Minimal blog theme built with Astro, Svelte, and vanilla CSS
aurora — Astro Blog Template
By thiloho
aurora is a minimal blog theme built with Astro, Svelte, and vanilla CSS, focused on accessibility and usability, offering a table of contents, article search, and theme switching through three dropdown menus on the right side of the navigation bar.
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What stands out
A quick read of the recorded project description.
Three dropdown menus concentrated on the right side of the top navigation bar, providing table of contents, search, and theme switching
Supports keyboard shortcuts: Shift + c opens the table of contents, Shift + s opens search, Shift + t switches themes, and Esc closes the menu
The table of contents lists the page's second-level headings (h2) for easy in-page navigation
Search supports matches with out-of-order title keywords, missing letters, and extra spaces
Theme switching offers Light, Dark, and System modes
Template Details
aurora is an Astro theme for blogs, built with Astro, Svelte, and vanilla CSS. It is positioned as a minimal style, mainly focused on accessibility and usability.
The site's interactions are concentrated in three dropdown menus on the right side of the top navigation bar, each with a keyboard shortcut: Shift + c for the table of contents, Shift + s for article search, and Shift + t for theme switching, with Esc closing the menu. The table of contents lists the page's second-level headings (h2) for easy in-page navigation. Search uses a simple algorithm implemented by the author, supporting matches with out-of-order title keywords, missing letters, and extra spaces. Theme switching offers Light, Dark, and System modes, with System inheriting the browser or operating system theme. Styles remain simple, with minor adjustments to some elements to maintain consistency and responsive behavior.
Blog posts are created through Astro content collections, and images for a single post are stored in the /src/assets/blog/post-name/ directory. The repository includes example posts for reference.
Note that Svelte, mentioned in the README, does not appear in the template's dependency list, so it is recorded here only as described in the source material, without further judgment on its actual usage.
Is it right for your project?
Use Cases
- Building a personal blog focused on text content with a simple structure
- Blog sites that need in-page table of contents navigation and site-wide article search
- Scenarios where visitors can operate the table of contents, search, and theme switching via keyboard shortcuts
- Blogs that need to offer light, dark, and system-following theme modes
Suitable For
- Blog authors who manage articles using Astro content collections
- Sites that value accessibility and keyboard operation experience
- Projects that prefer minimal styles and vanilla CSS
- Personal blogs that need site-wide search and in-page table of contents features
Getting started & customization
Use these recorded setup notes alongside the repository instructions for your chosen version.
- 1
Replace the domain in the site property in astro.config.ts with your own domain
- 2
Modify the title and description properties of PageLayout in /src/pages/index.astro to match the site content
- 3
Replace Your Name with your actual name in the Head.astro and Footer.astro components
- 4
Modify the about section on the homepage by editing the Markdown text in src/content/about/about.md
- 5
Replace /public/cover.jpg to change the cover image displayed when sharing links
License & source material
Usage conditions & limitations
Free to use · keep license noticeThis entry covers the free version under the MIT license in the public repository; the free scope is the code of this version and does not mean external services or third-party assets are free.
Must comply with when using
- Free use, modification, commercial use, and distribution of this version's code are permitted.
- When distributing copies or substantial portions of the code, retain the original author's copyright notice and the full MIT license notice.
- The code is provided as is; warranties and limitations of liability are governed by the original license and applicable law.
Additional costs & items to verify
- Demo images, fonts, icons, and other third-party assets must be checked against their respective licenses and cannot be judged solely by the code's MIT license.
- External services such as domains, hosting, databases, payments, or AI may incur additional charges.
View Original Text Basis
https://github.com/thiloho/aurora/blob/main/LICENSEhttps://github.com/thiloho/aurora/blob/main/README.mdPermission is hereby granted, free of charge
Original License Text
Compiled by DeepSeek based on repository license and README ·2026-10-02. Results only cover the materials read; dependencies, images, fonts, and subsequent term changes are subject to their respective original texts.
Project checks & description sources
Template Information
- Source platforms
- GitHub
- Documentation and maintenance reference score
- Partly documented · 72 / 100
- Technologies
- Astro
- Website type
- Blog
How this score is calculated
Our heuristic uses license records (up to 30), a demo link (12), a preview (10), stars (15), recorded maintenance (15), description completeness (8), feature records (5) and classification data (5). It is not a code, security or performance test, or a Google score. A link does not establish tested functionality.
What to verify for this project
- Repository update recorded
- 2024-09-21
- Screenshot last checked
- 2026-10-02
A demo link is listed. Check it with your own content and viewport sizes; its presence does not confirm that forms, authentication or payments work.
The catalog identifies Astro as the primary stack. Check the actual dependency manifest and lockfile for versions and hosting requirements. These notes use recorded metadata, not a code audit or a deployment test.
Use a selection guide →How this description was prepared
AI-assisted description based on catalog records and repository material. Repository authors are not automatically the reviewers of this description.
Automatically checked against source and license rules; no manual editorial review.
Inspect the recorded source material
SHA-256: b557018d999293fb88a08053b94f5fe7a7c83751f9f90204ddcf80013fccd0e0
2026-10-02T09:52:49.124Z
Source file / repository# aurora
## About
aurora is a minimal blog theme built with Astro, Svelte and plain CSS. It is focused on accessibility and usability.
All the interactiveness of the website is packed into three dropdowns that are located at the right of the top navigation bar. Every menu can be opened with a simple keyboard shortcut:
- Table of contents: **Shift + c**
- Search for an article: **Shift + s**
- Theme toggle: **Shift + t**
- Close menu: Escape (**Esc**)
The styles are simple, there are small improvements for some elements to keep everything consistent and responsive.
### Table of contents
Secondary headings (`<h2>`) are listed here, so each page is easy to navigate.
### Search
I wrote a simple algorithm for the search, and the matching works well. You can write the blog title words in any order, leave letters out, have multiple spaces between words, and more.
### Theme toggle
There are three websites themes: Light, Dark and System (inherits the theme of your browser or operating system).
## Make the theme yours
Replace the domain specified for the `site` property in the `astro.config.ts` file with your own domain:
```ts
site: "https://aurora.thilohohlt.com"
```
Change the `title` and `description` props in `/src/pages/index.astro` to match your website's content:
```html
<PageLayout title="aurora" description="Minimalistic blog theme built with Astro, focused on accessibility and usability.">
```
For the components `Head.astro` and `Footer.astro`, replace *Your Name* with your actual name:
```html
<meta name="author" content="Your Name" />
```
```html
<small>Copyright © {currentDateYear} Your Name<br><a href="https://aurora.thilohohlt.com/">Astro aurora theme</a></small>
```
The about section on the main page can be modified by adjusting the markdown text in the file `src/content/about/about.md`:
```md
## About
aurora is a minimal blog theme built with Astro, Svelte and plain CSS. It is focused on accessibility and usability.
...
```
The cover image (the image people see embedded when you send a link to your website) can be changed by altering the file `/public/cover.jpg`.
Blog articles are created using Astro content collections, images for individual articles are stored in `/src/assets/blog/article-name/image-name.jpg`. You can take a look at the example articles in this repository to see how it all works out.
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