Chulapa v2.2.0\nis out.
\n\nThis release adds a few features that I have wanted to bring to the theme for\nsome time: a light/dark skin selector, Mermaid diagrams, PhotoSwipe galleries\nand complete starter examples. There are also several smaller changes around\nnavigation, accessibility and the bundled skins.
\n\nHere is a quick overview of what is new.
\n\nChulapa can now let visitors choose between light,\ndark and automatic appearances.
\n\nYou just need to configure a second skin. The theme then adds a selector to the\nclassic, floating and dual navigation bars. The selected appearance is\nremembered across pages and tabs and, importantly, it is applied before the\npage is displayed.
\n\nThis is completely opt-in. If you do not configure a dark skin, your site works\nas before and no additional styles or scripts for the selector are loaded.
\n\nSee how to configure light and dark skins.
\n\nAnother addition in v2.2.0 is support for\nMermaid diagrams.
\n\nMermaid can be enabled per page, so the library is only loaded when it is\nactually needed. Once enabled, diagrams can be added using fenced blocks\ndirectly in your Markdown content.
\n\nThere is also a fallback: if Mermaid cannot render a diagram, the original\nsource remains available.
\n\nThe Mermaid guide has all the\ndetails.
\n\nMasonry galleries and carousels can now use PhotoSwipe to provide a zoomable\nimage viewer.
\n\nPhotoSwipe is optional and supports keyboard and touch controls, reduced-motion\npreferences and the original image link as a fallback.
\n\nYou can see how to\nenable PhotoSwipe or check the\nlive demo.
\n\nv2.2.0 also adds support for\nGoatCounter as a lightweight analytics option.
\n\nIt is disabled by default and, when configured, the script is loaded\nasynchronously only in production builds.
\n\nSee the GoatCounter setup guide\nfor the configuration details.
\n\nThere are a few other visible changes.
\n\nTables of contents now highlight the section currently being viewed. This is\nparticularly useful on longer documentation pages and posts.
\n\nThe release also adds three new skins: Cerulean, Litera and Pulse.\nI have also reviewed text contrast across many components of the bundled skins.\nSome upstream color combinations still fall below the WCAG 4.5:1 contrast\nbenchmark, so it is worth checking the result if you use one of these skins or\ncustom colors.
\n\nYou can compare all of them in the\nskin previews.
\n\nOne thing that was missing from the documentation was a simple way to see how a\ncomplete Chulapa site fits together.
\n\nv2.2.0 adds four starter examples:
\n\nEach example includes the configuration and content files needed to reproduce\nthe site, together with a working demo.
\n\nSee the starter examples or\nbrowse the demos.
\n\nFor sites using the remote theme, update _config.yml:
remote_theme: dieghernan/chulapa@v2.2.0\nFor gem-based installations, update the version in your Gemfile:
gem \"chulapa-jekyll\", \"~> 2.2.0\"\nand run:
\n\nbundle update chulapa-jekyll\nThe installation guide covers both\nmethods.
\n\nIf you are upgrading an existing site, especially one with local overrides of\nlayouts or includes, I recommend previewing it locally before publishing.
\n\nThe full release notes\nhave the complete list of changes.
\n\nAs always, issues, suggestions and examples of sites built with\nChulapa are welcome in\nGitHub Discussions.
\n", "date_published": "2026-10-22T00:00:00+02:00", "image": "https://dieghernan.github.io/chulapa/assets/img/site/chulapa-madrid-hd.webp", "summary": "Chulapa v2.2.0 is out, with support for light and dark skins, Mermaid diagrams, PhotoSwipe galleries, new starter examples and several improvements across the theme.", "tags": ["news","release","jekyll"], "authors": [{ "name": "dieghernan", "url": "https://github.com/dieghernan/" }] }, { "id": "https://dieghernan.github.io/chulapa/blog/20261009_chulapa-v2-1-0", "url": "https://dieghernan.github.io/chulapa/blog/20261009_chulapa-v2-1-0", "title": "Chulapa v2.1.0: more control over your site", "content_html": "Chulapa v2.1.0\nis here. This release gives you more control over how your site looks, how\nreaders find its content and how pages appear when shared.
\n\nWhen I first built Chulapa, I wanted a theme I\ncould use for different sites while giving each one its own look. The idea is\nstill the same. You can choose a skin, change a few settings in _config.yml\nand make the site your own. This release adds more ways to do that, along with\nsome useful fixes behind the scenes.
Here are the changes I would start exploring.
\n\nA page title has several jobs. It introduces the content on the page, appears\nin the browser tab and helps describe a link when someone shares it. You may\nwant different wording for each of those places.
\n\nIn v2.1.0, seo_title and og_title let you set the metadata titles separately\nfrom the visible heading. The new description option also gives you an\nexplicit metadata description, independent of the subtitle and excerpt:
---\nlayout: default\ntitle: \"My field notes\"\nsubtitle: \"A weekend exploring the mountains\"\nseo_title: \"Mountain field notes | My travel blog\"\nog_title: \"A weekend in the mountains\"\ndescription: \"Routes, observations and practical notes from a mountain weekend.\"\n---\nThe theme shares that description across HTML, Open Graph, Twitter/X cards\nand JSON-LD, without forcing it into a fixed character limit. You can keep\nthe introduction on the page conversational and write a separate description\nfor people encountering its link elsewhere.
\n\nThere is more control over the rest of the metadata, too. canonical_url\nprovides a consistent preferred URL across the page’s metadata, breadcrumbs\nand feeds. Page language and Open Graph locales can be configured separately,\nand translated locales can be listed. Article metadata includes publication\nand modification dates, authors, sections and tags where supplied.
For sites with several contributors, the JSON-LD publisher can now be\nconfigured independently of the author. Sharing images can have explicit\nalternative text, dimensions and a MIME type, while schema_image identifies\nrepresentative article images for structured data.
These settings help describe your content accurately. They do not guarantee\na particular search result or social preview, so check a few real pages after\nupdating. The metadata reference\nand global settings explain the options\nand their defaults.
\n\nThis release adds 13 skins, including listen, navi, cyborg, darkly,\nslate, solar and the butterfly variants. There are also more code\nhighlighting styles, including github.dark, nord, one.dark and\nstackoverflow.light.
The configuration stays familiar. For example, to combine the Navi skin with\nNord code highlighting:
\n\nchulapa-skin:\n skin: navi\n highlight: nord\nBrowse the skin previews and\nsyntax highlighting examples\nto compare them with your own content. Skin names are case-sensitive: use the\nfilename without its .scss extension.
Titles and subtitles now support Markdown as well as HTML. A little emphasis\nor an inline code name can be written using the same syntax as the rest of\nyour post.
\n\nChulapa now supports Fuse.js and\nSimple-Jekyll-Search, alongside the\nexisting search providers. Both use an index generated during the Jekyll\nbuild, so they are useful options for a static site.
\n\nTo select Fuse.js in _config.yml:
search:\n provider: fusejs\n maxwords: 30\nUse provider: simplesearch to select Simple-Jekyll-Search. The maxwords\nsetting controls how much page content is included in these indexes; it is\nnot a limit on the number of results. Pages can be excluded with\ninclude_on_search: false.
The provider needs a separate page using layout: search, with a permalink\nmatching search.landing_page (by default, /search). Changing the provider\ndoes not create that page for you.
Fuse.js and Lunr results now highlight matching terms, helping readers see why\na page appeared. When updating an older Lunr configuration, replace\nsearch.lunr_maxwords with search.maxwords. The old option still works and\ntakes precedence if both are present, so remove it when migrating.
See the search configuration\nfor provider-specific settings and setup.
\n\nThe minimal layout is useful when you want to control your own content width\nand structure. In v2.1.0, it can also reuse a theme header:
---\nlayout: minimal\ntitle: \"A project of my own\"\nshow_header: true\nheader_type: base\n---\nThe header is optional, and the layout stays headerless by default. Enabling\nit does not add a content container: your markup still controls the page’s\nwidth and spacing. Try the minimal header demo\nfor an example.
\n\nAt the end of an article, show_random adds another way to discover content,\nand related_label and random_label let you customize the introductions to\nthose cards. Random selection happens at build time, using the same tag-based\ncandidate pool as related content; it does not select a new set on each visit.
The layouts reference covers those\noptions and the other components you can enable on a page.
\n\nSome of the most useful changes are the ones you should barely notice.\nCanonical URLs, breadcrumbs and feeds now preserve filenames containing\nindex.html. Metadata avoids repeated subtitles and empty title separators,\nand guest pages no longer inherit the site author’s Twitter/X attribution.
Video structured data now uses the correct URLs before and after deferred\nplayback. Video snippets also accept optional titles, thumbnails, dates,\ndescriptions and durations. The main theme script and deferred video player\nload from the installed theme, and minimal pages without a maincontent\nelement no longer trigger the previous JavaScript error.
Font Awesome’s fa_kit_code setting now loads the configured kit. If you still\nhave fa5_kit_code, it remains supported and takes precedence when both keys\nare present. Check that combination if a kit change seems to have no effect.
You can find the full list, including the new skins and highlighting styles,\nin the v2.1.0 release notes.
\n\nFor a remote-theme installation, pin the release in _config.yml:
remote_theme: dieghernan/chulapa@v2.1.0\nFor a gem-based installation, set the version constraint in your Gemfile:
gem \"chulapa-jekyll\", \"~> 2.1.0\"\nThen run bundle update chulapa-jekyll and rebuild your site. Version 2.1.0\nis available on RubyGems.\nThe installation guide covers the\nrequired plugins and deployment steps for each method.
Preview a post, a standalone page and your search results before deploying.\nIf you use custom layouts or includes, check them alongside the theme’s\nexamples. For metadata changes, inspect the generated titles, descriptions\nand canonical URLs on a few representative pages.
\n\nThe release was checked with Jekyll 3.10.0 and 4.4.1. That is useful coverage,\nbut your own content, plugins and overrides still deserve a preview.
\n\nThere is already more work on the development branch: optional Mermaid\ndiagrams for technical content, keyboard navigation and visible-focus\nimprovements, and four small starter examples for blogs, portfolios and\nproject pages.
\n\nThese changes are not part of v2.1.0. They are a preview of the next stage,\nwith no release date promised here. If you try the development branch, keep\nits version caveats in mind; the pinned release above gives you v2.1.0.
\n\nIf you give Chulapa a go, I would love to see what\nyou build. Share your site or feedback in\nGitHub Discussions.
\n", "date_published": "2026-10-09T00:00:00+02:00", "image": "https://dieghernan.github.io/chulapa/assets/img/site/chulapa-madrid-hd.webp", "summary": "Explore Chulapa v2.1.0, from page metadata and new skins to search and layout options, with a small preview of what comes next.", "tags": ["news","release","jekyll"], "authors": [{ "name": "dieghernan", "url": "https://github.com/dieghernan/" }] }, { "id": "https://dieghernan.github.io/chulapa/blog/20261009_building-a-documentation-chatbot", "url": "https://dieghernan.github.io/chulapa/blog/20261009_building-a-documentation-chatbot", "title": "Ask Chulapa", "content_html": "The Chulapa documentation now has an AI assistant .\nYou can open it from the AI button on the homepage or documentation pages\nand ask about installation, skins, configuration, layouts and other documented\nfeatures.
\n\nTry a specific question such as “How do I change my site’s skin?” or “How do I\nadd a local video?” The assistant can provide short explanations, code examples\nand links to the relevant documentation. Each question is independent, so include\nthe details it needs rather than relying on an earlier message.
\n\nRecent messages and the draft stay in the current tab’s sessionStorage so\nreloading a page can restore the interface. Clear chat resets those messages and\nthe draft. This displayed history is not sent as conversation context: each\nrequest contains only the current question.
Following a link from the assistant in the same tab closes its panel so you can\nread the destination. Reopening it restores your messages and draft. Opening a\nlink in a new tab leaves the original panel open.
\n\nThe assistant uses Cloudflare Workers AI with a reviewed summary of the docs.\nQuestions are sent to Cloudflare for processing. Answers can contain mistakes;\ncheck the linked documentation, especially before changing your configuration.\nSite search remains available when you want to explore the original pages.
\n\nThis is an addition to the documentation site. It is not bundled with the\nreusable theme and does not require an AI account to use\nChulapa on your own site.
\n\nI wrote a more personal account of the development, including context selection,\nanswer testing and the mobile interface, on my blog:\nBuilding a documentation chatbot for Chulapa.
\n", "date_published": "2026-10-09T00:00:00+02:00", "image": "https://dieghernan.github.io/chulapa/assets/img/site/chulapa-madrid-hd.webp", "summary": "Ask questions about Chulapa and get practical examples with links to the docs.", "tags": ["news","ai"], "authors": [{ "name": "dieghernan", "url": "https://github.com/dieghernan/" }] }, { "id": "https://dieghernan.github.io/chulapa/blog/20200515_welcome", "url": "https://dieghernan.github.io/chulapa/blog/20200515_welcome", "title": "Welcome", "content_html": "Welcome to Chulapa. This is another Jekyll theme\nthat you can use for creating your site.
\n\nIn the last couple of years I created some tiny websites using GitHub Pages.\nHowever, I was not very happy with some of the thousands of Jekyll themes\navailable, since I didn’t find one that met all my requirements:
\n\nSo, as a way to challenge myself, I decided to build this one from scratch. My main references were Beautiful Jekyll and Minimal Mistakes, that are two pretty good options, much more mature than this one and with hundreds of users. So, why not learn from them? There are pieces and components of these themes on this one.
\n\nWithout prior knowledge of CSS, I taught myself about rules, specificities,\nflexboxes, etc. through implementing Bootstrap v4 as the CSS base of Chulapa.
\n\nThis is not the first theme with this implementation, but I found the way to\nconfigure it via _config.yml, which allows any user to easily change the look of\nthe site without needing to write CSS or SCSS. On top of that, implementing\nBootstrap themes from third parties is fast and reliable.
The huge advantage is that, if you give it a go, you can use Chulapa in any site you want but still define a unique\nlook to each of them. No one could notice that the theme is the same!
\n\nWhen this post was written in May 2020, Chulapa was still in development. Stable releases are now available; see the installation guide for setup instructions.
\n\nThe theme uses Bootstrap 4. See the Font Awesome reference for icon versions and compatibility settings.
\n", "date_published": "2020-05-15T00:00:00+02:00", "image": "https://dieghernan.github.io/chulapa/assets/img/site/chulapa-madrid-hd.webp", "summary": "Welcome to Chulapa. This is another Jekyll theme that you can use for creating your site.", "tags": ["news","bootstrap","jekyll"], "authors": [{ "name": "dieghernan", "url": "https://github.com/dieghernan/" }] } ] }