| name | hugo-site-check |
| description | Verify the content, layout, and performance of the Hugo site by opening it in a real browser. Use this skill whenever the user asks to check the site, preview a page, verify visual rendering, or analyse performance.
|
| compatibility | Requires the chrome-devtools MCP server (chrome-devtools-mcp). |
Hugo Site Check
When to use this skill
Activate this skill when the user asks you to:
- Check or preview the site / a page
- Verify content, layout, or visual rendering
- Analyse site performance (Core Web Vitals, LCP, CLS, etc.)
- Compare local vs production performance
- Debug rendering or layout issues
Important: always use Chrome
Always use the Chrome browser through the chrome-devtools MCP tools to
inspect pages. Never rely on fetching HTML with curl/WebFetch or reading
the generated files in public/ to judge visual output or performance. The
browser is the source of truth.
Available chrome-devtools tools
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|
navigate_page | Open a URL in Chrome |
take_snapshot | Get a text snapshot (a11y tree) of the page |
take_screenshot | Capture a visual screenshot |
performance_start_trace | Start a performance recording |
performance_stop_trace | Stop the recording |
performance_analyze_insight | Drill into a specific performance insight |
list_console_messages | Check for JS errors |
list_network_requests | Inspect network activity |
evaluate_script | Run JS in the page context |
Chrome cache: bust it after code changes
Chrome aggressively caches static assets (JS, CSS) served by Hugo's dev server.
After modifying a file in static/, always verify that Chrome is serving the
updated version before drawing any conclusions from a trace or snapshot.
- Navigate to the raw asset URL (e.g.
/js/chat.js) and check its content
with take_snapshot or evaluate_script.
- If the old code is still served, do a cache-busting reload:
navigate_page with type: reload and ignoreCache: true.
- Only then run a performance trace or visual check.
Skipping this step can lead to wasted traces that measure the old code
while you believe you're testing the new one.
Workflow: content / layout check
- Navigate to the target URL with
navigate_page.
- Take a snapshot (
take_snapshot) to read the page content and structure.
- Optionally take a screenshot (
take_screenshot) for visual verification.
- Check the console for errors (
list_console_messages).
- Report findings to the user.
Workflow: performance analysis
- Navigate to the target URL with
navigate_page.
- Bust the cache first (see section above) if any static assets were
recently modified.
- Start a performance trace with
performance_start_trace (set reload: true
and autoStop: true for a full page-load trace).
- Review the summary metrics (LCP, CLS, TTFB).
- Drill into relevant insights with
performance_analyze_insight (e.g.
LCPBreakdown, RenderBlocking, ThirdParties, Cache).
- Summarise results and provide actionable recommendations.
Starting and stopping Hugo
When you need to start a Hugo server for verification (e.g. from a worktree),
always start it as a background task so you can stop it reliably afterwards.
# Start Hugo as a background Bash command โ note the task ID in the response
make dev PORT=<port>
After verification is complete, always stop the Hugo server using
TaskStop with the task ID returned when you started it. Never leave Hugo
processes running after you're done.
Worktree support
When checking a site running from a Git worktree, the Hugo server will be
on a different port than 1313. Steps:
- Check that Hugo is running from the worktree directory. If not, start it
with
make dev PORT=<port> (e.g. make dev PORT=1314) as a background task.
Dependencies (npm install) are handled automatically by make dev.
- Use that URL for all
navigate_page / take_screenshot calls.
- Stop the Hugo server with
TaskStop using the background task ID.
Typical URLs
- Local dev (main):
http://127.0.0.1.nip.io:1313/ (Hugo default server)
- Local dev (worktree):
http://127.0.0.1.nip.io:<port>/ (port from Hugo output)
- Production:
https://alexandreroman.fr
