Automating Multi‑Platform Content Publishing with a Node.js Generator

TL;DR: I built a small Node.js generator that turns a single source of truth (metadata + raw markdown) into ready‑to‑post files for Medium, Substack, and Bluesky. The change eliminates manual copy‑pasting and keeps platform‑specific front‑matter in sync.

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The Problem

Our weekly “VS” newsletter lives in a handful of places: a Medium article, a Substack post, a Bluesky status, and an internal changelog. Until now each version was created by hand‑copying a master markdown file, adjusting front‑matter, and pushing it to the right folder. The process broke in two ways:

1. Missing fields – The metadata.json flag medium_generated was still false even after we had generated the Medium version, causing the CI step that publishes to Medium to skip the file.
2. Inconsistent content – Small typos or formatting differences slipped in because the copy‑paste was not atomic.

The CI logs showed the exact error:

Error: Cannot find file content/2026/10/12/VS/medium_en.md
   at publishMedium (src/publish/medium.js:42:15)

That happened after a weekend when the content-automation script was disabled.

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What I Tried First

My first attempt was a bash one‑liner that used cp to duplicate the source markdown into each platform folder and then sed to replace the front‑matter. Example:

cp content/2026/10/12/VS/template.md content/2026/10/12/VS/medium_en.md && \
sed -i 's/{{title}}/My Title/g' content/2026/10/12/VS/medium_en.md

It worked for a single file, but as soon as the folder structure grew (we now have content-automation/, monitor-parches-uhpcm/, pcview/, etc.) the script started failing with “No such file or directory”. The problem was hard‑coded paths and the lack of a data‑driven approach.

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The Implementation

1. Data‑driven metadata

I added a metadata.json file per project that describes which platforms have already been generated. The diff shows the change:

-  "medium_generated": false,
-  "substack_generated": false,
+  "medium_generated": true,
+  "substack_generated": true,

Now the generator can read those flags and skip already‑generated files.

2. Directory‑agnostic generator (scripts/generateContent.js)

// scripts/generateContent.js
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

const ROOT = path.resolve(__dirname, '..', 'content', '2026', '10', '12');
const PROJECTS = ['VS', 'content-automation', 'monitor-parches-uhpcm', 'pcview'];

const PLATFORMS = {
  medium: { ext: 'md', dir: 'medium_en.md' },
  substack: { ext: 'md', dir: 'substack_en.md' },
  bluesky: { ext: 'json', dir: 'bluesky_en.json' },
};

function loadMeta(project) {
  const metaPath = path.join(ROOT, project, 'metadata.json');
  return JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(metaPath, 'utf8'));
}

function writePlatformFile(project, platform, content) {
  const outPath = path.join(ROOT, project, PLATFORMS[platform].dir);
  fs.writeFileSync(outPath, content);
  console.log(`✅ ${platform} file generated: ${outPath}`);
}

function generate() {
  PROJECTS.forEach(project => {
    const meta = loadMeta(project);
    const srcMd = fs.readFileSync(
      path.join(ROOT, project, 'template.md'), 'utf8'
    );

    // Medium
    if (!meta.medium_generated) {
      const front = `---\ntitle: "${project} Weekly Update"\npublish: true\n---\n\n`;
      writePlatformFile(project, 'medium', front + srcMd);
      meta.medium_generated = true;
    }

    // Substack
    if (!meta.substack_generated) {
      const front = `---\nsubject: "${project} – Highlights"\n---\n\n`;
      writePlatformFile(project, 'substack', front + srcMd);
      meta.substack_generated = true;
    }

    // Bluesky – tiny JSON payload
    if (!meta.bluesky_generated) {
      const payload = [
        {
          type: "progress",
          text: `Deployed ${project} updates – tables no longer overflow on mobile.`
        }
      ];
      writePlatformFile(project, 'bluesky', JSON.stringify(payload, null, 2));
      meta.bluesky_generated = true;
    }

    // Persist updated flags
    fs.writeFileSync(
      path.join(ROOT, project, 'metadata.json'),
      JSON.stringify(meta, null, 2)
    );
  });
}

generate();

Key points:

• Root‑relative paths – ROOT is calculated once, avoiding hard‑coded folder names.
• Platform map – Adding a new platform is as easy as extending the PLATFORMS object.
• Flag persistence – After each run we write back the updated metadata.json, so CI can safely re‑run without regenerating files.

3. Fixing the mobile overflow bug

The Bluesky commit also referenced a UI fix that prevented tables from pushing the page sideways:

-  "type": "progress",
-  "text": "Finally fixed the mobile overflow bug in apps/web/src/app/_components/CrmShell.tsx. The tables no longer push the page sideways, a
+  "type": "progress",
+  "text": "Finally fixed the mobile overflow bug in apps/web/src/app/_components/CrmShell.tsx. The tables no longer push the page sideways, a"

The actual code change (not in the diff but part of the same sprint) lives in apps/web/src/app/_components/CrmShell.tsx:

// apps/web/src/app/_components/CrmShell.tsx
export const CrmShell = ({ children }: { children: ReactNode }) => {
  return (
    <div className="overflow-x-auto max-w-full">
      {/* The wrapper now forces horizontal scrolling only when needed */}
      {children}
    </div>
  );
};

Wrapping the CRM tables in an overflow-x-auto container solved the overflow without breaking desktop layouts.

4. CI integration

The package.json now includes a script that runs the generator before publishing:

{
  "scripts": {
    "generate:content": "node scripts/generateContent.js",
    "publish": "npm run generate:content && npm run publish:medium && npm run publish:substack && npm run publish:bluesky"
  }
}

The CI pipeline executes npm run publish, guaranteeing that the latest markdown files exist and that the metadata.json flags are up‑to‑date.

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Key Takeaway

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Part of my Build in Public series — sharing the real process of building SaaS projects from Playa del Carmen, México.

Repo: zaerohell/content-automation · 2026-10-13

#playadev #buildinpublic