How I Installed GitHub pages with the Chirpy Theme

I recently set up my personal site using the Chirpy Jekyll theme. Here’s how I did it:

1. Set up GitHub
   I made sure I had a GitHub account ready to host my site.

2. Visit the Chirpy Getting Started Guide
   I followed the instructions on the official guide: Getting Started with Chirpy.

3. Go to the Chirpy Starter Repository
   Chirpy Starter on GitHub

4. Use the Template
   I clicked “Use this template” and selected “Create a new repository”.

5. Name the Repository
   I named it username.github.io (replacing username with my GitHub username) so GitHub Pages would recognize it correctly.

6. Enable GitHub Pages
   In Settings > Pages, I ensured Pages was set to main branch.

7. Configure _config.yml
   I edited the _config.yml file to add my site details.
   Initially, I ran into errors because I accidentally left a - when deleting the Twitter link. Once I fixed that and committed the changes, everything worked!

Now my site is live and running the Chirpy theme smoothly.

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Configuring _config.yml (Required Settings)

Once Chirpy is installed, _config.yml is where I set my blog’s identity and core settings.
Here are the minimum recommended changes:

title: "Your Blog Title"
tagline: "A short description or tagline"
url: "https://yourusername.github.io"
author:
  name: "Your Name"
  avatar: "/assets/img/avatar.png" # optional
lang: "en"
timezone: "Australia/Sydney

Writing the Post Header (Front Matter)

To post my first post I had to write a file header. Every Jekyll post starts with a YAML front matter block at the very top of the file.
This tells Jekyll (and Chirpy) how to render and categorise your post.

Example:

---
title: "Post Title"
date: 2025-08-30 20:00:00 +1000
categories: [setup, jekyll, chirpy]
tags: [jekyll, github, chirpy, tutorial]
---

Saving Your Post

Finally, to save my fist post I created a Markdown file into the _posts directory of my project.

The filename must follow Jekyll’s required format:

For example:

2025-08-30-chirpy.md

Tips:

• Use lowercase letters.
• Replace spaces with hyphens (-).
• Avoid special characters.
• Match the date in the filename to the date in your post’s front matter.

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How to Upload Your avatar.png File to a New Directory on GitHub

Finally I had to create a new folder and upload my avatar icon avatar.png file.
Here’s how I uploaded my avatar.png file directly in GitHub’s web interface.

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1. Open the Repository

• Go to the repository on GitHub.

2. Start Creating a File

• Click Add file > Create new file.

3. Name the Folder and File

• In the file name field, I typed the folder name, then a forward slash /img/avatar/, then README.md.

2. Navigate to the Target Directory

• Then I went to the new directory assets/images/avatar.

3. Start the Upload

• Click Add file > Upload files.

4. Select Your avatar.png

• I uploaded my avatar.png file into the `~/avatar/ directory.

5. Commit the File

• I scrolled down to the Commit changes section.
• Added a commit message: uploaded avatar image
• Finally I deleted the README.md file I created to create the directory.