This is a static site built with metalsmith -- see metalsmith.js for the pipeline. Most of the standard metalsmith plugins are used, plus a few tricks.

I don't like YAML frontmatter, and the only per-post metadata I need is date and template type, so I encode them in the file name and extension, respectively. metalsmith-date-in-filename gets the date; a custom metalsmith middleware sets the template.

I use metalsmith-browserify to generate a static site JavaScript bundle for the WebGL animations. Within the bundle I use many stackgl modules. Thanks in particular to glslbin for example code.

I use metalsmith-serve and metalsmith-watch for local development. I use the directory animations as the build destination, then serve the root of the project, so that paths start with /animations like in production.

I use this trick for pushing the animations subtree to the gh-pages branch, and thus publishing to GitHub pages.

This is my first time using metalsmith. Here are some pros and cons as I see them.

Pros:

• Good architectural fundamentals.
• Superb low-level control. I couldn't do this with Jekyll.
• Works well once you make the (significant) initial investment.

Cons:

• Variable module quality. Even the most commonly used modules have odd design choices that'll trip you up. (E.g. metalsmith-permalinks's relative option.)
• Setting up a pipeline is time consuming. You will need to read the source code of most every module you use and step through it in a debugger to figure out why it isn't working.
• No common convention for flow control; most modules invent their own pattern matching or filtering convention.
• Key modules are effectively unmaintained. (metalsmith-collections and metalsmith-permalinks.)