Pipeline

jstatico processes your source directory through three phases.

Phase 1: Preprocessing

Preprocessors transform input files before rendering.

ProcessorInputOutput
Markdown.md filesHTML with extracted frontmatter
JSON_*.json filesData loaded into tree context

During preprocessing:

  • Markdown is converted to HTML using marked
  • YAML frontmatter is extracted and stored in meta
  • Code blocks get syntax highlighting via highlight.js

Phase 2: Rendering

After preprocessing, HTML files are rendered through Nunjucks templates.

The template receives:

  • body - The rendered content
  • meta - Frontmatter from the file
  • _site - All data from _site/*.json files
  • The entire tree for navigation

Phase 3: Writing

Finally, files are written to the destination directory.

Writers handle:

  • HTML files (optionally minified)
  • CSS, JS, images (copied as-is)
  • Clean URLs (page.html → page/index.html)

Customization

Each phase can be extended with custom processors. See Custom Processors.