automation

Automate Social Media Posting from Hugo with Python

Explore how to automate social media posts from Hugo blog content using Python and YAML configuration.

Shipped January 2026

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Hugo Social Publisher is an experimental project aiming to automate the posting of Hugo blog content to various social media platforms using Python. It explores a workflow where metadata files within Hugo posts are parsed to generate social media posts programmatically.

Features

  • Parses YAML configuration files embedded in Hugo blog posts to determine social media publishing targets.
  • Generates post content and metadata for social APIs like Mastodon, LinkedIn, and others.
  • Prototype Python scripts to automate social posting based on post metadata.

Tech Stack

  • Hugo (static site generator) for blog content
  • Python for automation and API interactions
  • YAML for post-level publish configuration

Getting Started

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.x installed
  • Access to social media API credentials (not included)

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/justin-napolitano/hugo-social-publisher.git
cd hugo-social-publisher

Install Python dependencies (assumed, as none specified):

pip install -r requirements.txt

Note: requirements.txt is not present; add dependencies as needed.

Running

The repository currently contains prototype code and markdown notes. To build your own automation:

  1. Add a publish.yaml file to your Hugo post directories specifying which social platforms to publish to.
  2. Use or develop a Python script to parse these YAML files and generate API calls.

Project Structure

/images          # Images used in documentation and mockups
index.md         # Project notes and design thoughts
readme.md        # This README file

Future Work / Roadmap

  • Develop a robust Python application to parse Hugo posts and publish to social media APIs.
  • Support more social platforms with configurable options.
  • Automate retrieval of Open Graph metadata from rendered HTML.
  • Improve error handling and scheduling capabilities.
  • Document API requirements and authentication flows.

This project is in an early conceptual phase and serves as a personal experiment.

Need more context?

Want help adapting this playbook?

Send me the constraints and I'll annotate the relevant docs, share risks I see, and outline the first sprint so the work keeps moving.

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