NAME

SYNOPSIS

Welcome to the inaugural post of vgnshlv.nz, a cloud-native blog platform that combines the nostalgic aesthetics of Unix manual pages with modern serverless architecture.

DESCRIPTION

This platform represents an experiment in cost-effective cloud architecture. The goal: deliver enterprise-grade features while staying within a $1-10/month budget.

Key Features

• Static Site Generation - Python-based generator creating lightning-fast HTML
• AWS Infrastructure - S3, CloudFront, Lambda@Edge for global distribution
• Client-Side Search - Pagefind provides instant search without API costs
• CI/CD Pipeline - GitHub Actions automates builds and deployments
• Cost Monitoring - Real-time tracking of AWS spending
• Manpage Aesthetic - Monospace fonts, minimal design, terminal-inspired

ARCHITECTURE

The system consists of several layers:

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│   Content (Git Repository)         │
│   ├── Markdown Posts                │
│   └── HTML Pages                    │
└──────────────┬──────────────────────┘
               │
               ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│   GitHub Actions (CI/CD)            │
│   ├── Build Static Site             │
│   ├── Generate Search Index         │
│   └── Deploy to S3                  │
└──────────────┬──────────────────────┘
               │
               ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│   AWS Infrastructure                │
│   ├── S3 (Storage)                  │
│   ├── CloudFront (CDN)              │
│   ├── Lambda@Edge (Analytics)       │
│   └── CloudWatch (Monitoring)       │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

COST BREAKDOWN

Here's how we achieve sub-$2/month hosting:

IMPLEMENTATION

The generator is written in Python 3.11 and extends the original manpageblog project with:

• AWS SDK integration
• Incremental builds
• Search index generation
• Cost estimation
• CloudFront cache invalidation

All infrastructure is defined using Terraform, enabling reproducible deployments.

BENEFITS

Why this approach?

1. Cost Effective - Order of magnitude cheaper than traditional hosting
2. Scalable - CloudFront handles traffic spikes automatically
3. Fast - Static content served from edge locations worldwide
4. Simple - No databases, no servers to maintain
5. Nostalgic - Classic Unix aesthetic

SEE ALSO

• GitHub Repository
• Original manpageblog
• aws-s3(1), cloudfront(1), terraform(1)

AUTHOR

Written by vgnshlvnz for the cloud-native era.