Hugo Preview

Hugo Preview

Start the Hugo development server for local preview of the blog, including draft posts.

Workflow

1. Check Prerequisites

Verify Hugo is installed: hugo version

2. Check for Existing Server

Before starting, check if Hugo is already running:

pgrep -f "hugo server" && echo "Hugo already running" || echo "No Hugo server found"

If already running, skip to step 4 and report the URL.

3. Start Dev Server

Use the Bash tool with run_in_background: true to start Hugo:

hugo server -D --navigateToChanged

IMPORTANT: Do NOT pipe the output through head, tail, or any other command. Piping causes Hugo to receive SIGPIPE and terminate after a few seconds. Always run the command directly with run_in_background: true.

Flags:

• -D: Include draft posts (essential for previewing work-in-progress)
• --navigateToChanged: Auto-navigate browser to changed content

4. Report URL

Wait a couple of seconds, then verify the server is responding:

sleep 2 && curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" http://localhost:1313/

The server typically starts at http://localhost:1313/. Report the URL.

If a specific post slug was provided as argument, determine the correct direct URL by checking the Hugo permalink configuration in config/_default/hugo.yaml (look for the permalinks section). For example:

• permalinks: posts: /:slug/ means the URL is http://localhost:1313/<slug>/
• permalinks: posts: /posts/:slug/ means the URL is http://localhost:1313/posts/<slug>/

If no permalink config is found, fall back to http://localhost:1313/<slug>/.

5. Background Operation

The server runs in the background, watches for file changes, and auto-reloads.

To stop: kill the Hugo process with pkill -f "hugo server".