How a Simple Static Blog Sparked a Bigger Idea
The very blog you’re reading right now was built as a static blog, simple, fast, and fully handcrafted.
It uses a JavaScript library called gray-matter to handle metadata like titles, dates, and tags, and a few lightweight libraries to read and render Markdown files directly into the site. There’s no external CMS, no complex dependencies, just pure code and Markdown files coming together seamlessly.
Creating this minimalist system was a refreshing experience. It reminded me how elegant static generation can be when combined with tools like Next.js and Tailwind CSS. Every post here exists as a simple file, but it feels alive on the page.
While developing this setup, an idea started forming in my mind — what if I took this concept further?
That’s how the plan for MetalBotics’ own CMS was born.
I spent some time learning about how blogs were made with Next.js or similar React frameworks, something I had never done before.
And then I had the idea: why don't I make it a fully functional system for managing news and updates from my startup, MetalBotics?
And so I began working on this idea, I spent 5 entire days on this journey. The MetalBotics page was mostly static, there were some cool styling and working email system but not too much of a technical stuff.
I could have done it in a few hours if using ChatGPT to help me, but I wanted the challenge to do most of it alone, I went through some hard times, undeniably, but the feel of satisfaction when you see your work do exactly what you imagined, it's uncomparable.
First of all, our landing page website didn't have any database, so I made a database in PostgreSQL, the same database we use in our project Morfeul and connected to it via Prisma, a JavaScript ORM to simplify my access to the database. Then I made the admin authentication via Next-Auth, a library used mostly in Next.js projects to simplify the auth process.
I won't lie, the process to make the auth system functional took at least 2 entire days, and for the UI of the admin page I used a library called shadcn/ui, a very nice tool to help UI development, it provides you a ton of fully functional components and pages already done, with minimal styling so you can do what pleases you most.
And then, with the admin page working, I could make the panels for adding new post and editing existing ones, was a pretty good journey, I learned a lot in these 5 days.
In short, this personal project became the foundation for a more advanced, professional platform — a news and updates system for MetalBotics, built with the same philosophy of simplicity, speed, and control over every detail.
Sometimes, the smallest experiments inspire the biggest ideas.