Setup Guide - Getting Your Site Live

Your personal website is ready! Follow these steps to deploy it to GitHub Pages.

✅ What’s Already Done

All the files are created and ready in: ~/Desktop/dheerajn.github.io/

• ✅ Jekyll configuration
• ✅ All pages (home, blog, TIL, projects, links, about)
• ✅ Example content (1 blog post, 1 TIL, 1 project)
• ✅ LLM discoverability features (llms.txt, /for-llms, Schema.org)
• ✅ GitHub Actions workflow
• ✅ Git repository initialized with initial commit

🚀 Next Steps to Deploy

IMPORTANT: You already have a dheerajn.github.io repository! We’ll replace it with your new personal website.

Good News: Your Plainly privacy page at /Plainly/privacy/ will keep working - it’s in a separate repository and won’t be affected!

Quick Migration (4 Commands)

Run these commands to replace your existing site:

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cd ~/Desktop/dheerajn.github.io

# Connect to your existing GitHub repository
git remote add origin https://github.com/dheerajn/dheerajn.github.io.git

# Fetch existing repo
git fetch origin

# Replace with new site (force push)
git push -u origin main --force

What Happens After Push

1. GitHub Actions automatically starts building your site
2. Wait 2-3 minutes for deployment
3. Your site goes live at: https://dheerajn.github.io

Verify Everything Works

After deployment, check:

• ✅ https://dheerajn.github.io → Your new personal site
• ✅ https://dheerajn.github.io/Plainly/privacy/ → Still works!
• ✅ https://dheerajn.github.io/besafe.json → Still accessible

Configure GitHub Pages (If Needed)

If the site doesn’t deploy automatically:

1. Go to repository Settings → Pages
2. Under Source, select GitHub Actions
3. Save and wait for deployment

Backup Available

Your old site is backed up at: ~/Desktop/dheerajn.github.io-backup/

If you need to rollback, see MIGRATION_GUIDE.md for instructions.

📝 Things to Customize

Before or after deploying, update these with your info:

1. Update Social Links

Edit _data/social.yml:

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links:
  - name: LinkedIn
    url: https://linkedin.com/in/YOUR-PROFILE  # ← Update this
  - name: Twitter
    url: https://twitter.com/YOUR-HANDLE        # ← Update this

2. Update About Page

Edit pages/about.md to add:

• Your bio
• What you do
• Your interests
• Professional background

3. Update Config

Edit _config.yml:

• Line 6: Update your location
• Line 10-12: Update your LinkedIn and Twitter URLs
• Line 141: Update timezone if needed

4. Add Profile Picture

1. Add your photo to assets/images/profile.jpg
2. Or update the path in _config.yml (line 5)

📱 Local Development (Optional)

To preview your site locally before pushing:

Install Ruby and Jekyll

Mac (using Homebrew):

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brew install ruby
gem install bundler jekyll

Follow the prompts to add Ruby to your PATH

Run Locally

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cd ~/Desktop/dheerajn.github.io
bundle install
bundle exec jekyll serve

Visit: http://localhost:4000

✍️ Creating Content

New Blog Post

Create _posts/2026-01-26-my-post-title.md:

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---
layout: single
title: "My Post Title"
date: 2026-01-26
categories: [category]
tags: [tag1, tag2]
excerpt: "Brief description"
---

Your content here...

New TIL Entry

Create _til/2026-01-26-learned-something.md:

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---
title: "What I Learned"
date: 2026-01-26
tags: [tag1]
---

Quick learning...

New Project

Create _projects/project-name.md:

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---
title: "Project Name"
date: 2026-01-26
tech_stack: "React, Node.js"
demo_url: "https://demo.com"
github_url: "https://github.com/dheerajn/project"
excerpt: "Brief description"
---

Project details...

🔄 Publishing Changes

After making changes:

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git add .
git commit -m "Description of changes"
git push

GitHub Actions will automatically rebuild and redeploy your site!

🌐 Custom Domain (Future - Optional)

To use your own domain (like yourname.com) instead of dheerajn.github.io:

1. Buy a domain from a registrar (Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.)
2. Add a CNAME file to the root with your domain name
3. Configure DNS at your registrar to point to GitHub Pages
4. Enable custom domain in GitHub repository settings

No migration needed - just DNS configuration!

📊 Adding Analytics (Optional)

To track visitors:

1. Google Analytics: Add tracking ID to _config.yml
2. Plausible: Add script to _includes/head/custom.html

🎨 Customizing Design

The site uses the Minimal Mistakes theme. To customize:

• Colors: Edit _config.yml → minimal_mistakes_skin
• Fonts: Add custom CSS in assets/css/main.scss
• Layout: Override theme files in _layouts/ or _includes/

See: Minimal Mistakes Docs

🤖 LLM Discoverability

Your site includes:

1. /llms.txt - Update with your topics and expertise
2. /for-llms - Already configured, but you can customize
3. Schema.org - Automatically generated from your content

These help AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT understand and recommend your content!

📚 Resources

• Jekyll Docs: https://jekyllrb.com/docs/
• Minimal Mistakes: https://mmistakes.github.io/minimal-mistakes/
• GitHub Pages: https://docs.github.com/pages
• Markdown Guide: https://www.markdownguide.org/

🆘 Troubleshooting

Build fails in GitHub Actions

• Check the Actions tab for error details
• Usually it’s a typo in YAML front matter
• Make sure all dates are in YYYY-MM-DD format

Site shows 404

• Make sure repository name is exactly dheerajn.github.io
• Check that GitHub Pages is enabled in Settings
• Wait a few minutes after first push

Styling looks broken

• Check that remote_theme is set in _config.yml
• Make sure the GitHub Actions workflow completed successfully

✨ You’re All Set!

Your personal website is ready to go. Just push it to GitHub and you’ll be live!

Questions? Check the README.md or Jekyll documentation.

Happy blogging! 🎉