CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

Project Overview

Academic portfolio website for Hancheng Lou, built with Jekyll and hosted on GitHub Pages. Based on the Academic Pages template (fork of Minimal Mistakes theme). URL: https://louhc.github.io

Common Commands

# Install dependencies
bundle install                              # Ruby gems
npm install                                 # Node packages

# Local development (site at localhost:4000, live reload)
bundle exec jekyll serve -l -H localhost

# Build JavaScript (minify all JS into main.min.js)
npm run build:js

# Docker alternative
docker compose up                           # site at localhost:4000

Important: Changes to _config.yml require restarting the Jekyll server. Markdown/HTML changes reload automatically.

Architecture

Jekyll static site using collections-based content organization:

_config.yml — Central configuration: site metadata, author info, collections, plugins, theme selection
_data/navigation.yml — Controls header navigation links
_data/cv.json — Structured CV data used by the JSON-based CV page

Content collections (each in _collections/ with Markdown + YAML front matter):

_publications/ — Research papers (categorized: books, manuscripts, conferences)
_talks/ — Presentations and tutorials
_teaching/ — Courses
_portfolio/ — Projects

Layout hierarchy: compress.html → default.html → single.html talk.html cv-layout.html

Pages (_pages/): Archive/listing pages for each collection, plus CV, about, talkmap.

Styling: SASS in _sass/, theme set via site_theme in _config.yml (options: default, air, sunrise, mint, dirt, contrast).

Automation: markdown_generator/ contains Python scripts and Jupyter notebooks to generate collection Markdown from CSV/TSV files. GitHub Actions workflow (scrape_talks.yml) auto-updates talk location data.

Content Front Matter

Publications:

title: "Paper Title"
collection: publications
category: conferences  # or: books, manuscripts
permalink: /publication/YYYY-MM-DD-slug
venue: 'Journal Name'
paperurl: 'https://...'
date: YYYY-MM-DD

Talks:

title: "Talk Title"
collection: talks
type: "Talk"  # or "Tutorial"
permalink: /talks/YYYY-MM-DD-slug
venue: "Location Name"
date: YYYY-MM-DD
location: "City, State, Country"

Key Details

Markdown processor: kramdown (GFM input)
Plugins: jekyll-feed, jekyll-gist, jekyll-paginate, jekyll-sitemap, jekyll-redirect-from, jemoji
future: true in config — posts with future dates are rendered
Author sidebar configured in _config.yml under author:, template in _includes/author-profile.html
Static files (PDFs, etc.) go in files/, images in images/