Build a small Markdown publishing system
https://patrickz.ai/learn/markdown-publishing/

OUTCOME
Publish two readable posts with a dependable index and safe rendering.

YOU NEED
A coding agent, basic Markdown and a static hosting preview.

1. Define the practice version
Define title, slug, summary and category before writing a renderer. Use a maintained Markdown parser with an explicit policy for raw HTML.

2. Build step 1
Create `index.html`, `styles.css`, and a `posts` folder.

3. Build step 2
Write one Markdown post with simple metadata.

4. Build step 3
Add its path to `posts/index.json`.

5. Build step 4
Fetch and render the post in JavaScript.

6. Build step 5
Add category and featured filters.

7. Build step 6
Publish the folder with a GitHub Actions Pages workflow.

8. Run the experiment
Create two posts, navigate to each directly and test an unknown slug. Include code characters and a long heading to check rendering and overflow.

PROMPT
Work in a disposable practice project. Explain any setup requirements before changing files. Build one small step at a time and show how I can check it.

Design a frontmatter schema for a static personal blog. It needs title, slug, date, author, summary, category, tags, reading time, cover image, featured state, and SEO description. Return validation rules and two examples.

Write a dependency-free JavaScript module that fetches a JSON post index, loads a Markdown file, parses basic frontmatter, and renders safe HTML. Clearly identify what should use a trusted Markdown parser in production.

My first-version boundary: Define title, slug, summary and category before writing a renderer. Use a maintained Markdown parser with an explicit policy for raw HTML.

EXAMPLE / EXPERIMENT
Create two posts, navigate to each directly and test an unknown slug. Include code characters and a long heading to check rendering and overflow.

CHECK YOUR RESULT
[ ] Both posts have stable direct URLs.
[ ] Unknown slugs display a useful not-found page.
[ ] Untrusted Markdown cannot inject executable HTML.

IF IT FAILS
A hand-written Markdown converter is a teaching experiment, not a safe general-purpose parser. For static trusted authoring, pre-rendering pages can simplify the runtime.

MY RESULT / NEXT CHANGE