Enhancement: Build a minimal static site generator (Astro alternative) using Preact + SSR + Incremental Builds

[lovestaco]

Description:

Building lightweight Astro-like system instead of depending on external frameworks.

The idea is to create a minimal static site generator (SSG) using Preact with server-side rendering (SSR) and incremental builds, designed specifically for our simple use case.

Core Idea:

Instead of using Astro, build a simplified custom pipeline tailored to our static site.
Key goals:

• Pre-render Preact components to HTML
• Support incremental builds (only rebuild changed pages)
• Fully static output
• Minimal dependencies, fast build times
• Simple routing system

Initial Design Discussion:

Pipeline Concept:

• Preact for components + routing

• preact-render-to-string for SSR

  • https://github.com/preactjs/preact-render-to-string
  • https://preactjs.com/guide/v10/server-side-rendering/

• Git or SQLite-based hashing for detecting changed pages

  • Git diff → detect modified routes/pages
  • Rebuild only changed outputs

• Output static HTML + assets folder

Proposed Requirements:

1. Preact component-based templates
2. Basic routing (file-based or config-based)
3. Incremental build system (hash or git diff)
4. Fully static output
5. Fast build times

Open Questions:

• How to best integrate file change detection (Git vs SQLite hash)?
• Should we include markdown/MDX rendering?
• Do we need a plugin system or keep it fixed-function?

Next Steps:

• Research minimal SSR pipeline using preact-render-to-string
• Prototype HTML generation for simple routes
• Add incremental rebuild logic using Git diff
• Benchmark build performance vs Astro

https://discord.com/channels/783146548385153035/814676846599208971/1431506045116612608

[lovestaco]

https://github.com/preactjs/preact-render-to-string

https://preactjs.com/guide/v10/server-side-rendering/