🚀 Start AI Tools - AI Implementation Platform

Intent Solutions is a Claude Partner Network Select Services Partner.

Business blog and knowledge center for AI deployment, technical guides, and real-world implementation case studies. Built with Hugo and presented by Intent Solutions.

🔗 Live Site: startaitools.com

• 📝 Technical Blog - 325+ posts on AI deployment, data engineering, and DevOps
• 🛠️ Real-World Case Studies - DiagnosticPro platform, BigQuery schemas, RSS validation
• 📊 AI Engineering Resources - Comprehensive curriculum and research materials
• 🎨 Professional Design - Clean, fast, business-focused with Archie theme
• 🔍 SEO Optimized - Structured data, meta tags, sitemap
• ⚡ Lightning Fast - Static site with optimized builds and aggressive caching
• 📱 Responsive - Mobile-first design with excellent UX

• Static Site Generator: Hugo v0.150.0 in production
• Theme: Archie (Professional business theme)
• Hosting: Self-hosted VPS (Caddy) via GitHub Actions deploy
• Domain: startaitools.com
• Build Process: Minified, optimized, cache-controlled
• Features: Syntax highlighting, code copy buttons, table of contents

content/
├── posts/              # Blog posts (290+ technical articles, flat)
│   └── *.md           # Individual blog posts
├── _index.md          # Homepage
├── about.md           # About page
├── contact.md         # Contact page
├── projects.md        # Projects showcase
├── research.md        # Research & curriculum
├── agentic-design-patterns/  # Design pattern documentation
├── mcp-for-beginners/        # MCP tutorial series
└── tiny-recursive-models/    # ML model documentation

• Hugo v0.150.0+
• Git
• Node.js v18+ (for build environment)

# Clone the repository (or navigate to existing directory)
cd /home/jeremy/000-projects/blog/startaitools

# Start development server with drafts
hugo server -D

# Start server without drafts (production preview)
hugo server

# Start server accessible from external devices
hugo server -D --bind 0.0.0.0

# View at http://localhost:1313

# Build optimized static site
hugo --buildFuture --gc --minify --cleanDestinationDir

# Output will be in ./public directory

# Create a new blog post
hugo new posts/my-new-post.md

# Create a project page
hugo new projects/my-project.md

Both TOML (+++) and YAML (---) are supported. Prefer TOML for new posts and include an explicit slug. This is a supported legacy YAML example:

---
title: "Your Post Title"
slug: "your-post-title"
date: 2025-10-09T10:00:00-06:00
draft: false
tags: ["ai", "programming", "deployment"]
author: "Jeremy Longshore"
description: "Brief description for SEO and social media"
---

The default Hugo archetype uses TOML. Add a slug that matches the intended URL.

Edit config/_default/config.toml for site-wide settings:

baseURL = "https://startaitools.com/"
title = "Start AI Tools - Presented by Intent Solutions"
theme = "archie"
author = "Jeremy Longshore"

[params]
description = "Deploy AI solutions in days, not months"

The site has a 6-item navigation menu:

1. Home
2. Posts
3. About
4. Research & Curriculum
5. Projects
6. Contact

Edit menu items in config/_default/config.toml under [menu] section.

The Archie theme provides professional business styling. To customize:

1. Override theme layouts in layouts/ directory
2. Add custom CSS in assets/css/custom.css
3. Modify theme parameters in config/_default/config.toml

1. Data Engineering - BigQuery 254-table schema, data pipelines, RSS validation (226+ feeds)
2. AI Platforms - DiagnosticPro case studies, AI integration workflows
3. DevOps Automation - N8N workflows, GitHub Actions, Terraform guides
4. Documentation Systems - Claude.md, directory standards, AI-assisted writing
5. Real-World Debugging - Slack integration, COPPA compliance, testing suites

1. DiagnosticPro - AI-powered diagnostic platform for repair professionals
2. Intent Solutions - AI deployment and consulting services
3. AI Engineering Curriculum - Comprehensive learning path
4. Jeremy Longshore Blog - Personal portfolio and tech blog

Push to default master runs the Release checks, commits and verifies the version and changelog, then atomically publishes master and its annotated release tag. Only a verified live GitHub Release calls Deploy; dry runs and ordinary no-change runs do not deploy. Guarded manual Deploy accepts a released master revision. Deployment uses the existing Tailscale workload-identity federation and command-restricted SSH key. The VPS rebuilds from origin/master with pinned Hugo 0.150.0 and serves the output through Caddy.

The app checks the expected release SHA/tag before deployment and remote refs again afterward. The pinned central workflow still accepts no SHA/ref transport input, so a concurrent master change fails those checks rather than proving an immutable host checkout. Verify the actual host revision and public release bytes for each production rollout; HTTP health alone does not prove version identity.

• Build command: hugo --buildFuture --gc --minify --cleanDestinationDir
• Hugo version: 0.150.0 (pinned on the VPS and in the CI gate)
• Smoke test: https://startaitools.com/healthz must return {"status":"ok"}
• Domain: startaitools.com with HTTPS (Caddy-managed certificates)
• Timezone: America/Chicago

Netlify is retired: there is no Netlify config and it is not a rollback target. Roll back by reverting on master and releasing. Legacy redirects, the /api/forms/* proxy and cache headers live in the VPS Caddy block (intent-os ops/deploy/startaitools/Caddyfile.fragment).

Aggressive cache-busting served by Caddy:

• HTML pages: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate
• Static assets (css/js/fonts/images): short-lived public cache

This ensures fresh content on every visit while maintaining performance.

# Build the site
hugo --buildFuture --gc --minify --cleanDestinationDir

# Deploy public/ directory to any static host
rsync -avz public/ user@server:/var/www/html/

• Lighthouse Score: 95+/100
• Page Load: < 2s
• First Contentful Paint: < 800ms
• Time to Interactive: < 1.5s
• Total Page Size: Optimized with minification and compression

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

1. Fork the repository (if external contributor)
2. Create feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Test locally with hugo server -D
4. Commit changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
5. Push to branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
6. Open Pull Request

• Prefer TOML front matter; YAML is supported. Include an explicit slug.
• Include meaningful tags and descriptions
• Test locally before pushing
• Follow existing content structure
• Optimize images before adding

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

• Hugo - Blazing fast static site generator
• Archie Theme - Clean, professional business theme
• Open source community

• Website: startaitools.com
• Business: Intent Solutions
• Email: jeremy@intentsolutions.io
• GitHub: @jeremylongshore
• LinkedIn: Jeremy Longshore
• X/Twitter: @asphaltcowb0y

Deploy AI solutions in days, not months
Presented by Intent Solutions

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