Dead Articles

An AI-powered article generator that creates realistic-looking but entirely fabricated news articles on demand — a playful experiment inspired by the dead internet theory.

Built as a learning project to explore two things:

1. Google's Gemini Flash models — the new generation of fast, lightweight models that can generate full articles in seconds, making on-demand content generation feel instant.
2. Cloudflare Workers and the broader Cloudflare ecosystem — Workers, KV storage, Turnstile, Pages, and AI Gateway. The whole edge-first, serverless approach to building web apps.

The result is a site where any URL path becomes a fully generated article. Visit /the-rise-of-sentient-toasters and you'll get a convincing, styled article about sentient toasters — streamed to your browser in real time.

How It Works

1. A user visits a URL like /some-article-title
2. If the article is cached in Cloudflare KV, it's served instantly via SSR
3. If not, the user completes a Cloudflare Turnstile challenge
4. The title is sent to Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite, which streams back a full markdown article
5. The article is checked against OpenAI's moderation API for content safety
6. The result is cached in KV and rendered with one of 5 random visual themes

Features

• Streaming generation — articles appear progressively as the AI writes them
• Edge caching — cached articles are served instantly from Cloudflare KV
• Content moderation — OpenAI moderation prevents harmful content
• Multiple themes — 5 different article styles, randomly assigned
• Turnstile protection — prevents automated abuse without annoying CAPTCHAs
• Debug mode — append ?debug to see generation timing metrics

Tech Stack

• Runtime: Cloudflare Workers
• AI Generation: Google Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite
• Moderation: OpenAI omni-moderation
• Storage: Cloudflare KV
• CAPTCHA: Cloudflare Turnstile
• Frontend: Vanilla JS + markdown-it
• Language: TypeScript
• Package Manager: pnpm

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js with pnpm
• A Cloudflare account (with KV namespace and Turnstile site configured)
• Google AI Studio API key
• OpenAI API key

Setup

pnpm install
pnpm start

The dev server runs at http://localhost:8787.

Environment Variables

Set these as secrets in your Cloudflare Workers environment:

• GOOGLE_AI_STUDIO_TOKEN
• GOOGLE_AI_GATEWAY_URL
• OPENAI_API_KEY
• TURNSTILE_SECRET_KEY

Deploy

pnpm deploy

Disclaimer

All articles are AI-generated fiction. Any resemblance to real events or persons is coincidental.