I wanted a simple markdown blog that’s fast, free to host, and doesn’t expose my identity. Here’s how I set it up.

This is my first project deployed to Cloudflare. I haven’t used TypeScript/JavaScript much, and never used Astro before. So this blog is also an opportunity to learn more about these technologies.

Stack

• Astro - static site generator with built-in markdown support
• Tailwind CSS - utility-first styling
• Cloudflare Pages - free hosting with unlimited bandwidth

Setup

Created the Astro blog template:

npm create astro@latest -- --template blog

Added Tailwind CSS:

npx astro add tailwind

Configured for static output in astro.config.mjs:

export default defineConfig({
  output: 'static',
  // ...
});

Writing Posts

Posts are markdown files in src/content/blog/:

---
title: 'Post Title'
description: 'Brief description'
pubDate: 'Jan 31 2026'
---

Content here...

Cleaning Up the Template

The Astro blog template comes with example content. Removed what I didn’t need:

• Deleted example posts from src/content/blog/
• Removed the separate home page - made the blog list the index
• Removed social media links from header and footer
• Deleted unused placeholder images from src/assets/

Also tweaked the styling in src/styles/global.css:

• Reduced heading sizes (h1 from 3em to 2.2em, h2 from 2.4em to 1.6em)
• Added more spacing above headings for better readability

Staying Anonymous

I won’t write anything too personal, but I still prefer to remain anonymous.

Set local git config to anonymous:

git config user.name "anon"
git config user.email "anon@anon.anon"

Kept the GitHub repo private. Using the free *.pages.dev subdomain avoids WHOIS lookups.

Deploying to Cloudflare Pages

1. Pushed repo to GitHub (private)
2. Went to Cloudflare Dashboard → Add → Pages
3. Connected GitHub repo
4. Set build settings:
   • Build command: npm run build
   • Output directory: dist
5. Deployed

Auto-deploys on every push. Free tier, unlimited bandwidth, no surprise bills from scrapers.