💋 Kiss - Keep It Simply Static

A PHP static site generator. Uses Twig for templating, supports YAML/JSON/PHP/XML/INI data sources, dynamic page parameters, static file sync, and a watch mode with partial rebuilds.

Prerequisites

• PHP 8.2+ (CLI)
• inotifywait (Linux/WSL) ou fswatch (macOS) pour le mode watch

Getting started

composer global require amund/kiss-php
kiss init my-site
cd my-site
kiss build

CLI

Command	Description
kiss init [dir]	Creates a new site in the folder (or the current folder)
kiss build	Build the entire website
kiss watch	Build and then monitor the files (using inotifywait or fswatch)
kiss reset [all|dist|cache]	Remove web/ and/or tmp/
kiss route [list|name]	List the routes or rebuild a specific route
kiss copy [path]	Sync a file from copy/ to web/
kiss test	Validate the configuration (warmup without build)

Default project structure

kiss.yml        → Site configuration
├── copy/       → Static files (copied as-is to web/)
├── data/       → Global data (YAML/JSON/PHP/XML/INI/MD)
├── route/      → Route definitions (YAML/JSON/PHP/XML/INI)
├── template/   → Twig templates
└── web/        → Generated site (dist)

Configuration

File kiss.yml (also supports .yaml, .php, .json, .xml, .ini).

debug: true
path:
  copy: copy
  data: data
  route: route
  template: template
  dist: web
  cache: system

Environment variables (take precedence):

• KISS_DEBUG=true
• KISS_VERBOSE=true

Data sources

Files in data/ are loaded automatically and available in Twig via {{ global.* }}.

Example — data/site.yml:

name: My Site
tagline: Great static site

In a Twig template:

<h1>{{ global.site.name }}</h1>
<p>{{ global.site.tagline }}</p>

Markdown files

Markdown files (.md) in data/ support frontmatter delimited by ---:

---
title: My Article
date: 2024-01-01
---
Content **markdown** here.

The frontmatter fields are available directly, and the body is available as content. Combine with the |markdown filter in your templates:

<h1>{{ title }}</h1>
<div>{{ content|markdown|raw }}</div>

Routes

Single page

route/index.yml:

path: /index.html
template: page.twig
data:
  title: Home

Pages with settings (items)

route/blog.yml:

path: /{slug}.html
template: post.twig
data:
  blog_title: "My Blog"
items:
  - slug: hello-world
    title: Hello World
  - slug: second-article
    title: Second article

Each item generates a page. data contains the metadata, which is merged into each child page.

External reference ($ref)

path: /{slug}.html
template: post.twig
items:
  $ref: data/articles.yml

Archive page + list

path: /blog
template: blog_list.twig
data:
  title: "Blog"
items:
  $ref: data/posts.yml

Access in the archive template :

<h1>{{ title }}</h1>
{% for post in items %}
  <a href="{{ path('blog', {slug: post.slug}) }}">{{ post.title }}</a>
{% endfor %}

URL Generation (path())

{{ path('about') }}                   → /about
{{ path('blog', {slug: 'hello'}) }}   → /hello.html
{{ path('blog') }}                     → /blog (page 1)
{{ path('blog', {page: 2}) }}          → /blog/page/2

Accessing data from another route (route())

{% set blog = route('blog') %}
<h1>{{ blog.title }}</h1>
{% for post in blog.items %}
  ...
{% endfor %}

Pagination

route/blog.yml:

path: /blog
template: blog_list.twig
paginate: 10
data:
  title: "Archives"
items:
  $ref: data/posts.yml

Generates blog/index.html (page 1) and blog/page/{n}/index.html (subsequent pages).

{% for post in items %}
  ...
{% endfor %}
{% if prevPage %}
  <a href="{{ path('blog', {page: prevPage}) }}">← Previous</a>
{% endif %}
{% if nextPage %}
  <a href="{{ path('blog', {page: nextPage}) }}">Next →</a>
{% endif %}

Validation

• {param} or paginate → items is required
• data is reserved for metadata
• The $ref should be set to items, not data

How it works

• Route manifest: tmp/kiss/route-manifest.php tracks which files each route generated; orphaned files are cleaned on rebuild.
• Template deps: tmp/kiss/template-deps.php traces dependencies between templates (extends/include/embed) for partial rebuilds.
• DataTree: caches remote and local data sources as serialized PHP files.
• Watch: inotifywait detects changes and recompiles only the impacted routes.

License

MIT