How I blog from VS Code in 30 seconds
The /notes section is backed by a tiny Node script and a VS Code task. Type a title, get a draft MDX file open in the editor, write, push. No CMS, no admin UI, no auth.
- #workflow
- #site
- #meta
Context
I want to publish short observations without the activation energy of a “blogging app.” Every CMS I’ve used in the last decade has friction between “I had a thought” and “the thought is on the internet.”
Observation
The whole pipeline is three pieces:
- A Node script (scripts/new-note.mjs)
takes a title, generates
YYYY-MM-DD-slug.mdxunderwebsites/advisor-site/src/content/notes/, and writes a pre-filled frontmatter plus a 3-heading skeleton. - A VS Code task wraps it with a one-prompt UI.
Ctrl+Shift+P→Tasks: Run Task→Notes: new draft→ type the title → the new file opens in the editor. - A
npm run note "Title"alias works from any terminal in the advisor-site directory.
To publish: save the file, set draft: false in the frontmatter,
git add + git commit + git push. The path-filtered GitHub Action
rebuilds and deploys in about two minutes.
What it means
The friction tax for a new post is now ~30 seconds. That changes the threshold of what’s worth writing down: short observations from a demo, a one-paragraph reaction to a Microsoft Learn doc, the five-line answer to a question someone asked at a conference.
If you’re considering doing the same: don’t build a CMS. Build a script.