Getting Started with MyST Markdown for Academic Websites

Building an academic website can be time-consuming, but MyST Markdown makes it straightforward. This template provides everything you need to get started: a clean layout, automatic CV PDF generation, blog support with RSS feeds, and automated deployment via GitHub Actions.

Why MyST Markdown?¶

MyST Markdown extends standard Markdown with features that are particularly useful for academic and technical content:

• Rich content: grids, cards, dropdowns, tables, and more

• Citations and references: BibTeX support built in

• Code execution: integrate Jupyter notebooks directly

• Multiple output formats: HTML, PDF, and more from the same source

Quick Start¶

1. Click Use this template on GitHub to create a new repository

2. Update myst.yml with your site title and information

3. Replace placeholder content in pages/ with your own

4. Push to GitHub to trigger automated builds

CV PDF Generation¶

One of the key features of this template is automatic CV generation. The generate_cv.py script reads your website’s markdown files and generates a professional PDF using Typst and the modern-cv package. This means your CV stays in sync with your website content automatically.

Blog Support¶

The template includes a blog system with:

• Individual post pages in the blog/ directory

• RSS and Atom feed generation via generate_rss.py

• Optional Giscus comments (GitHub-backed)

Deployment¶

Pushes to main automatically build and deploy your site to GitHub Pages. Pull requests get preview deployments via Netlify.

Learn More¶

• MyST Markdown documentation

• Typst documentation

• GitHub Pages documentation