Couscous

Couscous

Couscous is a free, open source website development tool for GitHub pages. It allows for rapid prototyping and publishing of static websites with Markdown, using GitHub as a backend.
Couscous image
markdown github-pages open-source

Couscous: Free & Open Source Website Development Tool for GitHub Pages

Couscous is a free, open source website development tool for GitHub pages. It allows for rapid prototyping and publishing of static websites with Markdown, using GitHub as a backend.

What is Couscous?

Couscous is an open source website development tool for publishing static websites from Markdown documents to GitHub Pages. It provides a fast and easy way to preview Markdown-based websites locally and publish changes automatically to GitHub Pages when ready.

Some key features of Couscous include:

  • Editing websites in Markdown format, allowing focus on content over code
  • Live preview of changes on a local development server
  • Auto-deploy updated website to GitHub pages on git push
  • Automatic handling of GitHub workflow including committing changes, pushing to gh-pages branch
  • Template inheritance to reuse header, footer etc across multiple pages
  • Customizable website templates and color schemes
  • CLI and GUI versions available for all major platforms like Linux, Windows and Mac

Couscous makes it simple to get a website prototype online quickly. The Markdown-based workflow keeps content and presentation separate. This, combined with the live preview and auto-deployment features, helps iterate on websites rapidly without needing to dive into HTML/CSS code.

Couscous Features

Features

  1. Generates a static website from Markdown files
  2. Supports multiple templates like blog, documentation, portfolio, etc
  3. Integrates seamlessly with GitHub Pages for hosting
  4. Supports code highlighting, math equations, diagrams, etc in Markdown
  5. Auto-deploy websites on git push
  6. Live preview editing with hot reload

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Free and open source

Simple and easy to use

Great for quickly creating websites for projects

Leverages GitHub for version control and hosting

Large number of templates and themes available

Active community support

Cons

Limited customization compared to full CMS

Only creates static sites, no server-side code

Requires knowledge of Markdown syntax

Limited built-in SEO optimization features


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