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Building an Automated Bilingual Blog System with Obsidian: Going Global in Two Languages


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Takuya Niioka

Introduction: Why I Built This System

For 9 years since joining the company, I’ve worked as an engineer in the AD/ADAS field. While I accumulated expertise, I felt it was a career risk that my work wasn’t visible outside the company and had zero recognition in the global market.

Expertise might as well not exist if it isn’t visible.

Then I realized: Nothing will change unless I put myself out there.

However, I faced the following challenges:

  • Lack of time: With a full-time job, I couldn’t dedicate 10 hours per week to blogging
  • Difficulty maintaining: Manual posting is cumbersome and leads to quick abandonment
  • Global reach: Japanese-only content has limitations; English content is also necessary

In this article, I’ll introduce the bilingual automated blog posting system I built that costs only $10.18 per year to operate.

What This System Can Achieve

Key Features

Write article (Obsidian) → One button → Distribute worldwide

Specifically:

  • Write in Japanese → Auto-generate English version via AI translation
  • Automatic SEO optimization
  • Auto-publish to custom domain blog
  • Auto-generate LinkedIn posts
  • Prepare for distribution to Medium, Dev.to, etc.
  • Automatic Google Analytics tracking

Time required: Within 5 minutes (excluding article writing)
Annual cost: $10.18 (domain fee only)

Challenges Solved

Before (Pre-System Build)

3 hours to publish one article:

  • Writing in Obsidian: 2 hours
  • Manual HTML conversion: 20 minutes
  • Image optimization: 15 minutes
  • SEO configuration: 15 minutes
  • GitHub push: 10 minutes
  • Deploy verification: 10 minutes
  • LinkedIn post creation: 30 minutes
  • English translation: 1 hour (outsourced or self-translated)

Total: 4-5 hours
→ Impossible to publish 2 articles per week
→ Gave up

After (Post-System Build)

1 hour to publish one article:

  • Writing in Obsidian: 50 minutes
  • Run automation script: 5 minutes → AI translation → SEO optimization → Image optimization → Automatic GitHub push → Automatic Cloudflare deployment → Auto-generate LinkedIn post
  • Final check: 5 minutes

Total: 1 hour
→ Possible to publish 2 articles per week
→ Sustainable

System Architecture

Overall System Diagram 

graph TD
    subgraph Writing["Writing Environment (Obsidian)"]
        A[Write Articles in Markdown] --> B[Core Vault]
        B --> C[Blog Vault]
    end

    subgraph Automation["Automation Layer (Python + AI)"]
        C --> D[AI Translation<br/>Claude API]
        D --> E[SEO Optimization<br/>Auto Description Generation]
        E --> F[Quality Check<br/>AI Analysis]
        F --> G[Hugo Static Site Generation]
    end

    subgraph Deploy["Deployment & Delivery"]
        G --> H[GitHub Repository]
        H --> I[Cloudflare Pages<br/>Auto Build]
        I --> J[Custom Domain Blog<br/>CDN Delivery]
    end

    subgraph SNS["Social Media Distribution"]
        G --> K[LinkedIn Post Generation]
        K --> L[LinkedIn API Posting]
        G --> M[Medium/Dev.to<br/>Distribution Prep]
    end

    subgraph Analytics["Analytics"]
        J --> N[Google Analytics GA4]
    end

    J --> O((Readers))
    L --> O
    M --> O

    style A fill:#DCE7FF,stroke:#333
    style D fill:#FFE6CC,stroke:#333
    style E fill:#FFE6CC,stroke:#333
    style F fill:#FFE6CC,stroke:#333
    style I fill:#ADD8E6,stroke:#333
    style J fill:#90EE90,stroke:#333
    style O fill:#FFB6C1,stroke:#333

Technology Stack

Category Technology Role Cost
Writing Obsidian Markdown article creation, knowledge production core Free
SSG Hugo Static site generation (Markdown→HTML) Free
AI Claude API Translation, quality check, SEO optimization $5-10/month
Hosting Cloudflare Pages Auto deployment & CDN delivery Free
Version Control GitHub Source control & CI/CD Free
Domain NameCheap Custom domain $10.18/year ✅
DNS Cloudflare DNS management & email forwarding Free
SNS API LinkedIn API Auto posting Free
Analytics Google Analytics Access tracking Free

Total Annual Cost: $10.18 + API usage $60-120 = $70.18-130.18 (approximately ¥10,000)

Core Implementation: 5 Stages

Stage 1: Draft

Purpose: Review and modify articles locally

draft.bat

# Or include English translation simultaneously
draft_translate.bat

Process:

  1. Retrieve articles from Obsidian (Core Vault)
  2. Automatically convert to Hugo format
  3. Save with draft: true (private)
  4. Auto-launch Hugo server
  5. Open http://localhost:1313 in browser

At this stage:

  • No GitHub push
  • Multiple revisions and previews possible
  • Completely local process

AI Translation Feature:

# translate_article.py (excerpt)
def translate_with_claude(japanese_text):
    """Translate Japanese to English using Claude API"""
    prompt = f"""
    Please translate the following technical article to English:
    - Use appropriate technical terms
    - Natural, readable English
    - Preserve Markdown formatting

    {japanese_text}
    """
    # Call Claude API
    response = call_claude_api(prompt)
    return response

Stage 2: Quality Check

Purpose: Perform AI-based article quality analysis

check.bat

Check Items:

  • Detection of omitted subjects (Japanese-specific issue)
  • Detection of logical gaps
  • Abstract-to-concrete correspondence
  • Detection of ambiguous expressions
  • Accuracy of technical terms
  • SEO improvement suggestions

Output Example:

# Quality Report

## Subject Omission (3 places)
- Line 45: "Built the system" → Who did?
  Suggestion: "I built the system"

## Logic Gaps (2 locations)
- Line 78-82: Gap between Step 2 and Step 3
  Suggestion: Add intermediate steps

## Ambiguous Expressions (5 locations)
- Line 92: "quite fast" → what are the specific numbers?
  Suggestion: "3 times faster (7h → 2h)"

## Overall Rating: 85/100
Can improve to: 90/100

Stage 3: Pre-Publish Optimization

Purpose: Perform SEO optimization and Description auto-generation

# Automatically executed when publish.bat runs

Execution Details:

1. Description Auto-generation (Claude API)

def generate_description(article_text):
    """Generate SEO-optimized summary automatically"""
    prompt = f"""
    Please generate an SEO-optimized summary from the following article.

    Requirements:
    - 120-160 characters
    - Naturally include keywords
    - Capture reader interest
    - Convey article core message

    {article_text}
    """
    description = call_claude_api(prompt)
    return description

2. Automated SEO Check

seo_checks = {
    'title_length': Within 60 characters?,
    'h1_exists': Has H1 tag?,
    'description': Between 120-160 characters?,
    'images': Has alt attributes?,
    'word_count': Minimum 1,500 words?,
    'tags': Has 3-5 tags?,
    'internal_links': Has internal links?
}

3. H1 Handling (Important)

Issue: Hugo theme outputs title as H1
     → Duplicates with H1 in Markdown
     → Bad for SEO

Solution: 
1. Comment out H1 in Markdown
2. Hide with CSS
3. Keep in HTML (for SEO)

Stage 4: Publish

Purpose: Actually publish the article

publish.bat

Execution Flow:

def publish_workflow():
    # 1. Generate description
    description = generate_description(article)

    # 2. SEO automatic check
    seo_result = check_seo(article)
    if not seo_result.passed:
        print("SEO issues found:", seo_result.issues)
        if not confirm("Publish anyway?"):
            return

    # 3. Convert to Hugo format (draft: false)
    convert_to_hugo(article, draft=False)

    # 4. Save Japanese and English versions
    save_bilingual_articles(article_ja, article_en)

    # 5. Automatic Git push
    git_push_with_message(f"Publish: {article.title}")

    # 6. Generate LinkedIn posts
    generate_linkedin_posts(article)

    print("✅ Publishing complete!")
    print(f"Japanese: https://takuyaniioka.com/ja/posts/{slug}/")
    print(f"English: https://takuyaniioka.com/posts/{slug}/")

Post-publish Auto-deployment:

GitHub Push
    ↓ (Webhook)
Cloudflare Pages Detection
    ↓
Hugo Auto-build (about 30 seconds)
    ↓
CDN Distribution
    ↓
Blog Published

Stage 5: Social Media (LinkedIn)

Purpose: Automatically generate LinkedIn posts from articles

linkedin_post.bat

This system can automatically generate LinkedIn posts from articles. We plan to modify the design in the future to allow manual editing and posting as needed.

Stage 6: Analytics

Google Analytics GA4 Integration:

# BlogVault/config.toml
[params]
  googleAnalytics = "G-XXXXXXXXXX"

Tracking Data:

  • Real-time access
  • Traffic sources (LinkedIn, Medium, Google etc.)
  • Popular article rankings
  • Device and region statistics
  • Time on site and bounce rate

Design Philosophy: Why This Architecture?

1. Obsidian-Centric Approach

Reasons:

  • Second Brain: Core of my intellectual productivity
  • Unified Management: Articles and notes, all managed in Obsidian
  • Prevent Thought Fragmentation: Information is not scattered

Structure:

Obsidian/
├── Core Vault/          # Private & intellectual production
│   ├── Daily Notes/
│   ├── Projects/
│   └── Articles/        # Article drafts
│
└── Blog Vault/          # Public & blog-specific
    ├── content/
    ├── static/
    └── config.toml

Reasons for Separation:

  • Core Vault is private (personal notes & confidential information)
  • Blog Vault is public (pushed to GitHub)
  • Maintains clear boundaries

2. AI Utilization Philosophy

AI is “Augmentation” not “Replacement”

[Wrong Usage]
Let AI write everything
→ Zero originality
→ Zero value

[Correct Usage]
Human: Write core insights & experiences
AI: Automate translation, SEO, quality checks

→ Humans focus on intellectual production
→ AI handles repetitive tasks

Concrete Examples:

  • ✅ AI Translation: Think deeply in Japanese, AI translates to English
  • ✅ SEO Optimization: AI auto-generates descriptions
  • ✅ Quality Check: AI provides objective review
  • ❌ Article Writing: Written by humans (AI assists only)

3. Staged Workflow

Why Split into 5 Stages:

Reason 1: Safety

  • Gradual verification instead of immediate publication
  • Detect and fix issues at each stage

Reason 2: Flexibility

  • Can pause at any point
  • Can resume from any stage

Reason 3: Debuggability

  • Clear identification of where problems occur
  • Logs provide immediate clarity

Implementation Details: Core Features

Feature 1: Article Format Conversion

Challenge:

  • Obsidian format (EvolutionVault)
  • Hugo format (BlogVault)
  • Different formats

Solution:

def convert_evolution_to_hugo_format(source_file, draft_mode=True):
    """EvolutionVault format → Hugo format"""

    # 1. Parse YAML frontmatter
    with open(source_file, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
        content = f.read()

    # Separate frontmatter and body
    if content.startswith('---'):
        parts = content.split('---', 2)
        frontmatter = parts[1]
        body = parts[2] if len(parts) > 2 else ""

    # 2. Convert for Hugo
    hugo_frontmatter = convert_frontmatter(frontmatter)
    hugo_frontmatter['draft'] = draft_mode

    # 3. Save
    output_path = get_hugo_path(source_file)
    save_hugo_file(output_path, hugo_frontmatter, body)

Feature 2: Automated SEO Optimization

Challenge:

  • Manual description writing is time-consuming
  • Easy to miss SEO checks

Solution:

def optimize_seo(article):
    """Automated SEO optimization"""

    # 1. Auto-generate description (Claude API)
    description = generate_description_with_ai(article.content)
    article.description = description

    # 2. SEO checklist
    checks = [
        check_title_length(article.title),
        check_description_length(article.description),
        check_h1_tag(article.content),
        check_image_alt_tags(article.content),
        check_word_count(article.content),
        check_tags(article.tags),
        check_internal_links(article.content)
    ]

    # 3. Warning if issues found
    issues = [c for c in checks if not c.passed]
    if issues:
        print("⚠ SEO issues:")
        for issue in issues:
            print(f"  - {issue.message}")

    return article

Feature 3: Bilingual Support

Challenge:

  • Managing Japanese and English separately is complex
  • Separate URLs needed

Solution:

Utilizing Hugo's multilingual features:

Japanese:
https://takuyaniioka.com/ja/posts/article-slug/

English:
https://takuyaniioka.com/posts/article-slug/

Automatic switching:
- Detects browser language settings
- Japanese browser → /ja/
- English browser → /

Implementation:

# config.toml
[languages]
  [languages.en]
    languageName = "English"
    weight = 1
    contentDir = "content"

  [languages.ja]
    languageName = "日本語"
    weight = 2
    contentDir = "content"

[params]
  defaultContentLanguage = "en"
  defaultContentLanguageInSubdir = false

Results: What This System Delivered

Quantitative Results

Metric Before After Improvement
Writing Efficiency 5 hours/article 1 hour/article 5x faster
Weekly Posts 0-1 posts 2 posts 2x+
Annual Articles 10-20 (including dropouts) 60+ (achievable target) 3-6x
Cost Outsourced translation $50-100/article $10.18/year + API $10/month 95% reduction

How to Build This System

Construction Steps (Overview)

Step 1: Environment Setup (1 hour)

  1. Install Obsidian
  2. Install Hugo
  3. Install Git
  4. Install Python
  5. Create GitHub account
  6. Create Cloudflare account

Step 2: Domain Acquisition (15 minutes)

  1. Get custom domain from NameCheap ($10.18/year)
  2. Configure DNS in Cloudflare
  3. Set up email forwarding (optional)

Step 3: Hugo Setup (30 minutes)

  1. Create Hugo site
  2. Select theme (Hugo Clarity recommended)
  3. Configure config.toml
  4. Set up bilingual settings

Step 4: Cloudflare Pages Setup (15 minutes)

  1. Create GitHub repository
  2. Link to Cloudflare Pages
  3. Configure build settings (Hugo)
  4. Set up custom domain

Step 5: Automation Script Setup (1 hour)

  1. Install Python dependencies
  2. Deploy automation scripts
  3. Create .bat files
  4. Configure Claude API
  5. Run tests

Step 6: First Post Publication (30 minutes)

  1. Write article in Obsidian
  2. Run draft.bat
  3. Check preview
  4. Run publish.bat
  5. Complete publication

Total time required: About 4 hours

Summary: The Essence of This System

  • Time reduction: 5 hours → 1 hour
  • Cost reduction: 95% reduction
  • Multilingual support: Japanese-English automatic
  • Social media deployment: Automated

Resources

Reference Links

GitHub Repository

While it’s not currently public, I’m open to considering making it public upon request. The content is expected to include the following structure:

  • Automation scripts
  • Setup guide
  • Troubleshooting
  • FAQ


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Takuya Niioka