Memories

A static photography gallery for @thedataareclean. Builds with Eleventy, deploys to GitHub Pages. No database, no server.

Every photo has a plain Markdown sidecar for editing title, description, tags, and EXIF overrides. Drop a photo in local/, edit its sidecar, run build — done.

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Quickstart

npm install
# Set your site URL in config.js
npm run dev        # → http://localhost:3003

Full command reference: COMMANDS.md

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Folder map

Path	What's here
config.js	All site + build configuration
_data/	Data pipeline — processes photos, outputs JSON chunks
_includes/	Nunjucks layout shell
src/	Templates, styles, scripts, Atom feed
src/admin/	Sveltia CMS — web editor for sidecars/series at /admin
build/	Build-time modules: EXIF, watermark, OG image, sources
scripts/	CLI utilities: rename, R2 sync/publish
test/	node --test unit tests for pure logic (slug, sidecar, EXIF backfill)
local/	Drop photos here — auto-processed on build
sidecars/	One .md per photo — auto-created, edit freely
series/	One .md per series — title, description, cover photo, ordered photo list
launchd/	Local photo auto-publish agent for macOS
dist/	Build output — not committed

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Adding photos

Drop image files into local/. On build: auto-renamed to YYYY-MM-DD-slug.ext, sidecar created in sidecars/ with real EXIF pre-filled and the photo embedded inline, 800px thumbnail + 2400px display + watermarked download generated.

To get a clean title-based slug on the first build instead of a timestamp, copy TEMPLATE.md into sidecars/<raw-filename-stem>.md and fill in title: before dropping the photo in.

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Photo metadata

Edit the sidecar .md file for any photo — EXIF fields are top-level properties, not nested:

---
title: "Bougainvillea."
camera: "Fujifilm X-T50"
lens: "XF23mmF2 R WR"
focalLength: "23mm"
focalLength35: "35mm"
aperture: "ƒ/2.8"
shutterSpeed: "1/250s"
iso: 400
dateTaken: "2026-03-09T08:57:02Z"
---

![](../local/2026-03-09-bougainvillea.jpg)

Description shown in the lightbox and on the photo's permalink page.

Leave any EXIF field blank to fall back to the photo's own EXIF. The ![](../local/...) embed is optional — shows the photo inline in any Markdown-aware editor while you write the caption, stripped out automatically before publishing.

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Docs

File	Contents
README.md	This file — what it is, how to start
APP.md	Architecture, data pipeline, design system, deploy model
COMMANDS.md	All commands, copy-paste ready
CHANGELOG.md	Version history
FUTURE.md	Ideas backlog
TEMPLATE.md	Blank sidecar frontmatter — copy into sidecars/ to pre-caption a photo before it exists
CLAUDE.md	Operating instructions for Claude