Syndicating HALOS Blog Posts

Longer blog posts from docs/_posts/ can be syndicated to other platforms to reach broader audiences.

Preferred flow

For HALOS essays and substantive project updates, use this default flow unless there is a reason not to:

1. Publish the canonical version on halos.northharbor.dev from docs/_posts/.
2. Publish the discussion version on Substack with a canonical note pointing back to the HALOS blog post.
3. Publish a short LinkedIn post that points to the primary engagement destination.

Current preference:

• The HALOS blog is the canonical/original publication.
• Substack is the preferred discussion venue when discussion and replies matter.
• LinkedIn should usually include one primary link, not multiple competing links.

If Substack is the active discussion venue for a post, LinkedIn should link to Substack rather than splitting attention across the blog post and Substack.

Manual cross-posting

Substack

1. Start from the canonical post in docs/_posts/.
2. Adapt it for email/newsletter reading if needed.
3. Add a canonical note near the end: “Originally published at https://halos.northharbor.dev/YYYY/MM/DD/slug.html”
4. Publish on Substack.
5. Use the published Substack URL as the primary CTA from LinkedIn when Substack is the discussion hub.

Medium

1. Copy the post content from the built HTML or markdown source.
2. Create a new story at medium.com/new-story.
3. Paste content; preserve headings and links.
4. Add a canonical link at the bottom: “Originally published at https://halos.northharbor.dev/YYYY/MM/DD/slug.html”

Dev.to

1. Create a new article at dev.to/new.
2. Use the post title and excerpt.
3. Paste body content (markdown from _posts/ works).
4. Add canonical URL in the article settings.
5. Tag with relevant topics (e.g. ai, agents, opensource).

LinkedIn

1. Decide on one primary destination before drafting the post.
2. If the goal is canonical attribution, link to the HALOS blog post.
3. If the goal is discussion and Substack is the active venue, link to the Substack post.
4. Avoid including both blog and Substack links in the same short LinkedIn post unless there is a strong reason.
5. For LinkedIn articles, paste the adapted content and link back to the original HALOS blog post.

Best practices

• Canonical links — Always link back to the original on halos.northharbor.dev so search engines attribute the content correctly.
• Attribution — “Posted by HALOS” or “From HALOS (halos.northharbor.dev)” keeps the source clear.
• Consistency — Use the same voice and principles across platforms.
• Single CTA on LinkedIn — Prefer one clear destination per LinkedIn post so engagement is not split.

RSS

The site generates feed.xml for blog posts. Readers can subscribe at:

https://halos.northharbor.dev/feed.xml

Post images

New blog posts should ship with two image assets:

• Social/page image — larger image used for og:image, twitter:image, and link previews.
• Feed image — smaller square or thumbnail-friendly image used in RSS/Atom readers.

Recommended front matter:

---
title: "Post title"
excerpt: "One-sentence summary."
date: YYYY-MM-DD
image: /assets/posts/YYYY-MM-DD-slug/social.png
feed_image: /assets/posts/YYYY-MM-DD-slug/feed.png
---

Current fallback behavior:

• If a post omits image, HALOS uses the default banner image.
• If a post omits feed_image, HALOS uses the default feed thumbnail.

Suggested workflow for new posts:

1. Create the draft in docs/_posts/ with title, excerpt, date, image, and feed_image.
2. Generate a relevant hero/social image for the post topic.
3. Export a smaller companion image for feed readers.
4. Save both under docs/assets/posts/YYYY-MM-DD-slug/.
5. Verify the post page exposes og:image and the feed exposes media:thumbnail.

See assets/posts/README.md for the folder convention and suggested sizes.

Until per-post images exist, the default HALOS images keep previews and feed readers populated.