CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

Site Overview

This is a personal academic website for Qinglin Meng (PhD Candidate in CS at Purdue University), built on the Academic Pages Jekyll template and hosted via GitHub Pages at https://QLMeng2025.github.io.

Local Development

# Install dependencies (first time)
bundle install

# Serve locally with live reload
bundle exec jekyll serve -l -H localhost
# Site available at http://localhost:4000

# Using Docker instead
docker compose up
# Site available at http://localhost:4000

_config.yml is not hot-reloaded — restart the server after changing it.

Content Architecture

Content is separated from theme. Each content type lives in its own collection directory as Markdown files with YAML front matter:

Directory	URL pattern	Key front matter fields
`_publications/`	`/publications/:path/`	`title`, `collection`, `category`, `permalink`, `date`, `venue`, `paperurl`, `citation`
`_talks/`	`/talks/:path/`	`title`, `collection`, `type`, `date`, `venue`, `location`
`_posts/`	`/:categories/:title/`	standard Jekyll post fields
`_teaching/`	`/teaching/:path/`	`title`, `collection`
`_portfolio/`	`/portfolio/:path/`	`title`, `collection`
`_pages/`	defined by `permalink`	page-specific

Site-wide config is in _config.yml. Navigation menu is in _data/navigation.yml.

Static files (PDFs, slides) go in files/ and are served at /files/filename.

Adding Publications

Create a new .md file in _publications/ with this front matter structure:

---
title: "Paper Title"
collection: publications
category: conferences   # or: manuscripts, books
permalink: /publication/slug-or-external-url
excerpt: 'Short description'
date: 2025-06-01
venue: 'Conference or Journal Name'
paperurl: 'https://...'
citation: 'Author, A., & Author, B. (2025). Title. Venue.'
---

Alternatively, use markdown_generator/ notebooks (publications.ipynb, talks.ipynb) to batch-generate Markdown from TSV spreadsheets.

Key Files

_config.yml — author profile, social links, site URL, plugins
_pages/about.md — homepage content (permalink: /)
_pages/cv.md — CV page
_data/navigation.yml — top navigation menu items
assets/ — JS/CSS theme assets (rarely need editing)
_sass/ — SCSS theme styles
_includes/, _layouts/ — Liquid HTML templates