Last update: 26.09.2026

This tutorial will guide you through setting up and deploying a blog using Pelican. It is a popular static site generator written in Python. Pelican offers a powerful and flexible way to create beautiful and content-focused blogs. Original blogs could be written in Markdown and formatted using special themes.

Install and Configure Pelican

pip install pelican

Pelican uses a configuration file named pelicanconf.py. Refer to this file for various settings you can customize for your blog.

Building Your Blog

Use the following command to compile your Markdown content files into HTML:

pelican content

This generates HTML files based on your Markdown content.

Alternative Compilation Method 1: bat script

If you prefer, you can use the a batch script located at scripts/compilePelican.bat. This script performs the same function as the previous command. The script is a part of the blog repository of this blog project.

Alternative Compilation Method 1: using task file

There is a ready task file to help you with installing, running and managing the content of the blog. Check the commands of the task by running in the root directory:

task

Install Theme

An example how to install a custom theme called simplify-next

git clone https://github.com/vdmitriyev/simplify-next
pelican-themes --install simplify-next

Previewing Your Blog

To preview your generated HTML files locally, navigate to the parent directory of your Pelican project and run the following command:

python -m http.server 5151 --bind 127.0.0.1

This starts a simple HTTP server on port 5151 (you can change the port number if needed). Access your blog in your web browser at http://localhost:5151.

Pelican provides an internal web server for previewing your blog. Run the following command to use it:

pelican -r --listen

This starts the server, and you can access your blog at http://127.0.0.1:8000 by default. The option -r will help with automatic recompilation from Markdown to HTML.

Deploying to GitHub Pages

To deploy your blog to GitHub Pages, you'll need to generate personal access tokens in your GitHub account.

Go to Settings -> Secrets and variables -> Actions.

Create tokens for the following variables:

• GOOGLE_ANALYTICS (optional, for Google Analytics integration)
• PELICAN_THEME_REPO (URL of your theme repository, e.g., https://github.com/vdmitriyev/simplify-next)
• PELICAN_THEME_NAME (name of your theme, e.g., simplify-next)

After that, you will need to activate GitHub Pages within your GitHub repository. In your GitHub repository settings, navigate to Pages. Select the branch named gh-pages and the source directory set to /root. This configures GitHub Pages to use the content from your gh-pages branch.

Create a pelican.yml file in the .github/workflows of your github repository. Example can be viewed here.

Summary

This tutorial provides a foundation for getting started with Pelican and Github Pages. Three is way more do do (e.g, search index, jobs in a task config file, etc.).

With its flexibility and ease of use, Pelican empowers you to create a compelling and personalized blog. Feel free to explore the official Pelican documentation for more advanced features and customization options.

The current blog could be used as an example for your development - blog. It also contains further details on pelican usage on a local machine.