How I Automated Blog Publishing With Hugo, n8n & Obsidian Link to heading

Introduction Link to heading

For a long time, my blog publishing workflow looked like this:

  • Write notes in Obsidian
  • Manually copy them into my Hugo repo
  • Fix frontmatter, rename files, and format slugs
  • Update my Blog page manually
  • Commit → push → wait for deployment

This seems simple, but the friction adds up over time. I wanted something extremely straightforward:

“Write in Obsidian → Move it to Published → It publishes itself.”

So I automated the entire pipeline using:

Now, whenever I place a markdown file in my Published folder:

➜ My blog updates automatically ➜ Frontmatter gets normalized ➜ Git commits are generated and pushed

This post explains exactly how I built it — and how you can too.

🧩 Architecture Overview Link to heading

Here’s the full pipeline:

Obsidian → Syncthing → Proxmox LXC → n8n → GitHub → Hugo → GitHub Pages → d093w1z.com

Here’s how the pieces fit together:

1. Obsidian Folder Structure (Synced via Syncthing) Link to heading

My notes live inside the Syncthing container (ID 105):

/root/Obsidian/obsidian-notes/
└─ Notes/
    └─ Personal/
        └─ Blog/
            ├─ Drafts/
            └─ Published/

Anything moved into Published/ is considered “ready.” I write posts in Drafts/ and simply move them when done.

2. Syncthing Keeps Everything in Sync Link to heading

My laptop, desktop, phone, and the Proxmox LXC container all sync automatically through my Cloudflare-exposed Syncthing instance. No manual copying. No version mismatches.

3. n8n Syncs the Changes Into the Hugo Repo Link to heading

n8n runs in its own LXC (ID 106) with:

  • The Hugo repo cloned locally
  • GitHub access configured
  • A shared folder mapped from the Syncthing container

It monitors the Published folder, picks up changes, copies them into the Hugo repo, and standardizes everything.

4. n8n Pushes to GitHub Link to heading

  • Commit message is auto-generated
  • GitHub workflow triggers a Hugo build
  • Blog deploys automatically

Zero ceremony.

🛠 Step-by-Step Setup Link to heading

Step 1: Prepare Obsidian for Publishing Link to heading

Create two folders:

Blog/Drafts/ Blog/Published/

I use the Templater plugin to generate consistent frontmatter, filenames, tags, categories, and slugs. Here’s what it ensures:

  • Standardized filenames: YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md
  • Auto-generated slug
  • Auto-date + publish date
  • Prompt-driven tags, categories, descriptions
  • Draft flag set to true by default

No accidental publishing. No broken frontmatter.

Step 2: Shared Folder Between Containers Link to heading

In Proxmox:

  • Syncthing container → ID 105
  • n8n container → ID 106

Mount a shared folder (e.g., /mnt/shared/blog-src/) into both.

This gives n8n direct access to Obsidian’s Published folder without exposing Syncthing externally.

Step 3: n8n Workflow — The Heart of the System Link to heading

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My workflow runs every 15 minutes and does the following:

  1. Cron trigger
  2. Git pull to ensure the local clone is up to date
  3. SSH node to sync from Syncthing folder → shared folder
  4. Execute Command node to synchronize markdown files into Hugo’s content/ directory
  5. Conditional router:
    • If there were any changes, Execute Command node to commit and push changes and shoot an email for alert and logging
    • Otherwise do nothing

This is the automation layer that removes 90% of the manual work.

Step 4: GitHub Workflow for Auto Deployment Link to heading

Inside the repo, the GitHub Action is simple:

  • Trigger on any change inside content/**
  • Build Hugo (extended version)
  • Upload artifacts
  • Deploy to GitHub Pages

Every n8n push = an automatic deployment.

🧠 Why I Built This Link to heading

I write in multiple places — laptop at home, desktop at my workstation, sometimes even my phone. But publishing used to be tedious:

  • Copying files
  • Fixing frontmatter
  • Creating slugs
  • Committing manually
  • Remembering to update my projects page

Now? I just move a file to the Published folder and forget about it.

Everything else happens automatically.

This means:

✔️ More posts
✔️ Cleaner project documentation
✔️ No context switching
✔️ No manual Git busywork
✔️ Zero-pressure publishing
✔️ Zero-friction blogging

This single system removed the biggest barrier to writing consistently.

🏁 Conclusion Link to heading

This setup took a few iterations to get right, but the result is a hands-off publishing pipeline.
It’s not perfect — even while writing this post, I found improvements I want to add — but the important thing is:
It just works™

And it has saved me hours of repetitive manual work.

Tools like Hugo, n8n, Syncthing, GitHub, and Obsidian become incredibly powerful when you stitch them together with a simple workflow.