Creating local only posts and not pushing them to Github.

Publishing a Post Locally Only — Keeping It Off GitHub¶

The Correct Workflow¶

Step 1 — Create your post file in _posts/ as normal.

Step 2 — Immediately open .gitignore in VS Code and add the filename before touching Git: sh_posts/2026-03-01-your-new-post.md Save it.

Step 3 — Stage only .gitignore: shgit add .gitignore

Step 4 — Commit and push the .gitignore change: shgit commit -m "Update gitignore - keep [post name] local only" shgit push origin main

Step 5 — Build and verify locally: shbundle exec jekyll build

Check your local site to confirm the post renders correctly.

Critical Rules¶

Always use git add .gitignore explicitly — never git add . for this workflow Always get .gitignore committed and pushed before doing anything else with Git The post file must never be touched by git add — once Git stages it, it will go to GitHub

Recovery — If You Accidentally Pushed the File First¶

Step 1 — Add the filename to .gitignore in VS Code and save. Step 2 — Remove it from GitHub without deleting it locally:

git rm --cached _posts/2026-03-01-your-post.md

Step 3 — Stage, commit, and push:

git add .gitignore

git commit -m "Remove [post name] from GitHub, keep local only"

sh git push origin main