Félix P. Leiva

felixpleiva.github.io

Personal academic website of Félix P. Leiva — built with Quarto and deployed automatically to GitHub Pages.

Live at: https://felixpleiva.github.io

Workflow note. This README assumes you use GitHub Desktop to manage Git — no terminal git commands needed. For a longer step-by-step walkthrough (including how to write blog posts in R), see GUIDE.Rmd.

What you need installed

  1. GitHub Desktop — for syncing your changes.
  2. Quarto (version 1.5+) — to preview the site locally.
  3. A text editor — RStudio, VS Code, or anything you like.
  4. (Optional) R and RStudio if you want to run code in blog posts.

First-time setup with GitHub Desktop

You only do this once.

1. Create the repository on GitHub

  1. Go to https://github.com/new.
  2. Repository name: felixpleiva.github.io (this exact name is required).
  3. Visibility: Public.
  4. Do not check “Initialize this repository with a README” — leave the box empty.
  5. Click Create repository.

2. Put the project files into a local folder

  1. Unzip xxxxxxx.zip somewhere you can find it (e.g. Documents/xxxxxx-site/).

3. Add the folder to GitHub Desktop

  1. Open GitHub Desktop.
  2. File → Add local repository… → choose the unzipped felixpleiva-site folder.
  3. GitHub Desktop will say “This directory does not appear to be a Git repository”. Click create a repository in that message.
  4. In the dialog: leave the defaults, click Create Repository.

4. Publish it to GitHub

  1. In the top bar, click Publish repository.
  2. Uncheck “Keep this code private” (must be public for free GitHub Pages).
  3. Name: make sure it says felixpleiva.github.io.
  4. Click Publish Repository.

5. Turn on GitHub Pages

  1. On https://github.com/your_repoyour_repo/your_repo.github.io, go to Settings → Pages.
  2. Under Build and deployment → Source, choose Deploy from a branch.
  3. Set Branch to gh-pages and folder to / (root). Click Save.

The gh-pages branch doesn’t exist yet — it will be created automatically by the GitHub Action the first time it runs.

6. Allow the GitHub Action to write to the repo

  1. Settings → Actions → General.
  2. Scroll to Workflow permissions → select Read and write permissions.
  3. Click Save.

7. Trigger the first deploy

In GitHub Desktop:

  1. Open the file _quarto.yml in your editor, add or remove a space, save.
  2. Back in GitHub Desktop you’ll see the change → write a summary like “Initial deploy” → click Commit to main.
  3. Click Push origin at the top.

Go to the Actions tab on GitHub. You’ll see the publish.yml workflow running. After ~2 minutes:

If it loads without styles the very first time, wait 2–5 minutes and refresh with Ctrl+F5 (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac).

Day-to-day workflow with GitHub Desktop

Every time you want to update the site:

  1. Open the project folder in your editor.
  2. (Optional but recommended) Open a terminal inside that folder and run: 
    quarto preview

    This opens http://localhost:4200 with auto-reload while you edit.

  3. Edit any .qmd file (Home, Publications, Projects…) or assets/custom.scss.
  4. Save.
  5. In GitHub Desktop:
    • You’ll see all your changes listed in the left panel.
    • Write a short summary at the bottom (e.g. “Add 2026 paper”).
    • Click Commit to main.
    • Click Push origin at the top.
  6. The GitHub Action runs automatically. In ~2 minutes the live site is updated.

That’s it — no terminal Git commands needed.

How deployment works

Pushing to main triggers .github/workflows/publish.yml, which:

  1. Sets up Quarto on a fresh Ubuntu runner.
  2. Runs quarto render.
  3. Publishes the rendered _site/ folder to the gh-pages branch.

GitHub Pages serves whatever is on gh-pages. You configure it once (step 5 above) and never touch it again.

Project layout

felixpleiva-site/
├── _quarto.yml                 # Site config (navbar, footer, theme)
├── index.qmd                   # Home / About
├── publications.qmd            # Selected publications
├── projects.qmd                # Research themes
├── teaching.qmd                # Workshops, courses, supervision
├── blog.qmd                    # Blog index (auto-listing)
├── cv.qmd                      # Embedded PDF viewer
├── posts/                      # One folder per blog post
│   └── 2026-04-tdt-curves-brms/
│       ├── index.qmd
│       └── thumbnail.png
├── images/                     # Profile photo, logos
├── files/
│   └── cv.pdf                  # ← replace with your real CV
├── assets/
│   ├── custom.scss             # Theme overrides (sage palette)
│   └── styles.css              # Extra CSS utilities
├── _extensions/                # Quarto extensions (FontAwesome, Iconify)
├── .github/workflows/publish.yml   # CI/CD
├── README.md                   # This file
└── GUIDE.Rmd                   # Full editing guide (knit in RStudio)

Adding a new blog post

  1. Inside posts/, create a new folder, e.g. posts/2026-06-my-new-post/.

  2. Create a file inside called index.qmd with this front-matter:

    ---
title: "Post title"
description: "One-sentence summary"
author: "Félix P. Leiva"
date: "2026-06-15"
categories: [R, ggplot2]
image: thumbnail.png
format:
  html:
    code-fold: false
    code-tools: true
    code-block-bg: true
    code-block-border-left: "#5f7d63"
execute:
  warning: false
  message: false
---

  3. Write the post in Markdown below the front-matter. R code chunks use:

    ```{r}
library(ggplot2)
ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt)) + geom_point()
```
  4. (Optional) Save a thumbnail.png in the same folder for the listing card.
  5. Preview with quarto preview.
  6. Commit and push from GitHub Desktop — the post appears on /blog automatically.

See GUIDE.Rmd for a longer R-focused walkthrough.

Editing common sections

Want to change… Edit this file
Bio, photo, social icons, Interests, Education index.qmd
List of publications publications.qmd
Research themes / project cards projects.qmd
Workshops, courses, supervision teaching.qmd
CV PDF shown on the CV page replace files/cv.pdf
Navbar items, site title, footer _quarto.yml
Colors, fonts, spacing assets/custom.scss

Detailed examples for each are in GUIDE.Rmd.

Custom domain (later)

When you want to switch from felixpleiva.github.io to your own domain (e.g. felixleiva.com):

  1. Buy the domain from a registrar (Cloudflare, Namecheap, Porkbun…).
  2. Create a file at the repo root called CNAME containing only your domain, e.g. felixleiva.com.

  3. At your registrar, add these DNS records:

    Type Name Value
    A @ 185.199.108.153
    A @ 185.199.109.153
    A @ 185.199.110.153
    A @ 185.199.111.153
    CNAME www felixpleiva.github.io.
  4. In GitHub Settings → Pages, enter your domain under Custom domain and tick Enforce HTTPS once the certificate is issued (usually within minutes).
  5. Update site-url: in _quarto.yml to the new URL.
  6. Commit and push from GitHub Desktop.

Troubleshooting

Symptom What to check
Site loads without styles right after first deploy Wait 2–5 minutes, refresh with Ctrl+F5 / Cmd+Shift+R
GitHub Action fails with Permission denied Settings → Actions → General → Workflow permissions = Read and write
Action passes but site shows 404 Settings → Pages → Branch must be gh-pages
CV page shows a blank gray box files/cv.pdf is missing or empty — replace it
FontAwesome icons missing The _extensions/ folder must be committed — verify it’s in GitHub Desktop
GitHub Desktop says “Cannot push, fetch first” Click Fetch origin at the top, then Pull, then Push again
quarto preview won’t start Another preview is already running on port 4200 — close the previous terminal or run quarto preview --port 4321

License

All site content is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Configuration code (Quarto / SCSS) is MIT.