Pivot to Minimal Theme & Architecture Planning

Devlog — 2025-12-20

It was a late night working on the portfolio. I realized my original design wasn’t hooking in correctly because the repository I was using (from MIT) is currently under construction, making it impossible to continue with that specific Jekyll template.

The Pivot to Minimal

I decided to fork the Minimal theme repository instead. This version offers more customization and gave me a chance to really learn how the underlying components are hooked together. After diving into the documentation and doing some manual exploration, I’ve found a good rhythm and flow with the new setup.

Technical Considerations

• Ansible: While the current GitHub Pages setup might not strictly require Ansible, I’m still looking for a meaningful use case to keep it in the stack.
• Hosting: The site is currently hosted via GitHub Pages using GitHub Actions for deployment.
• Architectural Goals: I am still interested in following my original UML design for the broader ecosystem.

Project Roadmap & UML

The goal is to connect these pieces into a cohesive pipeline:

1. Main Portfolio: jordanschilling.me
2. Deployment Pipe: Ansible → CI/CD → AWS
3. Blogging Integration: A Blogging Platform API connecting back to the GitHub portfolio at jordanschilling.blog.