--- type: context id: context.kontra-day.access title: access status: active source_of_truth: false freshness: current last_reviewed: 2026-09-08 tags: - pack/kontra-day - agent-memory/context - autolearn - rich-discovery - repo/access --- # access ## Rich discovery update (2026-09-08 02:23:28) Great questions — let me answer each properly, because they cut right to the architecture. ## 1. GOTTH + `.md` files — yes, this is a strong fit Go + templ + htmx + Alpine + Tailwind, with Goldmark (Go's CommonMark renderer) turning your `.md` into HTML at request time, is one of the best "text-first news site" stacks you can pick right now: - **One static binary** — build once, copy to `.13`, done. No Node, no PHP runtime, no container even needed. - **Server-rendered HTML** — SEO-friendly by default (great Lighthouse), fast. - **templ** gives type-safe components; **htmx** gives interactivity (paging, filters, comment forms later) without a JS framework; **Alpine** for small client bits. - **Content = files** — your Obsidian/editor workflow stays; go can even re-render on file change in dev. - Cost: the **admin is DIY** — auth, CRUD, media browser are all code you write. And per-request markdown parsing is fine at this scale (cache rendered HTML if you care). ## 2. Laravel as the "orchestrator" — honest answer: it's the wrong tool *for that role* Laravel is excellent at **being a web app** (Blade+htmx admin, auth, queues, and — importantly — a genuinely great **mail system** for that email phase later). But you're proposing it as a **publish-state manager** perched over Go: - You'd run **two servers** (Go on :80, Laravel admin on :8080) both touching the same `.md` files and a shared DB. Every publish toggle, front-page order, archive move = a DB write Laravel makes and Go reads. - That works, but it's **redundant** — Go can own a small SQLite `publish` table itself, with an htmx admin page inside the same binary. One language, one process, zero sync. So the real fork is: | Path | Architecture | When to pick | |---|---|---| | **A. All Go** | Go serves site + a minimal htmx admin page managing publish/front-page/archive in SQLite. `.md` = content truth. | You want the leanest thing. Email later = Go mail libs, or hand off to n8n/Postfix on your network. | | **B. Laravel owns it all** | Blade + htmx admin, Laravel serves pages, S3 media via its filesystem driver, Mailables for email later. Drop Go. | You want Laravel's admin/mail/ecosystem and don't mind PHP runtime. | | **C. Go site + headless admin** | Go serves; **PocketBase (already on .13)** is the admin/publish/media store. | You want a browser admin *without* writing one. | | **D. Go + Laravel, loosely coupled** | Go serves; Laravel admin only writes publish-state to a **shared SQLite file** + edits `.md` on disk. | You specifically want Laravel's admin UX and Go's front. Viable, but it's path A with extra running parts. | "Is Laravel good for this?" — good at admin, great at email, overkill as a proxy. **"Other PHP?"** — Symfony (bulkier), Slim (micro), WordPress (off-the-shelf but you'd be fighting it). If PHP is the choice, Laravel+Filament is the right one. ## 3. Garage S3 media + `.md` coordination under Laravel - **Showing media in admin**: Laravel has a first-class **S3 filesystem driver** — configure a `garage` disk (endpoint, keys, bucket) and the admin lists objects and renders thumbnails. Public reads via a **Caddy/nginx route** (`/media/*` → bucket) rather than exposing Garage's own port; private buckets can use presigned URLs. - **Coordination with `.md`**: the cleanest pattern is **shortcodes, not raw URLs**. In your file you write `{{media:cover}}` or `{{vimeo:12345}}`; the renderer (Go or Laravel) resolves the slug to the actual S3 URL at render time. That way you can **rename/migrate media later without touching every article** — plain URLs pasted into `.md` freeze the path forever. Upload flow: admin uploads to bucket → returns URL → editor pastes it in the `.md`. Simple and inspectable. ## 4. Is markdown good? And what's the "scientific" one? - **Yes — Markdown (GFM/CommonMark) + front-matter is ideal** for text news/opinion with links, images, embeds. - Variants, in case the name escapes you: **MDX** (JSX components inside markdown), **AsciiDoc** (more structure — tables, includes; great for docs, overkill here), **Org-mode**, reStructuredText. - **The new scientific one is almost certainly Typst** (2023) — a modern typesetting language with gorgeous math, designed for **documents/PDF**. You *can* render it to SVG for web, but for a news site it's the wrong tool. - **If you meant LSP** (Language Server Protocol) — that's an *editor autocomplete standard*, not a format; ignore it here. - For the odd formula: keep markdown and add **KaTeX/MathML** via `$...$` in Goldmark's math extension. You get scientific notation with zero new language. ## 5. My recommendation **Path A — all Go** (templ + htmx + Alpine + Tailwind), `.md` files as content, SQLite publish-state with a small htmx admin for live/front-page/archive, `{{media:...}}` shortcodes resolved to Garage S3. Deploy = one binary behind Caddy on `.13`. Email phase later = Go mail lib or n8n handoff — revisit then, when requirements are real. Want me to draft **PLAN.md** on Path A — or would you rather spec out Path B (Laravel-everything) or Path C (Go + PocketBase) instead? ## Source paths observed - `home/sam/home_network/web_sites/kontra_day/.pi` - `home/sam/home_network/web_sites/kontra_day/.pi/memory-vault` - `home/sam/home_network/web_sites/kontra_day/.pi/memory-vault/packs` - `home/sam/home_network/web_sites/kontra_day/.pi/memory-vault/packs/kontra-day` - `home/sam/home_network/web_sites/kontra_day/.pi/memory-vault/packs/kontra-day/00-system` - `home/sam/home_network/web_sites/kontra_day/.pi/memory-vault/packs/kontra-day/00-system/pi-agent` - `home/sam/home_network/web_sites/kontra_day/.pi/tasks` - `home/sam/.agents` - `extensions/pi-config/index.ts` - `extensions/ask-user-question/index.ts` - `sys/firmware/efi/efivars` - `publish/front-page/archive` - `admin/mail/ecosystem` - `admin/publish/media` - `live/front-page/archive` ## Evidence - Confidence: 84% - Reason: Update component/repository context with detailed discovered structure and configuration ## Related - [[packs/kontra-day/00-system/pi-agent/memory-manifest|Memory Manifest]] ## Related learned memories - session: [[packs/kontra-day/80-sessions/rich-discovery-access-2026-09-08-02-23-28|Rich discovery: access 2026-09-08 02:23:28]] - context: [[packs/kontra-day/20-context/access|access]] - runbook: [[packs/kontra-day/70-runbooks/access-deployment-operations|access deployment operations]] - observation: [[packs/kontra-day/60-observations/access-repository-structure-and-configuration-patterns|access repository structure and configuration patterns]]