Benjamin Starostka Jakobsen
https://starostka.io/writing
2026-11-03T00:00:00Z
Benjamin Starostka Jakobsen
CC BY-SA 4.0
A blog again
https://starostka.io/2026/11/03/hello
2026-11-03T00:00:00Z
2026-11-03T00:00:00Z
Why this blog exists, how it is built, and where it runs.
<p>This is the first post on starostka.io. I will write here about research
infrastructure: the machines, the Nix that declares them, and the things that
break between the two.</p> <h2 id="how-it-is-built"><a class="anchor" href="#how-it-is-built">How it is built</a></h2> <p>The site is a SvelteKit app that renders every page at build time. Each post is
a Markdown file named by its date, so this one is <code>posts/2026-11-03-hello.md</code>. Nix builds the site into an OCI image, and the
image runs on a small Kubernetes cluster that is declared in the same
repository as every other machine I run.</p> <figure class="diagram"><svg width="396pt" height="44pt"
viewBox="0.00 0.00 396.00 44.00" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
<g id="graph0" class="graph" transform="scale(1 1) rotate(0) translate(4 40)">
<!-- post -->
<g id="node1" class="node">
<title>post</title>
<path fill="none" stroke="black" d="M56.34,-36C56.34,-36 12,-36 12,-36 6,-36 0,-30 0,-24 0,-24 0,-12 0,-12 0,-6 6,0 12,0 12,0 56.34,0 56.34,0 62.34,0 68.34,-6 68.34,-12 68.34,-12 68.34,-24 68.34,-24 68.34,-30 62.34,-36 56.34,-36"/>
<text xml:space="preserve" text-anchor="middle" x="34.17" y="-14.4" font-family="Inter" font-size="12.00">posts/*.md</text>
</g>
<!-- site -->
<g id="node2" class="node">
<title>site</title>
<path fill="none" stroke="black" d="M181.34,-36C181.34,-36 116.34,-36 116.34,-36 110.34,-36 104.34,-30 104.34,-24 104.34,-24 104.34,-12 104.34,-12 104.34,-6 110.34,0 116.34,0 116.34,0 181.34,0 181.34,0 187.34,0 193.34,-6 193.34,-12 193.34,-12 193.34,-24 193.34,-24 193.34,-30 187.34,-36 181.34,-36"/>
<text xml:space="preserve" text-anchor="middle" x="148.84" y="-14.4" font-family="Inter" font-size="12.00">SvelteKit build</text>
</g>
<!-- post->site -->
<g id="edge1" class="edge">
<title>post->site</title>
<path fill="none" stroke="black" d="M68.67,-18C76.34,-18 84.69,-18 93,-18"/>
<polygon fill="black" stroke="black" points="92.72,-21.5 102.72,-18 92.72,-14.5 92.72,-21.5"/>
</g>
<!-- image -->
<g id="node3" class="node">
<title>image</title>
<path fill="none" stroke="black" d="M286.32,-36C286.32,-36 241.34,-36 241.34,-36 235.34,-36 229.34,-30 229.34,-24 229.34,-24 229.34,-12 229.34,-12 229.34,-6 235.34,0 241.34,0 241.34,0 286.32,0 286.32,0 292.32,0 298.32,-6 298.32,-12 298.32,-12 298.32,-24 298.32,-24 298.32,-30 292.32,-36 286.32,-36"/>
<text xml:space="preserve" text-anchor="middle" x="263.83" y="-14.4" font-family="Inter" font-size="12.00">OCI image</text>
</g>
<!-- site->image -->
<g id="edge2" class="edge">
<title>site->image</title>
<path fill="none" stroke="black" d="M193.53,-18C201.45,-18 209.74,-18 217.7,-18"/>
<polygon fill="black" stroke="black" points="217.56,-21.5 227.56,-18 217.56,-14.5 217.56,-21.5"/>
</g>
<!-- cluster -->
<g id="node4" class="node">
<title>cluster</title>
<path fill="none" stroke="black" d="M376.32,-36C376.32,-36 346.32,-36 346.32,-36 340.32,-36 334.32,-30 334.32,-24 334.32,-24 334.32,-12 334.32,-12 334.32,-6 340.32,0 346.32,0 346.32,0 376.32,0 376.32,0 382.32,0 388.32,-6 388.32,-12 388.32,-12 388.32,-24 388.32,-24 388.32,-30 382.32,-36 376.32,-36"/>
<text xml:space="preserve" text-anchor="middle" x="361.32" y="-14.4" font-family="Inter" font-size="12.00">yutani</text>
</g>
<!-- image->cluster -->
<g id="edge3" class="edge">
<title>image->cluster</title>
<path fill="none" stroke="black" d="M298.77,-18C306.46,-18 314.67,-18 322.51,-18"/>
<polygon fill="black" stroke="black" points="322.49,-21.5 332.49,-18 322.49,-14.5 322.49,-21.5"/>
</g>
</g>
</svg>
</figure> <p>The deployment of the site is one binding:</p> <pre class="shiki tokens" style="background-color:var(--shiki-background);color:var(--shiki-foreground)" tabindex="0"><code><span class="line"><span style="color:var(--shiki-foreground)">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-function)"> inventory</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-foreground)">.</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-function)">instances</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-foreground)">.</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-function)">blog</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-keyword)"> =</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-foreground)"> {</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-function)"> service</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-keyword)"> =</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-string-expression)"> "blog"</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-foreground)">;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-function)"> roles</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-foreground)">.</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-function)">default</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-foreground)">.</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-function)">platforms</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-foreground)">.</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-function)">yutani</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-foreground)">.</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-function)">settings</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-token-keyword)"> =</span><span style="color:var(--shiki-foreground)"> { };</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color:var(--shiki-foreground)"> };</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color:var(--shiki-foreground)">}</span></span></code></pre> <h2 id="what-it-measures"><a class="anchor" href="#what-it-measures">What it measures</a></h2> <p>There is no analytics script on these pages. The <a href="/readership">readership</a> page shows where posts were shared instead, from the
public Hacker News, Lobsters and Reddit listings.<sup id="fnref-1"><a href="#fn-1" class="footnote-ref">1</a></sup><span class="sidenote" aria-hidden="true"><span class="sidenote-number">1</span>The blog server fetches those listings once an hour.</span></p> <p>The feed is at <a href="/feed.xml">/feed.xml</a>.</p> <div class="footnotes"><hr/> <ol><li id="fn-1">The blog server fetches those listings once an hour.<a href="#fnref-1" class="footnote-backref">↩</a></li></ol></div>