Bengal 0.1.0

Initial alpha release with core features

Released: October 13, 2025

Welcome to the first alpha release of Bengal! 🎉

Bengal 0.1.0 is a high-performance static site generator built from the ground up for Python 3.14+ and designed to handle sites of all sizes - from small blogs to large documentation sites with thousands of pages.

What's Bengal?

Bengal is a static site generator that focuses on:

  • Speed - Parallel processing and smart caching make builds fast
  • Scale - Handle sites with 100s to 10,000+ pages efficiently
  • Developer Experience - Modern Python, great defaults, minimal configuration
  • Flexibility - Powerful templates, cascading configuration, extensible design

Key Features

Fast Builds

  • Parallel Processing: Builds use multiple CPU cores automatically
  • Incremental Builds: Only rebuild what changed (15-50x faster for updates)
  • Streaming Mode: Handle large sites without memory issues
  • Smart Caching: Automatic cache invalidation when content changes

Content Management

  • Markdown First: Write in Markdown with YAML or TOML front matter
  • Hierarchical Sections: Organize content in folders, automatic navigation
  • Taxonomies: Built-in tag and category support
  • Related Posts: Automatic content recommendations based on tags
  • Menus: Flexible menu system with nested navigation

Templates & Themes

  • Jinja2 Templates: Powerful template engine with custom filters
  • Theme System: Beautiful default theme, easy customization
  • Template Swizzling: Override any template without forking the theme
  • Syntax Highlighting: Fast code highlighting with caching

Python API Documentation

One of Bengal's standout features is automatic API documentation:

  • AST-Based: Generates docs without importing your code (safe!)
  • Multiple Styles: Supports Google, NumPy, and Sphinx docstrings
  • Smart Cross-References: Automatic linking between related items
  • Configurable: Control visibility of private/special methods

Asset Pipeline

  • Fingerprinting: Automatic cache busting for CSS/JS/images
  • Minification: Compress CSS and JavaScript
  • Image Optimization: Automatic image processing
  • Optional Node.js: Use SCSS, PostCSS, and esbuild if needed

SEO & Discovery

  • Automatic Sitemaps: XML sitemap generation
  • RSS Feeds: Automatic feed generation for blogs
  • Search: JSON search index for fast client-side search
  • LLM-Friendly: Export content for AI tools and search

Developer Tools

  • Quick Start:bengal new sitescaffolds a complete site
  • Live Preview: Development server with hot reload
  • File Watching: Auto-rebuild when files change
  • Rich Output: Beautiful console output with progress bars
  • Health Checks: Validate your site for common issues
  • Profiling: Built-in performance measurement

Build Profiles

Bengal includes three build profiles optimized for different workflows:

  • Writer (--profile writer): Fast rebuilds, minimal output - perfect when writing
  • Theme Dev (--profile theme-dev): Full builds with detailed logging
  • Developer (--profile developer): Default balanced mode

Getting Started

Installation

pip install bengal

Requires Python 3.14+. For best performance, use Python 3.14t (free-threaded) for 1.8x speedup on large sites.

Create Your First Site

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
# Create a new site
bengal new site my-blog

# Navigate to it
cd my-blog

# Start the dev server
bengal site serve

# Build for production
bengal site build

Create Content

1
2
3
4
5
# Create a new page
bengal new page "My First Post"

# Create a page in a section
bengal new page "Tutorial 1" --section guides

What Bengal Is Good For

✅ Documentation Sites (100-5,000 pages)

  • Fast builds with Python 3.14t
  • Automatic API documentation
  • Hierarchical navigation
  • Search and cross-references

✅ Blogs and Content Sites

  • Tag-based organization
  • Related posts
  • RSS feeds
  • Beautiful default theme

✅ Project Documentation

  • AST-based API docs (safe for any Python code)
  • Syntax highlighting
  • Multiple docstring formats
  • Version-aware navigation

Alpha Release Notes

This is an alpha release - it works well, but the API may change. We recommend:

  • ✅ Use for personal projects and experimentation
  • ✅ Use for documentation sites with backups
  • ✅ Report bugs and provide feedback
  • ⚠️ Test thoroughly before using in production
  • ⚠️ Expect occasional breaking changes in 0.x versions

Requirements

  • Python 3.14 or higher
  • 3.14t recommended for best performance (1.8x faster)
  • See Installation Guide for details

Next Steps

Thank You!

Thank you for trying Bengal! Your feedback helps make it better. Please report any issues or suggestions on GitHub.