Alan Li — Academic Website

This folder is your entire website. It's a single self-contained page (index.html) plus this guide. No build tools, no frameworks, nothing to install. You edit the HTML, push it to GitHub, and GitHub serves it to the world for free.

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0. The big picture (how this works)

   You edit index.html  ─push→  GitHub repo "alan2326.github.io"  ─auto→  https://alan2326.github.io
                                          │
                                          └── (optional, later) point alanli.me at it

• Host: GitHub Pages — free, reliable, standard for academics.
• Live URL immediately: https://alan2326.github.io
• Custom domain later: attach alanli.me (or .net) with a one-line change. No rebuild.

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1. What you need to do first (one-time setup)

1. Have a GitHub account — you do: alan2326.
2. Install git (if not already). Check by running git --version in Terminal. If missing, macOS will prompt to install the developer tools, or run xcode-select --install.
3. Personalize the site. Open index.html and search for EDIT ME. Each one marks something to change (your bio, links, email, news, publications). Take 15 minutes here.
4. Add a photo (optional). Put a square photo at assets/profile.jpg. (If you skip it, the page just hides the image automatically.)
5. Add your CV (optional). Drop a assets/cv.pdf.

To preview locally before publishing, just double-click index.html — it opens in your browser. (Or run python3 -m http.server in this folder and visit http://localhost:8000.)

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2. Publish it to the web (GitHub Pages)

A. Create the repository

1. Go to https://github.com/new
2. Repository name must be exactly: alan2326.github.io (This exact name is what makes it a personal site served at that URL.)
3. Set it to Public. Don't add a README (this folder already has one).
4. Click Create repository.

B. Push this folder to it

Open Terminal, then run these commands from inside this folder:

cd "/Users/alanli/Desktop/alan2326.github.io"
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial website"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/alan2326/alan2326.github.io.git
git push -u origin main

(The first push may ask you to log in to GitHub — follow the browser prompt.)

C. Turn on Pages

1. In the repo on GitHub: Settings → Pages.
2. Under "Build and deployment", Source = Deploy from a branch.
3. Branch = main, folder = / (root). Save.
4. Wait ~1 minute, then visit https://alan2326.github.io 🎉

For a repo named username.github.io, Pages is often on by default — check the URL first.

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3. Updating the site later

Every time you change something:

cd "/Users/alanli/Desktop/alan2326.github.io"
git add .
git commit -m "Update news / add paper"
git push

The live site refreshes within a minute. That's the whole workflow.

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4. (Optional) Use a custom domain like alanli.me

Available right now (checked July 2026): alanli.me, alanli.net, alanli.xyz. alanli.com/.org/.dev/.io/.ai are all taken.

Once you buy one (Namecheap, Cloudflare, Porkbun — ~$10–20/yr):

1. Create a file named CNAME in this folder (no extension) containing just your domain:

   alanli.me
   

   Commit and push it. (Or set it in GitHub → Settings → Pages → Custom domain, which creates this file for you.)

2. At your domain registrar's DNS settings, add these records:

   Type	Host / Name	Value
   A	@	185.199.108.153
   A	@	185.199.109.153
   A	@	185.199.110.153
   A	@	185.199.111.153
   CNAME	www	alan2326.github.io.

   (These four IPs are GitHub Pages' — they're stable and public.)

3. Back in GitHub → Settings → Pages, enter your domain and check "Enforce HTTPS" (may take a few minutes to a few hours to go green).

DNS can take up to ~24h to propagate, but usually it's minutes.

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5. If you outgrow this later

This plain-HTML page is deliberately simple and will serve you well for years. If you ever want automatic publication lists, a blog, or a fancier theme, popular academic upgrades are:

• al-folio (Jekyll) — https://github.com/alshedivat/al-folio
• academicpages — https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io

Both deploy to the same GitHub Pages setup you just learned. No rush — start simple.

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File map

alan2326.github.io/
├── index.html        ← your whole website (edit the "EDIT ME" spots)
├── README.md         ← this guide
└── assets/
    ├── profile.jpg   ← (add) square headshot
    └── cv.pdf        ← (add) your CV