I had similar problems to yours: I wanted total control but I also wanted it to be quick and easy when I’m writing a new post or page. So I made my own tool.

I had similar problems to yours: I wanted total control but I also wanted it to be quick and easy when I’m writing a new post or page. So I made my own tool. With this tool (which I dubbed ‘Wabi’) you put a bunch of files in a folder and the files are processed and copied to a corresponding location in an output folder. Files with metadata at the top are processed specially and can be used as templates or to write markdown files that are turned into pages. Wabi helps you setup Git integration so that when you run the “publish” command all local changes are immediately published to your website. I didn’t want to mess around with git stuff most of the time so I implemented that command so I could publish iteratively and quickly. Wabi is sort of my answer to wanting control over how I build my website, while also wanting a tool that does not get in the way of the creative parts of making and running a website. That said, it’s of no use to you because it’s completely undocumented and not polished, but probably over the next few months I’ll fix it up as I use it to create my own personal website. For those interested you can check out the source (it’s written in Go): https://github.com/kettle11/wabi https://github.com/kettle11/wabi