create-blog-post

name	create-blog-post
description	Use this if the user wants to convert a blog post from Google Docs markdown to the format used in the Home Assistant website.

Create Blog Post

Convert a draft markdown file into a properly formatted Home Assistant blog post.

Usage

Place your draft blog post markdown file in the project root create-blog-post/ directory (e.g., /workspaces/home-assistant.io/create-blog-post/), then run:

/create-blog-post

What This Skill Does

Automates conversion of a draft markdown file with metadata into a production-ready Home Assistant blog post:

• Extracts metadata (blog title, author, publish date, category, Social/OpenGraph fields)
• Removes "# Blog notes/preparations" section and lines with ☝️ emoji
• Converts ### **– Summary break / Read more –** to <!--more-->
• Processes hero image and any additional images
• Converts external links to HTML <a> tags with target="_blank"
• Formats content (removes bold from headings, fixes link references)
• Creates properly formatted blog post in source/_posts/ with Jekyll front matter

Required Files in create-blog-post/ Directory

1. Draft markdown file (any .md filename)
2. art.* - Hero/OG image (required, any common image format: .webp, .png, .jpg, .jpeg)
3. image2.*, image3.*, etc. - Additional images (optional, any common image format)

Draft File Format

# Metadata

**Blog title:** Your Blog Title

**Author:** Author Name

**Publish date:** DD-MM-YYYY

**Category:** Category Name

**Social/OpenGraph title** (Usually same as the blog title, visibility mostly limited to 50-60 characters)**:**
A short title.

**Social/OpenGraph description** (120-158 characters):
Influences SEO ranking. Include the main keyword, describe what readers will find, and give them a clear reason to click.

# Blog notes/preparations

☝️ Any lines with the pointer emoji can be removed during processing

# Blog content

![][image1]

Your intro paragraph here...

### **– Summary break / Read more –**

Rest of content...

Notes:

• The ![][image1] reference should appear at the start of the "# Blog content" section. This will be replaced with the art.webp hero image.
• URL slug is optional and will be auto-generated from the blog title if not provided in metadata
• Lines beginning with ☝️ emoji are instructions and will be removed during processing
• The ### **– Summary break / Read more –** marker will be converted to <!--more-->

Output

Creates a production-ready blog post at:

• source/_posts/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.markdown - The formatted blog post
• source/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/art.webp - OG/hero image (moved from create-blog-post/)
• source/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/image2.webp, image3.webp, etc. - Additional images (converted from PNGs)

Conversion Process

1. Pre-process Draft

Before doing anything else, strip out embedded base64 image data from the draft file using a shell command. Do not read the draft file before this step — the base64 data can make the file extremely large.

Google Docs markdown exports include image references like ![][image1] in the content body, with corresponding base64 definitions at the bottom of the file in the format:

[image1]: <data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgo... (potentially megabytes of data)>

Run this sed command via the Bash tool to strip them in-place:

sed -i '/^\[image[0-9]*\]: <data:/d' "create-blog-post/draft.md"

• This removes all lines matching the base64 image definition pattern
• The ![][image1] references in the content body are preserved — they will be replaced with proper image paths later
• Only after this command completes should you read the draft file

2. Parse Metadata

• Extract blog title, author, publish date, category (convert to YAML list), Social/OpenGraph title and description
• Auto-generate URL slug from blog title (lowercase, hyphens for spaces, remove special characters)
• Remove "# Blog notes/preparations" section and all content under it (up to "# Blog content")
• Remove all lines that start with ☝️ emoji (instruction lines)
• Convert ### **– Summary break / Read more –** marker to <!--more-->

3. Process Images

Before processing images, ensure the cwebp tool is installed. If not, install it:

# Check if cwebp is available, install if missing
which cwebp || sudo apt-get install -y webp

Hero image (art.*):

• Find the art image in create-blog-post/ (any extension: .webp, .png, .jpg, .jpeg)
• If the source is already .webp, copy it to source/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/art.webp
• If the source is any other format, convert to WebP: cwebp -resize 1200 630 -q 85 input -o source/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/art.webp
• The OG image must be exactly 1200x630 pixels — the source image should already be this size, so use -resize 1200 630 to ensure correctness
• Replace ![][image1] reference in "# Blog content" section with: <img src="/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/art.webp" alt="Blog Title" style="border: 0;box-shadow: none;">
• CRITICAL: Use double quotes for all HTML attributes (prevents breaking on apostrophes in alt text)
• Alt text uses the Social/OpenGraph title or blog title
• No wrapper tags (no <p> tag)

Additional images (if any):

• Find image2.*, image3.*, etc. in create-blog-post/ (any extension: .webp, .png, .jpg, .jpeg)
• Convert to WebP with a max width of 900px: cwebp -resize 900 0 -q 85 input -o output.webp (the 0 for height preserves the aspect ratio)
• If the source is already .webp, still re-encode it with the resize: cwebp -resize 900 0 -q 85 input.webp -o output.webp
• Output to source/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/image2.webp, image3.webp, etc.
• Update references in content

4. Transform Links

External links (different domains/subdomains):

• Convert to: <a href="URL" target="_blank" rel="noopener">text</a>
• Includes: my.home-assistant.io, partner.home-assistant.io, etc.

Internal links (www.home-assistant.io only):

• Keep as Markdown links: [text](/path)

5. Device List (Works with Home Assistant posts only)

If the blog post category is Works-with-Home-Assistant, look for a section that lists certified/supported devices. Replace any manually written device list with the dynamic device list shortcode:

{% include integrations/device_list.html brand="brandname" %}

• The brand value must match a brand in source/_data/wwha_devices.json (for example: "eve", "heatit", "shelly", "zooz")
• The brand name is typically the lowercase company/brand name from the draft
• If the draft contains a manually listed set of devices (often as a bullet list or table), replace that list with the shortcode
• Keep any introductory or closing text around the device list — only replace the list itself

6. Clean Content

• Headings: Remove bold formatting (## **Title** → ## Title)
• Heading levels: If content starts with H1 (#), demote all headings one level (content should start at H2)
• Backticks: Strip erroneous ``` characters (preserve code blocks/inline code)
• Text content: Do not change the author's wording, phrasing, or writing style. The blog text should stay as-is. If you spot obvious typos or locale spelling issues (such as British English instead of American English), do not fix them silently — collect them and ask the user for confirmation before applying any changes.
• Emojis: Preserve all emojis that appear in the blog content. Do not strip them out.
• Apostrophes and quotes: Convert straight apostrophes (') and speech marks (") in prose — including quoted statements, like in blockquotes — to their curly equivalents (’, “/”). Only apply this to body text — never to HTML attribute values, URLs, code blocks/inline code, or Liquid/Jekyll syntax.

7. Build Blog Post

• Create source/_posts/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.markdown
• Jekyll front matter (layout, title, description, date, date_formatted, author, categories, og_image)
• Hero image (no wrapper)
• Intro paragraph
• <!--more--> tag after first paragraph
• Remaining content

Example

1. Place in project root create-blog-post/:
   • draft-partner-update.md - Your draft file
   • art.webp - OG/hero image
   • image2.png, image3.png - Additional images (if any)
2. Run /create-blog-post

This would create:

• source/_posts/2026-01-13-partner-update.markdown
• source/images/blog/2026-01-partner/art.webp
• source/images/blog/2026-01-partner/image2.webp, image3.webp (if additional images exist)

Important Notes

Image references:

• Draft: ![][image1] (at start of "# Blog content" section) → Output: art.webp hero image (1200x630, OG image)
• Draft: ![][image2] → Look for image2.* (any format), convert to image2.webp (max 900px wide)
• Draft: ![][image3] → Look for image3.* (any format), convert to image3.webp (max 900px wide)
• Source images can be any common format (.webp, .png, .jpg, .jpeg) — all are converted/re-encoded to .webp

Requirements:

• Hero image reference should appear at the start of the "# Blog content" section
• cwebp tool is required — the skill will auto-install it via sudo apt-get install -y webp if not already present

Content processing:

• Remove "# Blog notes/preparations" section entirely
• Remove all lines starting with ☝️ emoji (instruction lines)
• Convert ### **– Summary break / Read more –** to <!--more-->

Device lists (Works with Home Assistant posts):

• WWHA blog posts (category Works-with-Home-Assistant) typically include a list of certified devices in the draft (as bullet points, tables, or similar)
• Strip out the manually written device list entirely and replace it with: {% include integrations/device_list.html brand="brandname" %}
• The brand value must match an entry in source/_data/wwha_devices.json — verify the brand exists in that file before using it
• Keep any surrounding text that introduces or follows the device list (for example "Here's what's made the cut from Heatit:") — only replace the device list itself

Output format:

• Filename: YYYY-MM-DD-slug.markdown
• Image directory: source/images/blog/YYYY-MM-slug/
• Categories in YAML list format (even single category)

Link handling:

• Only www.home-assistant.io and home-assistant.io stay as Markdown links
• All other domains/subdomains → HTML <a> tags with target="_blank" rel="noopener"

Post-processing summary

After the blog post has been created, output a summary to the user covering:

Metadata:

• Title, author (and whether they were verified in people.yml), date, category

Images:

• Each source image, its original dimensions/format, and where it was output (with the conversion applied)

Content transformations:

• A bulleted list of every notable transformation applied, such as:
  • Sections/content removed (base64 data, blog template, notes, instruction lines)
  • Image references replaced
  • Summary break conversion
  • Device list replacement (if WWHA, including brand used and number of devices)
  • Link conversions (external to HTML, internal to relative markdown)
  • Quote/blockquote formatting
  • Heading changes (reformatted, promoted/demoted, bold removed)
  • Escape character cleanup
  • Apostrophe/quote curling (straight to typographic)

Proposed text changes (requires user approval):

• If any typos or locale spelling issues were spotted (such as British to American English), list each one and ask the user whether to apply them. Do not apply these changes until the user confirms.