Create Blog Post

Convert a draft markdown file into a properly formatted Home Assistant blog post.

Usage

Place your draft blog post markdown file in the project root create-blog-post/ directory (e.g., /workspaces/home-assistant.io/create-blog-post/), then run:

/create-blog-post

What This Skill Does

Automates conversion of a draft markdown file with metadata into a production-ready Home Assistant blog post:

• Extracts metadata (blog title, author, publish date, category, Social/OpenGraph fields)
• Removes "# Blog notes/preparations" section and lines with ☝️ emoji
• Converts ### **– Summary break / Read more –** to <!--more-->
• Processes hero image and any additional images
• Converts external links to HTML <a> tags with target="_blank"
• Formats content (removes bold from headings, fixes link references)
• Creates properly formatted blog post in source/_posts/ with Jekyll front matter

Required Files in create-blog-post/ Directory

1. Draft markdown file (any .md filename)
2. art.webp - Hero/OG image (required)
3. image2.png, image3.png, etc. - Additional images (optional, will be converted to WebP)

Draft File Format

# Metadata

**Blog title:** Your Blog Title

**Author:** Author Name

**Publish date:** DD-MM-YYYY

**Category:** Category Name

**Social/OpenGraph title** (Usually same as the blog title, visibility mostly limited to 50-60 characters)**:**
A short title.

**Social/OpenGraph description** (120-158 characters):
Influences SEO ranking. Include the main keyword, describe what readers will find, and give them a clear reason to click.

# Blog notes/preparations

☝️ Any lines with the pointer emoji can be removed during processing

# Blog content

![][image1]

Your intro paragraph here...

### **– Summary break / Read more –**

Rest of content...

Notes:

• The ![][image1] reference should appear at the start of the "# Blog content" section. This will be replaced with the art.webp hero image.
• URL slug is optional and will be auto-generated from the blog title if not provided in metadata
• Lines beginning with ☝️ emoji are instructions and will be removed during processing
• The ### **– Summary break / Read more –** marker will be converted to <!--more-->

Output

Creates a production-ready blog post at:

• source/_posts/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.markdown - The formatted blog post
• source/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/art.webp - OG/hero image (moved from create-blog-post/)
• source/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/image2.webp, image3.webp, etc. - Additional images (converted from PNGs)

Conversion Process

1. Parse Metadata

• Extract blog title, author, publish date, category (convert to YAML list), Social/OpenGraph title and description
• Auto-generate URL slug from blog title (lowercase, hyphens for spaces, remove special characters)
• Remove "# Blog notes/preparations" section and all content under it (up to "# Blog content")
• Remove all lines that start with ☝️ emoji (instruction lines)
• Convert ### **– Summary break / Read more –** marker to <!--more-->

2. Process Images

Hero image (art.webp):

• Move to source/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/art.webp
• Replace ![][image1] reference in "# Blog content" section with: <img src="/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/art.webp" alt="Blog Title" style="border: 0;box-shadow: none;">
• CRITICAL: Use double quotes for all HTML attributes (prevents breaking on apostrophes in alt text)
• Alt text uses the Social/OpenGraph title or blog title
• No wrapper tags (no <p> tag)

Additional images (if any):

• Find image2.png, image3.png, etc. in create-blog-post/ directory
• Convert to WebP: cwebp -resize 900 0 -q 85 input.png -o output.webp
• Move to source/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/
• Update references in content

3. Transform Links

External links (different domains/subdomains):

• Convert to: <a href="URL" target="_blank" rel="noopener">text</a>
• Includes: my.home-assistant.io, partner.home-assistant.io, etc.

Internal links (www.home-assistant.io only):

• Keep as Markdown links: [text](/path)

4. Clean Content

• Headings: Remove bold formatting (## **Title** → ## Title)
• Heading levels: If content starts with H1 (#), demote all headings one level (content should start at H2)
• Backticks: Strip erroneous ``` characters (preserve code blocks/inline code)

5. Build Blog Post

• Create source/_posts/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.markdown
• Jekyll front matter (layout, title, description, date, date_formatted, author, categories, og_image)
• Hero image (no wrapper)
• Intro paragraph
• <!--more--> tag after first paragraph
• Remaining content

Example

1. Place in project root create-blog-post/:
   • draft-partner-update.md - Your draft file
   • art.webp - OG/hero image
   • image2.png, image3.png - Additional images (if any)
2. Run /create-blog-post

This would create:

• source/_posts/2026-01-13-partner-update.markdown
• source/images/blog/2026-01-partner/art.webp
• source/images/blog/2026-01-partner/image2.webp, image3.webp (if additional images exist)

Important Notes

Image references:

• Draft: ![][image1] (at start of "# Blog content" section) → Output: art.webp hero image
• Draft: ![][image2] → Look for image2.png, convert to image2.webp
• Draft: ![][image3] → Look for image3.png, convert to image3.webp

Requirements:

• Hero image reference should appear at the start of the "# Blog content" section
• cwebp tool required for PNG→WebP conversion (install: sudo apt-get install -y webp)

Content processing:

• Remove "# Blog notes/preparations" section entirely
• Remove all lines starting with ☝️ emoji (instruction lines)
• Convert ### **– Summary break / Read more –** to <!--more-->

Output format:

• Filename: YYYY-MM-DD-slug.markdown
• Image directory: source/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/
• Categories in YAML list format (even single category)

Link handling:

• Only www.home-assistant.io and home-assistant.io stay as Markdown links
• All other domains/subdomains → HTML <a> tags with target="_blank" rel="noopener"