Fix-It Bot

Fix-It Bot is a Studio tool that scans your site and automatically fixes common formatting + lint issues in Markdown and YAML — the stuff that slowly accumulates over months/years and eventually turns into broken builds, inconsistent pages, and “why is this frontmatter different again?” debugging sessions.

Pro early access

Fix-It Bot is currently in early access for HugoBlox Pro. If it saves you time (or sanity), upgrading is the best way to support HugoBlox and keep these tools improving.

Scale cleanup across your site

Run one scan to normalize formatting across content, data, and config — instead of manually fixing files one-by-one.

Stop “random build failures”

Catch YAML + Markdown issues early, and auto-fix what’s safe to fix before Hugo tries to build your site.

Standardize team edits

Keep frontmatter and Markdown consistent across contributors, editors, and collaboration workflows.

Friendly for non-YAML authors

Surfaces issues with file + line numbers and gives you “Open” + “Copy” actions to resolve anything that needs a human.

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What it scans (and what it changes) Transparent

Fix-It Bot scans HugoBlox’s core “editing surface area”:

• Content: Markdown content under /content
• Data & config: YAML under /data and /config

And it focuses on formatting + lint correctness:

• YAML: normalize scalars/quoting and apply consistent formatting
• Markdown: format with consistent rules, apply safe lint auto-fixes, and keep files build-friendly

Git-first workflow

Fix-It Bot edits files on disk. Commit first, run Fix-It Bot, then review the diff.

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Who it’s for (real-world use cases)

Long-lived sites

Your site has been evolving for years, and now:

• Frontmatter is inconsistent (indentation, quoting, lists, spacing)
• Markdown is “almost right” but looks different page-to-page
• Tiny issues accumulate until a deploy suddenly fails

Fix-It Bot brings things back to a consistent baseline without you doing a manual cleanup sprint.

Large sites

When you have hundreds/thousands of pages:

• Manual cleanup doesn’t scale
• Small formatting drift becomes hard to spot in reviews
• You need a quick, repeatable “make it consistent” pass

Fix-It Bot is designed to scan across your project and report what it changed.

Teams & labs

If multiple people touch the site:

• Everyone has a slightly different Markdown style
• Frontmatter ends up with inconsistent quoting/list styles
• PR reviews waste time on formatting debates

Fix-It Bot helps you standardize content files so code review focuses on meaning, not whitespace.

Non-technical editors

If YAML/Markdown isn’t your day job:

• Validation errors are frustrating and vague
• Fixing a single broken key can take ages
• You want “tell me what to change” guidance

Fix-It Bot auto-fixes the easy stuff and clearly lists what still needs attention.

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What Fix-It Bot does (and what it avoids)

It does

• Formats YAML (consistent indentation, safe quoting, normalization)
• Formats Markdown (headings/lists/spacing, trailing whitespace, line endings)
• Lints Markdown and applies safe auto-fixes when possible
• Reports results clearly: files scanned, issues found, auto-fixed count, fix rate, and more
• Flags manual issues with severity and (when available) line numbers

It avoids (by design)

• Skipping Markdown bodies that contain Hugo shortcodes ({{< ... >}}, {{% ... %}}) to avoid breaking them
• Skipping Markdown files without YAML frontmatter (---) — HugoBlox content typically includes frontmatter, but this prevents accidental edits to “random” Markdown files
• Rewriting your prose or “AI-editing” your content — it focuses on formatting + lint correctness

Early access (expect fast iteration)

Fix-It Bot is actively evolving. If you hit an edge case (or want a rule tweak that fits your workflow), Pro users help shape what ships next.

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When to run Fix-It Bot Best practices

Before deploying

Use Fix-It Bot right before you push a release. You’ll reduce “surprise” build failures caused by small YAML/Markdown issues.

After a migration/upgrade

After big changes (theme upgrade, content migration, moving between templates), run Fix-It Bot once to re-standardize the repo.

In a team workflow

Make it a routine: one person runs Fix-It Bot before a PR merge, or run it whenever multiple authors have edited content.

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Run Fix-It Bot in Studio 2 minutes

1. Open Studio

   In VS Code, open your HugoBlox site folder and open HugoBlox Studio.

2. Go to Tools → Fix-It Bot

   In Studio, open the Tools page and expand Fix-It Bot.

3. Choose scan options

   Pick what to fix and which files to scan (content vs data/config vs everything).

4. Run the scan

   Click Run Fix-It Bot and watch progress as it scans your files.

5. Review the results

   • Check how many issues were auto-fixed
   • Expand “Issues requiring attention” for anything manual
   • Use Open to jump straight to the file/line in VS Code

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Scan options (what they mean)

Fix YAML files

Scans YAML files under your project and applies formatting + lint auto-fixes.

Typical wins:

• indentation consistency
• safer quoting for YAML-breaking characters
• more predictable structure

Fix frontmatter

Fixes YAML frontmatter at the top of your content files.

Great for:

• standardizing metadata across authors
• preventing “one broken frontmatter key broke the build”

Fix Markdown content

Formats and lints the Markdown body.

Notes:

• If a page contains Hugo shortcodes, Fix-It Bot will skip body formatting/linting for that file to stay safe.

Scope

Choose what to scan:

• All files: content + data/config
• Content only: everything under /content
• Data & config only: everything under /data and /config

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What “issues requiring attention” means

Fix-It Bot will auto-fix what it can, and then list anything that still needs a human.

Common reasons:

• YAML parsing/linting found something ambiguous or risky to change automatically
• Markdown linting rules surfaced a structural issue that needs intent (for example, heading levels)
• Markdown body was skipped because it includes Hugo shortcodes

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Examples (before → after)

YAML frontmatter cleanup

---
title: My Post
tags:[hugo, hugoblox] # inconsistent spacing
summary: A title: with a colon # needs quoting
---

Becomes:

---
title: My Post
tags: [hugo, hugoblox]
summary: "A title: with a colon"
---

Markdown hygiene at scale

Fix-It Bot can normalize the kinds of issues that quietly accumulate:

• trailing whitespace
• inconsistent list spacing
• line endings across different OS/editor setups

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Get Fix-It Bot (Pro)

Unlock Fix-It Bot with HugoBlox Pro Early access to Fix-It Bot + support ongoing development. Intro pricing is currently $8/month.

Studio overview Install Studio and learn how the visual editor works.