tgp4

A minimal static site, hosted from a closet

2026-03-14

The site you're reading lives on a small box in a closet behind a router I've had for too long. There's a fan I swapped out last summer because the old one sounded like a dentist's drill at 3am. Apart from that the setup has been quiet for almost a year.

The stack is aggressively boring: a directory of HTML files, a single stylesheet, and Caddy serving the lot over HTTPS. No build step, no generator, no JavaScript. If I want a new post I copy the last one, change the text, save. The whole site is under a megabyte.

The thing I like most about this setup is how easy it is to move. Every time I've redone my homelab I've been able to bring the site with me in a single tar invocation. There is no database to migrate, no framework to upgrade, no secrets to rotate beyond the certificate — and that one rotates itself.

The only part I fuss over occasionally is the certificate. Caddy handles it, but I keep an eye on the logs after a reboot because I once had a rate-limit hiccup with Let's Encrypt. These days it Just Works, and I try not to touch it.

If you're tempted to do the same, my only advice is: resist the urge to add things. A blog doesn't need a comments section, a search box, or a JavaScript bundle. It needs words and a way to read them.