I built a React + Material-UI portfolio template — 198 forks later, here's how it works

#webdev #react #opensource #javascript

i've been building android libraries, rust CLIs, electron apps — a lot of projects across a lot of stacks. the one that surprised me with its reach is a react portfolio template.

portfolio-v2 is the second iteration of my personal portfolio site. React, Material-UI v4, and Overmind for state management. it's at 198 stars on GitHub and i still get new forks showing up every few weeks, which tells me the problem it solves is real.

the problem

most portfolio templates are either too bare to look credible or too opinionated to customize without digging through the whole codebase. i wanted something that reads as complete — project grid, experience timeline, contact section, dark/light toggle — but where changing the content means editing one file, not hunting through JSX.

in portfolio-v2, that file is src/Others/GlobalVars.ts. your name, links, project list, work history — all of it lives there. edit the file, run two commands, done.

the stack

React + Material-UI v4 for the UI. the animated timeline, card grid, and theme toggle are all MUI components, tuned with a Nunito + Raleway font pairing that gives it a different feel from stock MUI apps without a custom design system.

Overmind handles global state (active theme, data). sounds like overkill for a static site, but it keeps the component tree clean as the content list grows, and makes adding new sections straightforward.

the non-obvious part: zero-config deploy

the whole thing deploys to GitHub Pages via react-gh-pages. npm run predeploy builds the bundle, npm run deploy pushes to the gh-pages branch. rename the forked repo to your-username.github.io and GitHub Pages picks it up automatically.

no Vercel account. no Netlify dashboard. no CI setup. for a portfolio you want to own permanently with zero hosting cost, that ends up mattering more than it seems.