write-blog

name	write-blog
description	Create a correctly structured MemMachine blog post: right directory path, complete frontmatter, and image placeholder. Use when the user wants to write a new blog post for memmachine.ai.
trigger	/write-blog

/write-blog

Create a new blog post for the MemMachine website (memmachine.github.io) with the correct directory structure, complete YAML frontmatter, and build verification.

Usage

/write-blog                      # interactive — prompts for all fields
/write-blog "Post Title"         # pre-fill the title, prompt for remaining fields

What You Must Do When Invoked

Follow these steps in order. Do not skip steps.

Step 1 — Collect post metadata

If any of the following are not provided in the invocation arguments, ask for them now (you may ask for all missing fields in a single message):

Field	Required	Notes
title	Yes	Full post title (e.g., "MemMachine Now Supports LangGraph")
author	Yes	Author's full name as it should appear on the post
description	Yes	One sentence for SEO and social preview cards
tags	Yes	Comma-separated list (e.g., "AI Agent, Integration, LLM"). Always include at least one.
date	Yes	Publish date in YYYY-MM-DD format. Defaults to today if not provided. Must not be in the future — Hugo silently suppresses future-dated posts at build time unless --buildFuture is passed. If the post won't appear, check the date first.
featured	No	Should this post appear in the homepage carousel? (add tag "featured")

Step 2 — Derive the slug and path

From the title:

1. Lowercase the entire title.
2. Replace spaces and any non-alphanumeric characters with hyphens.
3. Collapse multiple consecutive hyphens into one.
4. Strip leading and trailing hyphens.

From the date, extract YYYY and MM (zero-padded).

Construct the directory path:

content/en/blog/{YYYY}/{MM}/{slug}/

Example: title "MemMachine Joins NVIDIA NeMo Toolkit", date 2026-04-27:

• slug: memmachine-joins-nvidia-nemo-toolkit
• path: content/en/blog/2026/04/memmachine-joins-nvidia-nemo-toolkit/

Step 3 — Format the date field

Convert the date to RFC 3339 format with a timezone offset. Use Pacific Time as default if not specified:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS-08:00   # Pacific Standard Time
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS-07:00   # Pacific Daylight Time (summer)

Default time: 09:00:00 (9 AM).

Date gotcha: Hugo silently drops any post whose date is in the future — it will not appear in the local server or the deployed site. Always use today's date or a past date. If you do not know the current date, ask the user before writing the file.

Step 4 — Build the tags array

Start with the user-provided tags. Clean each tag:

• Preserve original capitalization (e.g., "AI Agent", "LLM", "NeMo").
• Wrap each in quotes, comma-separated.

If the user said yes to featuring the post, append "featured" to the array.

Step 5 — Create the post

Create the directory and index.md using the Write tool:

---
title: "{title}"
date: {RFC 3339 date}
featured_image: "featured_image.png"
tags: [{tags array}]
author: "{author}"
description: "{description}"
draft: false
---

<!-- 
  Replace this comment with your blog post content.
  
  BEFORE PUBLISHING:
  1. Confirm the date above is today or in the past — Hugo silently hides future-dated posts
  2. Add featured_image.png to this directory (same folder as this index.md)
  3. Set draft: false in the frontmatter above
  4. Preview: hugo server --buildDrafts --bind 0.0.0.0
  5. Build check: hugo --gc --minify
  6. Commit with signed commit: git commit -sS -m "Add blog: {title}"
-->

Step 6 — Report and next steps

After creating the file, tell the user:

1. The exact file path created.
2. That featured_image.png must be placed in the same directory as index.md before publishing.
3. The preview command: hugo server --buildDrafts --bind 0.0.0.0
4. The URL where the post will appear when published: /blog/{YYYY}/{MM}/{slug}/
5. That they must set draft: false before opening a pull request.

---

Evaluations

Evaluation 1: Full fields provided

Input: /write-blog "MemMachine Reaches 1000 Stars" author="Jane Smith" description="MemMachine celebrates a community milestone." tags="AI Memory, Community, Open Source" date=2026-06-01 featured=yes

Expected behavior:

• No prompts (all fields provided)
• Creates content/en/blog/2026/06/memmachine-reaches-1000-stars/index.md
• Frontmatter includes "featured" in tags array
• draft: false is set
• Reports file path and next steps

Pass criteria: File created at correct path with all frontmatter fields populated correctly.

---

Evaluation 2: Missing required field

Input: /write-blog "New Integration Post" (no author, description, tags, date)

Expected behavior:

• Prompts for missing fields in a single message: author, description, tags, date, and whether to feature
• After user provides answers, creates the file at the correct path
• Does not proceed to file creation before all required fields are collected

Pass criteria: Skill asks for missing fields before creating any files.

---

Evaluation 3: Title with special characters

Input: title = "MemMachine v0.3: What's New & Why It Matters"

Expected slug: memmachine-v0-3-whats-new-why-it-matters

Expected behavior:

• Colon, apostrophe, ampersand all converted to hyphens
• Multiple consecutive hyphens collapsed
• Correct directory path derived from slug

Pass criteria: Slug contains only lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens; no consecutive hyphens; no special characters.