Digital Sovereignty Chronicle

Current Status (February 2026)

• ✅ Live Site: https://digitalsovereignty.herbertyang.xyz
• ✅ Platform: Vercel (Hugo static site)
• ✅ Latest Post: "Enslaved by Data: There Is Something About Emma Stone" (Dec 30, 2025)
• ✅ Auto-Deployment: GitHub Actions → Vercel
• 📝 Draft Ready: "How To Top Up Proton Mail Balance with BTC" (Jan 31, 2026)
• 📊 Archive: 38 published articles (2025), 1 draft (2026)
• 🎯 Focus: Crypto, AI, Web3, decentralization, and data sovereignty

Complete workflow for creating and publishing a new article.

1. Create Draft Branch and Article Folder

# Create a new branch for your article
git checkout main
git pull
git checkout -b draft/my-article-slug

# Create the article folder (YYYY/MM/DD-slug format)
mkdir -p content/posts/2025/12/09-my-article-slug
cd content/posts/2025/12/09-my-article-slug

2. Initialize Article with Frontmatter

Run the interactive wizard to create index.md:

dsc-init-article

The wizard will prompt for:

• Title: Article title
• Slug: Auto-generated from folder name (can override)
• Description: SEO description
• Category: Choose from existing or create new
• Series: Optional, choose from existing or create new
• Keywords: Optional, comma-separated for SEO

This creates index.md with proper frontmatter and template structure.

3. Write Content

• Add your content to index.md
• Add images to the article folder (WebP format preferred)
• Add featured-image.webp for social media preview
• Preview locally: hugo server -D (from repo root)

4. Publish

Run the publish script to validate and prepare your article:

dsc-publish

This script:

• Validates frontmatter, content, and images
• Prompts for publication date (defaults to today)
• Sets draft: false
• Shows git commands for committing

5. Commit and Create PR

git add .
git commit -m "Publish: My Article Title"
git push -u origin draft/my-article-slug
gh pr create --base main --title "Publish: My Article Title"

# After PR is merged, clean up
git checkout main
git pull
git branch -d draft/my-article-slug

Workflow Scripts

Script	Purpose	Usage
dsc-init-article	Create index.md with frontmatter	Run from article folder
dsc-publish	Validate, set date, set draft:false	Run from article folder

Git Branching Strategy

Simple branch-per-article workflow:

main (production)
 │
 ├── draft/article-a  ──> PR ──> merge ──> delete
 │
 ├── draft/article-b  ──> PR ──> merge ──> delete
 │
 └── draft/article-c  (work in progress)

Key Principles:

• main branch is always production-ready
• Each article gets its own draft/slug branch
• Create PR to merge into main when ready
• Delete branch after merge
• Multiple articles can be in progress simultaneously

Content Structure

Articles use Hugo page bundles:

content/posts/
└── 2025/
    └── 12/
        └── 09-my-article-slug/
            ├── index.md           # Article content
            ├── featured-image.webp  # Social media preview
            └── other-images.webp  # Additional images

Frontmatter Example:

---
title: "My Article Title"
date: 2025-12-09T12:00:00+08:00
slug: my-article-slug
draft: false
description: "A compelling description for SEO (50-160 chars)"
categories:
  - "crypto"
series:
  - "Deep Dive Series"
images: ["featured-image.webp"]
keywords: ["keyword1", "keyword2"]
enable_rapport: true
---

Image Processing Scripts

Utility scripts for processing images (useful for Substack migration).

HEIC to WebP Converter

./scripts/convert_heic_to_webp.sh content/posts/2025/12

Converts HEIC images to WebP and updates markdown references.

Requirements: brew install imagemagick

Substack URL Updater

./scripts/update_substack_urls.sh content/posts/2025/12

Converts Substack CDN URLs to local file references.

HEIC Image Remover

./scripts/remove_heic_images.sh

Safely removes HEIC files after conversion (requires confirmation).

## Deployment

Deployment is automated via GitHub Actions:

- **Trigger**: Push to `main` branch or PR merge
- **Schedule**: Daily at 12:00 UTC (checks for posts ready to publish)
- **Process**: Hugo build → Deploy to Vercel

The workflow automatically skips deployment if no posts are ready (date ≤ today AND draft = false).