gen z·economics

Deployment — from zero to live at genz-economics.com

Deployment — from zero to live at genz-economics.com

This is a one-time setup. Once it’s done, merging a PR on GitHub → site updates within ~2 minutes.

0. What you’ll need

  • A GitHub account (free). Ideally a GitHub organization called genz-economics — it looks cleaner than a personal account.
  • Your domain genz-economics.com (you’ve got this).
  • About 20 minutes.

1. Create the repository

Option A — organization repo (recommended).

  1. On GitHub, create a new organization: genz-economics.
  2. Inside it, create a public repo called genz-economics.com.
  3. Invite moderators as members with “Write” access.

Option B — personal repo (quick start).

  • Just create your-username/genz-economics.com and upgrade to an org later. Update repository: in _config.yml + the URLs in .github/CODEOWNERS accordingly.

Leave the repo empty (no README, no license) — we’re pushing one.

2. Push this folder

Open a terminal in this folder (genz-economics-site/):

git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit: site scaffold, docs, stub posts"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin git@github.com:harsharya7021/genz-economics.com.git
git push -u origin main

3. Turn on GitHub Pages

  1. Repo → Settings → Pages.
  2. Under “Build and deployment”:
    • Source: Deploy from a branch.
    • Branch: main / /(root).
  3. Save. First build takes 1–2 minutes.
  4. Your site is now live at https://genz-economics.github.io/genz-economics.com/.

4. Point the domain

In the same Settings → Pages screen:

  1. Under Custom domain, type genz-economics.com and save.
  2. GitHub will show the DNS records you need.

Go to your domain registrar (where you bought genz-economics.com) and add:

Type Host Value
A @ 185.199.108.153
A @ 185.199.109.153
A @ 185.199.110.153
A @ 185.199.111.153
CNAME www genz-economics.github.io

DNS propagation is usually minutes, sometimes up to a few hours.

Back in GitHub, once DNS resolves, check “Enforce HTTPS”. GitHub provisions a Let’s Encrypt cert automatically.

5. Import the actual note content

The _posts/ folder currently has stub posts (correct titles and front matter, placeholder bodies). To replace with real content from the Word docs:

# At the repo root
mkdir source-docs
# Copy all 8 .docx files into source-docs/ (drag-drop works)
bash scripts/import-docs.sh

The script preserves the front matter already in each stub and replaces the body with the pandoc-converted content. Images get extracted into assets/images/<slug>/ automatically.

After running it:

git add -A
git commit -m "Import: session notes and images"
git push

Site rebuilds. Done.

Repo → Settings → Branches → Add rule for main:

  • ☑ Require a pull request before merging
  • ☑ Require approvals (1 is fine)
  • ☑ Require review from Code Owners
  • ☑ Dismiss stale approvals on new commits

This enforces the PR flow that makes the “moderated by students” story real.

7. Invite moderators

  1. Update MODERATORS.md — PR to add yourself.
  2. Update .github/CODEOWNERS — add their GitHub handles.
  3. Repo → Settings → Collaborators & teams → Invite with “Write” access.

Iterating

  • Every merged PR to main triggers a rebuild automatically. No action needed.
  • To preview locally before pushing: 
    bundle install
bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload
# http://localhost:4000
  • If a build ever fails, the “Actions” tab shows the error log.

What’s NOT here yet (on purpose)

  • Comments. GitHub Issues is the comment system. If you want inline commenting, look at giscus or utterances — both use GitHub Issues as backing store, no database needed.
  • Search. If the corpus gets big, add Lunr (client-side, zero infra).
  • Newsletter. Buttondown or Substack, feeding off the RSS feed (/feed.xml).
  • Audio/video. Separate decision — YouTube unlisted for recordings would be the MVP path.

Keep shipping. The site will get better the moment someone other than you sends a PR.