thor/AGENTS.md

Thor — Odin Static Site Generator

Thor is a static site generator written in Odin, replacing Hugo for the sbrow.github.io blog. It lives at ./thor/ as a git subtree with its own flake.nix.

Architecture

thor.json          ← site config (title, base_url, params, modules, og)
content/           ← markdown and HTML content files
layouts/           ← Mustache templates + partials (user overrides)
assets/            ← CSS (Tufte-based), JS, fonts, images
thor/defaults/     ← bundled default templates (embedded via #directory)
public/            ← build output (generated)

Package structure

thor/
├── treesitter/         # FFI types + grammar management (standalone package)
├── markdown/           # Content transformation pipeline (imports ../treesitter)
├── mustache/           # Template engine with lambdas + pipe filters + diagnostics
├── content.odin        # Page struct, Pending_File, scan_content_files, collect_languages, load_page
├── render.odin         # Template rendering, data structs, RSS, sitemap
├── site.odin           # Config (Flags, Config_File, Site), init_site
├── minify.odin         # HTML/CSS minification (imports treesitter)
├── feed.odin           # RSS + sitemap generation
├── vfs.odin            # Union file system (defaults → modules → site)
├── assets.odin         # VFS-based asset copying
├── html.odin           # HTML helpers: strip_html_tags, unescape_html, generate_summary (word-count truncation), generate_description (scrub to plain text)
├── opengraph.odin      # Open_Graph struct + og_for_site/og_for_page
├── frontmatter.odin    # JSON frontmatter parser (supports nested og + lastmod)
├── defaults.odin       # DEFAULTS_PATH constant (#directory)
├── main.odin           # Entry point
├── bench/              # Template rendering benchmark
└── defaults/layouts/   # Bundled default templates

Source files (main package)

File	Responsibility
main.odin	Entry point. Sets context.logger, calls init_site, build_vfs, wires treesitter.grammar_dir/query_dir from config, site_load_content, render_site. Optional Spall profiling via SPALL config flag.
site.odin	Flags (CLI), Config_File (thor.json, includes og: Open_Graph), Site (runtime state + arena + VFS + pages + modules + og). Feature enum. 5-step init_site. Imports md "markdown" for Extension enum.
content.odin	Page struct (includes lastmod, og), Pending_File struct, scan_content_files (section-aware walk that handles leaf bundles), collect_languages (pre-scan for code fence languages), load_page, infer_layout. Calls md.process() for the markdown pipeline.
render.odin	Template rendering: render_site, render_page_html, render_home_html, render_section. Data structs (Base_Data, Page_Data, Home_Data, Section_Data). VFS-based template loading with fallback chain (get_template).
minify.odin	HTML/CSS minification via tree-sitter. Imports ts "treesitter".
feed.odin	RSS feed + sitemap XML. Uses page.url for canonical URLs.
vfs.odin	Union file system: VFS, build_vfs, mount_dir, mount_subdir, mount_recursive, vfs_get, vfs_get_entry, vfs_entry_data. Layers defaults → modules → site.
assets.odin	copy_assets_dir — iterates VFS entries with assets/ prefix, minifies CSS, copies verbatim or via os.copy_file.
html.odin	strip_html_tags, unescape_html, generate_summary (word-count truncation, zero-alloc), generate_description (HTML→plain text: strip tags, decode entities, collapse whitespace).
opengraph.odin	Open_Graph struct (fields ordered per OGP spec, is_article: Maybe(bool)). og_for_site(site) for site defaults (from config + derived), og_for_page(site_og, page) for page-specific (overlay page.og + derive from page data).
frontmatter.odin	JSON frontmatter parser ({ } delimited). Supports layout, lastmod, and nested og object (via json_get_open_graph).
defaults.odin	DEFAULTS_PATH constant, resolved at compile time via #directory so bundled templates ship in the binary.

Subpackages

Package	Files	Responsibility
treesitter/	treesitter.odin	FFI types (Parser, Node, Query, etc.), @(link_prefix="ts_") foreign bindings, grammar management (Grammar_Store with persistent allocator, load_language/compile_query building blocks, ensure_parser/load_grammar lazy loading, preload_grammar/preload_grammars for parallel loading with sync.Mutex cache protection), statically-linked HTML/CSS grammars
markdown/	markdown.odin	Extension enum, DEFAULT_EXTENSIONS, process(body, ext, file_path) — full pipeline, parse_extension_list, apply_extension_config
	footnotes.odin	strip_definitions (pre-cmark), inject_notes (post-cmark)
	alerts.odin	inject_alerts — GitHub alert blocks (> [!NOTE]) → styled blockquotes with semantic class names (alert-note etc.)
	emoji.odin	expand_emoji — :shortcode: → unicode emoji
	sectionate.odin	wrap_sections — splits HTML at <h2> into <section> wrappers
	highlight.odin	Syntax highlighting via tree-sitter. Imports ../treesitter.
mustache/	See Mustache engine below	Template engine
bench/	bench.odin + templates/	Standalone template rendering benchmark. Generates 500 posts + 100 comments, renders with indented partials + inheritance + pipes. --dump <path> for output validation, positional arg for iteration count (default 250).

Icon SVGs live as HTML partials in layouts/partials/icons/ (home, github, rss, chevron_up, star).

Data flow

thor.json → find_config → init_site (5-step)
  → build_vfs (defaults/layouts → modules → site/layouts, site/assets)
  → site_load_content (scan_content_files + collect_languages + preload_grammars + load_page + url computation)
  → render_site
    → load_partials + get_template (VFS + fallback chain)
    → render_page_html / render_home_html / render_section
    → optional minify_html
    → public/

Page struct

Page :: struct {
    section:     string,      // "" for root, "posts", etc.
    slug:        string,
    layout:      string,      // inferred or frontmatter override
    permalink:   string,      // relative URL path
    url:         string,      // full canonical URL (base_url + permalink)
    title:       string,
    description: string,
    date:        string,
    lastmod:     string,
    menu:        string,
    body_html:   string,
    draft:       bool,
    is_starred:  bool,
    og:          Open_Graph,  // per-page OG overrides from frontmatter
    _is_index:   bool `private`,
}

No Page_Type enum — page type is inferred from section + _is_index. Layout is inferred via infer_layout(section, is_index):

• Home (root index): "home"
• Section index: "<section>_index" (e.g. "posts_index")
• Section page: singularized section (e.g. "post")
• Root page: "page"

Template fallback chain (in get_template): for content pages, post → page → base; for section indexes, posts_index → section_index → page → base. Fallbacks logged at debug level. Frontmatter layout field overrides the inferred value.

Config system

Config is split into three structs with a clear 5-step initialization flow:

• Flags — CLI args only. Parsed by core:flags. Includes path overrides (--content, --assets, --output, --layouts), build-mode toggles (-drafts, -watch, -minify), and -ext/-no-ext for markdown extension overrides.
• Config_File — parsed from thor.json via json.unmarshal_string. Holds title, paths, markdown_extensions (JSON), params (JSON), modules (JSON array of relative paths), og (Open_Graph struct for site-level OG defaults).
• Site — runtime state: arena, pages, modules, VFS, features: bit_set[Feature], markdown_extensions: bit_set[md.Extension], og: Open_Graph (resolved site-level OG).

Feature enum — Drafts, Minify, Watch. Checked with .Minify in site.features.

markdown.Extension enum (in the markdown package, not main) — Emoji, Sidenotes, Alerts, Highlight, Sections. Default is md.DEFAULT_EXTENSIONS (currently .Emoji, .Sidenotes, .Alerts). Configurable via:

• thor.json: "markdown_extensions": { "emoji": true, "highlight": false, ... }
• CLI: -ext:highlight,sections (enable) / -no-ext:emoji (disable). Comma-separated, case-insensitive.

find_config — walks up from CWD looking for thor.json. Falls back to ./thor.json.

Config precedence: CLI flags > thor.json values > hardcoded defaults.

{
  "title": "...",
  "base_url": "...",
  "modules": ["../path/to/module"],
  "og": {
    "image": "https://example.com/og.png"
  },
  "date": {
    "format": "2 Jan 2006",
    "timezone": "America/New_York"
  },
  "grammars": "~/.config/helix/runtime/grammars/",
  "queries": "/path/to/tree-sitter/queries",
  "markdown_extensions": { "emoji": true, "highlight": false },
  "params": {
    "social": [
      { "name": "github", "url": "...", "icon": "icons/github" }
    ]
  }
}

VFS (Union File System)

Layered directory resolution for templates and assets: site layouts/ → module layouts/ → defaults/layouts/.

VFS :: struct { files: map[string]VFS_Entry }
VFS_Entry :: struct { fs_path: string, data: []byte }

build_vfs mounts in reverse precedence (defaults first, site last overwrites). DEFAULTS_PATH resolved at compile time via #directory, so bundled templates ship inside the binary. Modules configured via "modules": ["../path"] in thor.json — each module contributes layouts/ and assets/ subdirectories.

Three access patterns:

• vfs_get(vfs, path) -> ([]byte, bool) — data only (lazy-loaded from disk)
• vfs_get_entry(vfs, path) -> (VFS_Entry, []byte, bool) — entry + data (for callers that need fs_path for diagnostics)
• vfs_entry_data(entry) -> ([]byte, bool) — data from an entry already in hand (avoids redundant map lookup when iterating vfs.files)

Content is not yet in the VFS — scan_content_files still uses direct filesystem reads. (See TODOS.md.)

Open Graph

Open_Graph struct in opengraph.odin with fields ordered per ogp.me spec. is_article is Maybe(bool) — nil means "unset" (distinguished from explicitly false).

Site-level (og_for_site): starts from Config_File.og (user-supplied defaults from thor.json), then fills empty fields derivable from Site:

• site_name ← site.title
• locale ← "en_US" (default if unset)

Page-level (og_for_page): copies site OG, derives page-specific fields, then overlays Page.og (from frontmatter):

• url ← page.url
• title ← page.title (falls back to site_name if empty)
• type ← "article" if !page._is_index else "website"
• is_article ← !page._is_index
• section ← page.section
• published_time / modified_time ← page.date / page.lastmod
• description ← page.description, else generate_description(generate_summary(body_html)) (scrubbed plain text)

Paths through maps (e.g. params.*) are silently allowed — not validated. Templates access via {{og.url}}, {{og.title}}, {{#og.is_article}}, etc.

Markdown pipeline

Lives in the markdown package. Entry point: md.process(body, ext, file_path). All .html content files skip the pipeline entirely — body is used as-is.

raw markdown
  → md.strip_definitions     (if .Sidenotes — pre-cmark)
  → cmark markdown_to_html   (Unsafe mode for HTML passthrough)
  → md.expand_emoji          (if .Emoji — post-cmark)
  → md.inject_notes          (if .Sidenotes — post-cmark)
  → md.inject_alerts         (if .Alerts — post-cmark)
  → md.highlight_code        (if .Highlight — post-cmark)
  → md.wrap_sections         (if .Sections — post-cmark)

Each step is gated by bit_set[md.Extension].

Template system

Templates use Mustache with template inheritance ({{<base}} / {{$block}}):

<!-- base.html -->
<body>{{> nav}}{{$main}}{{/main}}{{> footer}}</body>

<!-- page.html (content layout) -->
{{<base}}
{{$main}}
<main><article><h1>{{page_title}}</h1>{{&content}}</article></main>
{{/main}}
{{/base}}

Data is passed as typed structs (not map[string]any). Mustache resolves struct fields via Odin reflection, including using-embedded fields. Date presence is checked via string truthiness ({{#date}}) — no separate has_date bool needed. Dates are stored as raw ISO strings; presentation formatting happens in the template via the format pipe (see Pipes extension below).

Base_Data :: struct {
    now:          string,        // UTC ISO 8601 build timestamp
    params:       json.Value,
    content:      string,
    title:        string,
    description:  string,
    og:           Open_Graph,
    date_format:  string,        // from site.date.format (thor.json)
    timezone:     ^datetime.TZ_Region,  // loaded from site.date.timezone or local, owned by Site
}
Page_Data :: struct {
    using base: Base_Data,  // fields promoted via reflection fallback
    page_title: string,
    date:       string,     // raw ISO 8601; formatted via `| format` in templates
}
Home_Data :: struct {
    using base: Base_Data,
    pages:      [dynamic]Page_Context,
}
Section_Data :: struct {
    using base: Base_Data,
    page_title: string,
    posts:      [dynamic]Page_Context,  // flat list; year grouping done in template via pipe
}

render_site pre-parses all partials and the base layout once (via mustache.parse), then per-layout templates are cached in get_template. Year-based grouping on section index pages is done in the template via {{#posts | group_by year}} (see Pipes extension below) — there is no Year_Section Go-side struct.

Pipes extension

Section tags and interpolation tags may transform the resolved value before rendering:

{{#posts | group_by year}}
  {{key}}: {{#items}}{{title}}, {{/items}}
{{/posts}}

<!-- Interpolation pipe: format a date for display -->
<time datetime="{{date}}">{{date | format}}</time>

Currently implemented: group_by <field> (list → list-of-groups) and format (ISO date string → display string like "15 Mar 2026"). The format pipe resolves date_format (string) and timezone (^datetime.TZ_Region) from the data context. When timezone is non-nil, dates are DST-aware converted before formatting. The MST token reflects the active timezone abbreviation (e.g. "EST"/"EDT") or the source offset (e.g. "UTC-04:00") when no target tz is configured. TZ data is loaded once by init_site via timezone.region_load using the site arena allocator, stored on Site.tz, and freed when the arena is destroyed. Filter results live in context.temp_allocator (render-scoped). See mustache/EXTENSIONS.md for syntax details, caps (MAX_PIPES, MAX_PIPE_ARGS), and the Group struct shape.

Comments

page.html includes {{> comments}}. The comments.html partial self-guards with {{#og.is_article}} so it only renders on article pages — no separate is_post flag.

Syntax highlighting

Build-time highlighting via Tree-sitter C FFI. No client-side JavaScript.

• HTML and CSS grammars statically linked via Nix (mkGrammarStaticLib in thor/flake.nix). Always available, no dlopen.
• Other grammars (bash, odin, nu, etc.) loaded via dlopen from .so files. Pre-scanned from content code fences and loaded in parallel via preload_grammars (one thread per language, sync.Mutex on Grammar_Store.cache). Grammar_Store.allocator is the OS heap (set by init_persistent before arena override) so grammars persist across watch-mode rebuilds.
• Grammar and query paths configured via thor.json (grammars, queries). Flow: thor.json → Config_File → Site → main.odin sets treesitter.grammar_dir/treesitter.query_dir. Tilde (~/) expanded by expand_path in site.odin. Paths logged at startup.
• Grammar loading split: ensure_parser (parser only, used by minify) vs load_grammar (parser + query, used by highlight).
• Capture names mapped to CSS classes: keyword → .hl-keyword, etc.
• Atom-one-dark color theme in main.css.

Minification

Optional, enabled with -minify flag (.Minify in Feature bit_set).

• HTML — tree-sitter parses output, strips comments, removes inter-tag whitespace, preserves <pre>/<code>/<textarea>/<script>/<style> content. Applied after template rendering.
• CSS — tree-sitter parses .css files in assets/, strips comments, collapses whitespace, trims around {};:,. Applied during copy_assets_dir.
• Non-CSS files in assets/ copied verbatim.

Memory management

• Site owns a mem.Dynamic_Arena
• init_site calls mem.dynamic_arena_init(&site.arena) (Odin's default alignment suffices)
• Config loading (flags + JSON) uses the arena allocator explicitly
• site_allocator(site) returns the arena allocator for callers
• destroy_site frees the arena
• main.odin sets context.logger = log.create_console_logger() — without this, all log.* calls are silently dropped
• context.allocator is set to site_allocator(&site) in the main loop
• context.temp_allocator freed per watch-loop iteration via defer free_all

Spall profiling

Optional, compiled out by default. Enabled with -define:SPALL=true:

odin build . -define:SPALL=true -o:speed -out:thor-prof
./thor-prof -drafts  # generates thor.spall

Uses core:prof/spall with @(instrumentation_enter)/@(instrumentation_exit) hooks — every function auto-instrumented, no manual annotation needed.

Building

Local development

nix develop
# From blog root:
odin run ./thor -- -drafts
# Assets (CSS/JS/fonts) are copied/minified automatically by thor
caddy run  # serves public/ on blog.localhost

No CSS build step — main.css is static Tufte-based CSS, no preprocessor or compiler needed.

Production build

nix build  # runs thor, outputs to ./result/

Tests

cd thor
odin test .                  # main package tests (site, frontmatter)
odin test . -all-packages    # includes mustache specs, lambdas, pipes, diagnostics, markdown tests

Benchmark

cd thor
odin build bench -o:speed
./bench.bin                    # 250 iterations, prints timing
./bench.bin --dump output.html # render once, write to file for diff validation
./bench.bin 1000               # custom iteration count

Mustache engine

Spec-compliant implementation at mustache/. See mustache/SPEC.md for the implementation specification, mustache/EXTENSIONS.md for non-standard extensions (pipes), and mustache/diagnostic.odin for the rust-style error formatter.

Files

File	Responsibility
mustache.odin	Public API (parse, render, Template), parser (parse_section), renderer (render_nodes with Indent_State for partial indentation), template inheritance (merge_block_overrides), delete_template/delete_partials. Pipe support in Variable/Unescaped/Section/Inverted tags.
tokenizer.odin	Tokenizer (template string → []Token), standalone whitespace detection
data.odin	Reflection-based data model: base_value (peels union/any/nested-any layers), lookup_in (structs + maps, handles Type_Info_Any value kind in maps), resolve_name, is_truthy, any_to_string, list_info, extract_list_element, call_interp_lambda/call_section_lambda
pipes.odin	Pipes extension: Pipe_Filter AST, parse_pipeline (takes pos), apply_pipeline, apply_filter (switch dispatch: group_by + format), apply_group_by, apply_format. Stored on Node.filters; render-scoped results in temp allocator.
diagnostic.odin	Rust-style error formatter: format_error (multi-line context, ANSI colors via core:terminal/ansi, colorize param), format_render_error (formats Error), line_col, line_text, context_extent, count_lines, digit_count, should_colorize.
suggest.odin	Strict-warning helpers: validate_key_path (walks dotted path, crosses maps silently), suggest_correction (Levenshtein via core:strings/levenshtein_distance), collect_struct_keys (via reflection, recurses into using), struct_has_field (distinguishes missing field from nil value — needed for Maybe(bool)), collect_partial_names, collect_block_names.
spec_test.odin	JSON spec test runner — loads spec/specs/*.json, runs each test case. Uses log.nil_logger() to suppress expected warnings.
lambda_test.odin	Spec lambda tests
pipes_test.odin	Pipe filter tests (group_by + format)
diagnostic_test.odin	Golden-output tests for format_error (multi-line context, edge cases, alignment, caret position, hint) + parser error message brace-escaping
suggest_test.odin	Tests for validate_key_path, suggest_correction, struct_has_field with Maybe(bool) and using-promoted fields

Architecture

parse(source, path) → tokenize → trim_standalone_whitespace → parse_section → Template
render(tmpl, data, partials) → render_nodes (walks flat node array against context stack) → string

• Two-phase API: parse() produces a reusable Template, render() walks it against data. Templates parsed once, rendered many times.
• Flat [dynamic]Node array with children: []Node slices (pre-order layout; slices point into the backing array). Each Node carries pos: int (byte offset into source) for diagnostics.
• Template carries source and path — used by diagnostics to show file location and source context.
• Context stack: ^[dynamic]any with append/pop for section push/pop.
• render_nodes takes Template by value (not ^Template) — Odin's calling convention promotes to pointer when efficient. Eliminates "local copy" patterns at call sites.
• Block_Override.source: Template — carries the template that defined the override, so warnings inside block overrides point at the correct file.
• base_value peels Named/Distinct/Union layers (including json.Value). Also unwraps nested any-of-any (which occurs when map[string]any values are read via runtime map internals).
• lookup_in resolves keys on structs (via reflect.struct_field_value_by_name with allow_using = true) and maps. Detects Type_Info_Any value kind in maps and reads the inner any directly to avoid double-wrap.
• Template inheritance: {{<parent}} loads parent from partials, {{$block}} defines overridable sections. merge_block_overrides propagates overrides through multi-level chains.
• Dynamic partial names: {{>*key}} resolves partial name from data context at render time.
• Render-time partial indentation: Indent_State threads at_line_start through render_nodes so partial indent is applied at render time (via write_indented on Text nodes) instead of reparsing the partial's source. render_template writes initial indent, creates state, calls render_nodes. Data-injected newlines don't pick up indent (Variables don't update at_line_start).

Diagnostics

Rust-style error messages with multi-line source context, caret underlines, and Levenshtein suggestions. ANSI colors via core:terminal/ansi, gated on should_colorize() (TTY detection on stderr).

Error types: Error_Body{msg, pos, kind} where kind is Error_Kind.Syntax (parse-time) or Error_Kind.Data (render-time). Error is a single-variant union wrapping Error_Body (nilable for != nil / or_return).

Strict-by-default warnings — render_nodes emits log.warnf diagnostics for:

• Unknown keys in {{k}}, {{{k}}}, {{#k}}, {{^k}} (via validate_key_path + suggest_correction)
• Missing partials ({{> name}} not in partials map)
• Missing parent templates ({{<name}} not in partials map)
• Unmatched block overrides ({{$name}} doesn't match any block in parent template)

Exceptions (no warning):

• {{.}} and dot-prefixed names (current context)
• Paths that cross a map (e.g., params.* — user-defined namespace)
• Maybe(bool) fields with nil value (field exists, value is nil — distinguished via struct_has_field)

Block override source tracking: Block_Override.source: Template ensures warnings inside block overrides point at the override's source file (e.g., page.html), not the parent template (base.html).

Lambdas

Spec-compliant. Stored as any values in the data context.

• Interpolation lambdas: proc() -> string, proc() -> int, proc() -> bool — called via call_interp_lambda, result stringified and escaped.
• Section lambdas: proc(string) -> string, proc(string) -> int, proc(string) -> bool — called via call_section_lambda with the raw section text (node.content). String result is re-parsed as mustache and rendered against the current context stack.

Pipes

{{key | op args…}} for interpolation, {{#key | op args…}}…{{/key}} for sections. Stored as [dynamic; MAX_PIPES]Pipe_Filter on each Node. Applied in the renderer via apply_pipeline before truthiness/interpolation. Implemented filters:

• group_by <field> — list → [dynamic]Group where Group{key, items}
• format — ISO 8601 date string → display string (e.g., "15 Mar 2026")

See mustache/EXTENSIONS.md.

Not implemented

• Set delimiters ({{= =}}, delimiters.json)
• Partial invocation stack in diagnostics (warnings inside partials point at the partial file but don't show the {{> name}} invocation site — see TODOS.md)

Known limitations

• cmark allocates via C malloc, not the arena. HTML output leaks until process exit (problematic in watch mode — see TODOS.md).
• CSS/JS cache busting uses manual ?v=N query params instead of content hashing.
• Tree-sitter grammar/query paths must be configured manually via thor.json (grammars, queries) — no auto-discovery. HTML/CSS are statically linked.
• map[string]any only works through lookup_in's special-case handling; thor otherwise uses structs.
• format_f64 in mustache brute-forces shortest float representation.
• Content directory not mounted in VFS (modules can ship templates/assets but not content packs yet).

Design decisions

You may never, ever remove TODO: or FIXME: comments. Those are for humans, not machines. See HUGO.md for analysis of why thor doesn't need Hugo's shortcode context isolation. See mustache/SPEC.md for the original implementation specification. See mustache/EXTENSIONS.md for non-standard extensions (pipes).

TODO

See TODOS.md for the full list.