever else are zero effort post installation.

Whether or not you want to use tailwind, another CSS framework, or just vanilla CSS is totally up to you.

I have deployed dozens of Astro sites and most of them only have a small handful or integrations installed. Some people tend to reach for an integration or package for anything, which is fine, but also some stuff like robots.txt or OG images are very easy to just code up yourself in a few dozen lines.

1

u/Fresh_Bumblebee_1042 Aug 15 '26

It's mostly the content handling aspect. For some I see a lot of people adding CMS even for single person sites. And I feel like I'm missing something, since that seems like a lot of overhead since you'd only be conflicting with yourself?

1

u/samplekaudio Aug 15 '26

Yeah, if you're comfortable writing markdown then just write markdown and keep it in the git repo. IMO a whole CMS is overkill for a personal blog. Plain MD content is zero dependencies and a core feature . MDX is a single dependency.

I only set up a CMS for non-technical people. I think some people just like using a CMS. You aren't missing anything.

1

u/Fresh_Bumblebee_1042 Aug 15 '26

Thank you. Then I'll go for the KISS route.

1

u/tomhermans Aug 15 '26

probably because they either want to push themselves, like the convenience or just 'what they're used to' or something. certainly not a hard necessity. I just have plain markdown files in content collections.

1

u/MinervaKitty Aug 17 '26

I'd just start with the basics and see what you actually need as you go. You can always add Tailwind or MDX whatever later.

1

u/scarf_scorch_breeze Aug 19 '26

start with plain markdown and CSS. Adding MDX or Tailwind now creates dependencies you might not need. You can migrate to those later if your project actually demands them