KB Site Implementation Log

Created 2026-02-27

Updated 2026-02-27

Status in-progress

Tags projectinfrastructurekb

Implementation log for the Baseworks Knowledge Base web publishing system.

Architecture: Obsidian vault → Git → Quartz v4.5.2 → Cloudflare Pages Previous architecture: Astro + Starlight (migrated away 2026-02-27 — see Phase 1 below for history) Plan doc: See the full architecture plan in the Claude Code session transcript from 2026-02-27.

What’s Been Built (2026-02-27)

Phase 1: Astro + Starlight — COMPLETE

The static site generator is fully configured and builds successfully.

Location: /site/ directory inside this vault repo

Key files created:

File	Purpose
`site/astro.config.mjs`	Astro + Starlight config — sidebar, branding, remark plugins
`site/package.json`	Dependencies and build scripts
`site/scripts/sync-content.mjs`	Pre-build script: copies vault content into Astro, injects missing frontmatter
`site/plugins/remark-obsidian-wikilinks.mjs`	Converts `[wikilinks](/wikilinks/)` to standard Markdown links
`site/plugins/remark-auto-title.mjs`	Extracts `# Heading` as title if frontmatter lacks one
`site/src/content/docs/index.mdx`	Homepage with card grid (Projects, Areas, Resources)
`site/src/styles/custom.css`	Baseworks brand colors, callout styling
`site/src/assets/logo-light.svg`	Light mode logo (placeholder)
`site/src/assets/logo-dark.svg`	Dark mode logo (placeholder)
`.github/workflows/deploy.yml`	GitHub Actions: build + deploy to Cloudflare Pages

Build results:

500 pages generated from 525 vault Markdown files
Build time: ~11 seconds
Output size: ~90MB (includes Pagefind search index)
Full-text search working via Pagefind

How the sync script works:

Copies 00-inbox/ → src/content/docs/inbox/, 01-projects/ → projects/, etc.
For each .md file without a title in frontmatter, derives one from the first # Heading or filename
Converts <img src="image.png" alt="image.png" /> embeds to HTML <img> tags (avoids Astro asset pipeline errors)
Runs before every astro build and astro dev

Remark plugins installed:

remark-obsidian-callout — renders > [!note] / > [!info] callouts
Custom wikilinks plugin — converts [Alias](/page/) to standard links
Custom auto-title plugin — fills missing frontmatter titles at build time

Vault syntax analysis (from exploration):

651 wikilink instances (handled by plugin)
39 callout instances (handled by plugin)
2 image embeds (handled by sync script)
Frontmatter: ~90% of files have it, common fields: created, updated, tags, status

Deployment & Infrastructure (2026-02-27, session 2)

Phase 1: Deploy to Cloudflare Pages — COMPLETE

All deployment infrastructure was set up via Cloudflare API using the Global API Key from the existing cloudflare-auto-purge.php mu-plugin.

Cloudflare Pages project:

Project name: baseworks-kb
Default URL: baseworks-kb.pages.dev
Custom domain: kb.baseworks.com
Production branch: master

DNS:

CNAME record: kb → baseworks-kb.pages.dev (proxied, Cloudflare)

GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/deploy.yml):

Triggers on push to master + manual dispatch
Auth: Global API Key via CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY + CLOUDFLARE_EMAIL env vars
Three GitHub repo secrets configured:
- CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID — 5248b6291f647a77fa6852b2640a1899
- CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY — Cloudflare Global API Key
- CLOUDFLARE_EMAIL — accounts@baseworks.com
Build time: ~1m10s (includes npm install, content sync, Astro build, Pages deploy)

Cloudflare Access (Zero Trust):

Application: “Baseworks KB” (self-hosted)
Protected domain: kb.baseworks.com
Policy: Allow accounts@baseworks.com via email OTP
Session duration: 30 days

Bug fix: Section 404s

The homepage links (/areas/, /projects/, etc.) returned 404 because no index pages existed for section roots. Fixed by updating sync-content.mjs to auto-generate index.md for each section with links to all subdirectories and pages within.

Light mode default

Overrode Starlight’s ThemeProvider component (site/src/components/ThemeProvider.astro) to default to light mode instead of dark. Users can still toggle to dark via the theme selector. The only change from the original: flipped the fallback from 'dark' to 'light' when no stored preference and no OS dark-mode preference.

Additional files created/modified this session:

File	Purpose
`site/src/components/ThemeProvider.astro`	Light-mode-default override of Starlight’s ThemeProvider

Migration: Astro/Starlight → Quartz (2026-02-27, session 3)

Why migrate

Astro/Starlight had fundamental compatibility issues with Obsidian:

Broken wikilinks (Starlight can’t resolve vault-aware shortest paths)
No frontmatter properties display
No backlinks or graph view
Sidebar structure didn’t match Obsidian folder hierarchy
Required custom sync script, wikilink plugin, auto-title plugin, callout package

Quartz v4 handles all of these natively — it’s purpose-built for Obsidian vaults.

Approach: CI-only Quartz (vault stays clean)

The vault repo stays exactly as-is. Only 4 small config files are added to the root. In CI, Quartz is cloned fresh, vault content is symlinked in, and the site is built and deployed. No Quartz source code lives in the vault.

New files added to vault root:

File	Purpose
`quartz.config.ts`	Site config: title, colors, plugins, ignorePatterns
`quartz.layout.ts`	Layout: sidebar explorer, graph, backlinks, dark mode toggle, search
`index.md`	Homepage with wikilinks to PARA sections
`scripts/dev-quartz.sh`	Local dev helper: clones Quartz, copies config, symlinks vault, starts dev server

Modified files:

File	Change
`.github/workflows/deploy.yml`	Replaced Astro build with Quartz CI pipeline
`.gitignore`	Added `.quartz-dev/`, `public/`

What Quartz replaces (no custom code needed)

Was custom in Astro	Quartz handles natively
`sync-content.mjs` (copy + inject frontmatter)	Reads vault directly, derives titles
`remark-obsidian-wikilinks.mjs`	`ObsidianFlavoredMarkdown` plugin
`remark-auto-title.mjs`	Built-in title derivation
`remark-obsidian-callout` package	`ObsidianFlavoredMarkdown` plugin
Auto-generated section index pages	`FolderPage` emitter
ThemeProvider override	`Darkmode` component + post-build localStorage script
None (not possible)	Backlinks, Graph view, hover previews

Build results (local)

499 files parsed, 784 files emitted
Build time: ~11-14 seconds
Output size: ~30MB
Quartz version: v4.5.2 (pinned in workflow env and dev-quartz.sh)
Node.js: 22 (upgraded from 20)

Key config decisions

ignorePatterns: templates/, .obsidian/, site/, patrick-oancia/, setup docs, config files themselves
Brand colors: Ported from existing custom.css (#3a5bd9 accent, #182654 dark headings)
Light mode default: Post-build localStorage injection (sets theme=light only if user hasn’t toggled yet)
noindex: Post-build <meta> injection (belt-and-suspenders with Cloudflare Access)
Link resolution: shortest (matches Obsidian’s default behavior)
fetch-depth: 0: Full git history for accurate “last modified” dates
Config files copied (not symlinked): TS imports use relative paths that must resolve from Quartz root

Backup tags

Tag	Description
`backup/pre-quartz-migration`	State before any Quartz changes
`backup/quartz-local-verified`	After local build verified
`backup/quartz-workflow-ready`	After deploy.yml replaced
Branch: `archive/astro-starlight`	Full Astro setup preserved (created before `site/` deletion)

What Needs to Be Done Next

Delete `site/` directory — PENDING

After confirming Quartz deploy works on kb.baseworks.com, delete the old Astro/Starlight site/ directory. The archive/astro-starlight branch preserves it.

Phase 2: Tina CMS (web editing) — NOT STARTED

Tina CMS works with any static site generator that reads Markdown from git
Vault markdown files stay at same git paths, so Tina compatibility is unchanged
Set up self-hosted Tina backend on Agents VPS (167.235.236.99)
Docker container with GitHub App/PAT for repo access
Reverse proxy at tina.baseworks.com or similar

Phase 3: Agent integration — NOT STARTED

GitHub fine-grained PAT for n8n
n8n workflow templates for doc operations
OpenClaw GitHub API access for doc updates

How to Run Locally

cd ~/Obsidian/baseworks-kb-shared-brain

# First time (clones Quartz, installs deps, starts dev server)
bash scripts/dev-quartz.sh

# Subsequent runs (Quartz already cloned)
bash scripts/dev-quartz.sh

Dev server runs at http://localhost:8080

Architecture Decisions

CI-only Quartz: Quartz source code is never committed to the vault repo. In CI and local dev, Quartz is cloned fresh and vault content is symlinked in. This keeps the vault clean.
Config files copied, not symlinked: The quartz.config.ts and quartz.layout.ts files use relative TS imports (./quartz/plugins) that must resolve from the Quartz repo root. Symlinks resolve imports from the link target (vault root), so files are copied instead.
Light mode via localStorage injection: Quartz’s prescript checks localStorage("theme") then falls back to OS preference. A post-build script injects localStorage.setItem("theme","light") only if no preference is stored, so first-time visitors see light mode while returning users keep their choice.
Global API Key for GitHub Actions: Reuses the same Cloudflare credentials from the cloudflare-auto-purge.php mu-plugin.
Full git history checkout: fetch-depth: 0 ensures Quartz can read actual git commit dates for “last modified” metadata.

Dependencies

Quartz v4.5.2 (cloned at build time, not committed to repo). No package.json in the vault itself — all dependencies are Quartz’s.