Elio Struyf

[hipstersmoothie]

devtools.fm Podcast Outline: Elio Struyf

Guest: Elio Struyf
Title: Solutions Architect | GitHub Star | Microsoft MVP | Google Developer Expert
Links:

• GitHub: github.com/estruyf
• Website: eliostruyf.com
• Bluesky: @eliostruyf.com

Questions

Background & Origin Story

• What drew you into building developer tools, and how did you go from being a blogger on WordPress in 2010 to creating VS Code extensions used by thousands?

  Elio started blogging in 2010 on WordPress, eventually migrating to Hugo in 2019, and now Astro in 2025. Each migration spawned tooling ideas. His blog has been a playground for solving his own pain points, which he then turns into open source projects.

  • About Elio Struyf
  • The Challenges of Migrating my WordPress Site to Hugo

Front Matter CMS - Deep Dive

• Front Matter CMS was born during a difficult time in your life. Can you tell us about it's creation?

  In mid-2021, Elio had a serious cycling accident and broke a vertebra. Unable to sit for more than 20 minutes at a time, he couldn't work full-time but needed to keep his mind engaged. He returned to a personal project he'd conceived years earlier when migrating from WordPress to Hugo—a tool to manage markdown front matter. What started as a way to cope with recovery became Front Matter CMS.

  • About - The Accident Story
  • Front Matter CMS Introduction

• Front Matter has evolved from a simple front matter editor to a full CMS with dashboards, SEO checks, media management, custom scripts, and even an AI assistant. How do you decide which features to add versus what to leave out?

  Front Matter now includes page dashboards, site preview, SEO checks, custom actions/scripts, data files management, multilingual support (i18n), and content types. It supports Astro, Hugo, Jekyll, Hexo, NextJS, Gatsby, and more. The key philosophy is that it runs entirely on your machine with no servers, APIs, or databases.

  • Front Matter Features
  • Features and Benefits of Front Matter CMS

Demo Time

• "Demos are meant to fail." What was the specific moment or failed demo that made you think, "I need to build something to fix this"?

  Demo Time was born in 2023 from the frustration of live coding demos at conferences. Elio was inspired by CodeTour but found its guided experience wasn't quite right for coding demos. He wanted to script every action—file creation, code highlights, terminal commands—so presenters could focus on the story, not the typing.

  • It is Demo Time - Original Announcement
  • Demo Time Website

• You've said "Demo Time isn't just for speakers—it's for learners." How does turning presentations into replayable experiences change technical education?

  After a talk, attendees often struggle to replicate what they saw. They have slides and maybe a GitHub repo, but they're forced to guess which file was edited and what commands were run. Demo Time turns presentations into fully-scripted, replayable experiences that attendees can step through themselves.

  • Turn Your Presentations into Playgrounds with Demo Time

• You're exploring monetization for Demo Time while keeping the core free forever. What's your approach to making open source sustainable, and how did Microsoft discontinuing Azure Sponsored Subscriptions affect your thinking?

  Microsoft ended Azure Sponsored Subscriptions for open source maintainers in September 2025. Elio used this to run Front Matter CMS hosting for free for two years. Now he's exploring sponsorships, premium features like a hosted Remote Control service, and "Demo Time as a Service" with Andrew Connell to auto-generate demo scripts from structured commits.

  • Demo Time: From Passion Project to Sustainable Future
  • Who's Funding Open-Source in 2025?

Ghostwriter Agents - AI-Assisted Writing

• You've created Ghostwriter Agents—AI agents that interview you to help write blog posts. What's broken about staring at a blank screen that this solves?

  When Elio writes traditionally, he starts with a vague sense of what's interesting and starts typing. Sometimes halfway through, he realizes the organization is wrong or he's skipped critical context. The AI interview captures not just facts but the narrative arc, pain points, and technical details. It asks about things you might not have thought to include and pushes you to articulate the "why" behind decisions.

  • Getting Interviewed by AI to Write Better Blog Posts

• The Ghostwriter workflow has three agents: interviewer, voice analyzer, and writer. How does capturing your "voice" actually work, and does the output really sound like you?

  The process: (1) an interviewer agent asks open-ended questions and produces a transcript, (2) a voice agent analyzes your existing writing to capture your style, (3) a writer agent combines the transcript and voice profile to draft the post. Elio notes the articles feel more complete from the start because the interviewer forced him to explain fundamentals during the conversation.

  • Reflecting on 2025
  • Ghostwriter Agents AI on GitHub
  • @estruyf/ghostwriter on npm

Future

• You've said "Value creates freedom" and realized that making everything free isn't the ultimate form of freedom. How has that thinking evolved for Demo Time and your other projects?

  Elio used to think free tools were the ultimate freedom. He now sees that creating value—and being compensated for it—enables the freedom to invest more time in projects. Demo Time's monetization exploration is about building a sustainable future while keeping the core free and open source forever.

  • Reflecting on 2025
  • Demo Time: From Passion Project to Sustainable Future

• What's next for 2026? You mentioned EngageTime—what problem is that solving for conference organizers and speakers?

  EngageTime is an attendee engagement platform launched and tested at CollabDays Belgium and VisugXL in 2025. It's Elio's newest project for engaging with audiences throughout the event lifecycle.

  • EngageTime
  • Reflecting on 2025

[estruyf]

Another app I'm building right now is VoiceSnippets: https://github.com/estruyf/VoiceSnippets

And besides that app, I'm picking up Squarl (https://squarl.com), but as a bookmarking app with Markdown and Git as I see myself too often switch between devices/browsers, and want something where I own the data.