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The Build Log: Understanding Your Site's Generation

• 7 min read • RSS & Feeds

The Build Log: Understanding Your Site's Generation

When you publish a jot on Jottings, something happens behind the scenes that most people never see. Your content gets processed, your site gets regenerated, and suddenly your newest post is live across search engines, RSS feeds, and your custom domain.

But what exactly is happening in those few seconds?

The first time someone asked me, "What's a build log?" I realized I'd never actually explained it. I just trusted that people would either figure it out or never need to. But the truth is, understanding what your build log is telling you—when things are working and when they're breaking—is genuinely useful.

What Is a Build, Anyway?

Here's the simplest explanation: a build is Jottings taking your jots and turning them into a complete website.

Every time you create a jot, update one, or change your site settings, your entire site gets rebuilt. Not just the single page that changed—the whole thing. Your home page, your tag pages, your feeds, your sitemap, everything.

This happens automatically. You don't have to do anything. You just post, and Jottings handles the rest.

The build log is the record of that process. It's literally a log—a transcript—of what happened while your site was being built. It shows you:

  • What started the build (you creating a jot? Changing settings?)
  • What steps happened during the build
  • How long each step took
  • Whether anything went wrong
  • What the final result was

A Typical Build Log (What You're Looking For)

Let me walk through what a successful build looks like:

2025-12-06 14:32:15 [BUILD_START] User created jot: "The problem with complexity"
2025-12-06 14:32:16 [PROCESSING] Parsing 127 jots from database
2025-12-06 14:32:17 [MARKDOWN] Converting content to HTML
2025-12-06 14:32:18 [TAGS] Building tag index with 43 tags
2025-12-06 14:32:19 [PAGES] Generating home page (3 pages, 50 jots per page)
2025-12-06 14:32:21 [PAGES] Generating tag pages (43 tags)
2025-12-06 14:32:25 [FEEDS] Generating RSS feed
2025-12-06 14:32:26 [FEEDS] Generating JSON feed
2025-12-06 14:32:27 [STORAGE] Uploading 287 files to CDN
2025-12-06 14:32:32 [COMPLETE] Build finished successfully in 17 seconds

That's a healthy build. Everything completed. No errors. You're done.

When Things Go Wrong

Here's the thing: builds usually work. But sometimes they don't. And when they don't, the log is your debugging tool.

Let me show you some common issues and what they look like:

Issue 1: Jot Content Problem

2025-12-06 14:32:15 [BUILD_START] User created jot
2025-12-06 14:32:16 [PROCESSING] Parsing 127 jots from database
2025-12-06 14:32:17 [ERROR] Invalid markdown in jot ID: xyz123
2025-12-06 14:32:17 [ERROR] Build failed: Could not parse jot content

What this means: You wrote something that Jottings doesn't know how to process. Maybe you used a weird character. Maybe there's a syntax error in a code block.

What to do: Go back to that jot and check it. Usually, it's a typo or a copy-paste issue. Edit it, republish, and the build will try again.

Issue 2: Storage Upload Failed

2025-12-06 14:32:15 [BUILD_START] User created jot
2025-12-06 14:32:16 [PROCESSING] Parsing 127 jots from database
2025-12-06 14:32:17 [MARKDOWN] Converting content to HTML
...
2025-12-06 14:32:27 [STORAGE] Uploading 287 files to CDN
2025-12-06 14:32:28 [ERROR] Upload failed: Connection timeout
2025-12-06 14:32:28 [BUILD_FAILED] Files not uploaded to CDN

What this means: Your content was processed fine, but when Jottings tried to upload your site files to the CDN, the connection dropped. This is usually temporary.

What to do: Just wait a minute and republish any jot (or update your site description). This triggers a new build, and usually it succeeds the second time.

Issue 3: Site Settings Error

2025-12-06 14:32:15 [BUILD_START] User updated site settings
2025-12-06 14:32:16 [SETTINGS] Validating configuration
2025-12-06 14:32:16 [ERROR] Invalid author URL: not a valid website
2025-12-06 14:32:16 [BUILD_FAILED] Site settings validation failed

What this means: You entered something in your site settings that isn't valid. Maybe you put text where Jottings expected a URL, or something got corrupted.

What to do: Check your site settings. Look at the field that's mentioned in the error. Delete it, fix it, or re-enter it. Then update settings again.

Why Builds Matter (Beyond the Obvious)

The build log isn't just for troubleshooting. It's also a performance indicator.

If your builds are taking 45 seconds, that's normal for a site with thousands of jots. If they're taking 3 minutes, something is off. Too many jots? Too large images? A tag system that's gone out of control?

The log tells you.

Similarly, if you notice builds failing consistently on updates to a specific field, that's a signal that something about your workflow isn't working. Maybe you always hit an error when you add images? Maybe your tag format is wrong?

The log is your site's way of talking to you.

Understanding Build Steps

Here's what each step in a typical build does:

[BUILD_START] - The build was triggered. You'll see what triggered it.

[PROCESSING] - Jottings is reading all your jots from the database and getting them ready.

[MARKDOWN] - Converting your jot text into formatted HTML (if you use markdown).

[TAGS] - Building the index of all your tags and grouping jots by tag.

[PAGES] - Generating all the HTML pages for your site. Home page, archive pages, tag pages, etc.

[FEEDS] - Creating your RSS and JSON feeds so people can subscribe.

[STORAGE] - Uploading all the generated files to the CDN so they're live on the internet.

[COMPLETE] or [FAILED] - The final status.

Each step should succeed before the next one starts. If one fails, everything stops.

What To Do When Your Site Won't Build

You post a jot. Nothing happens. You check back an hour later and it's still not live. You panic.

Here's my debugging flowchart:

  1. Check the build log. What step failed? That tells you where the problem is.
  2. If it's a content error: Fix the jot that's causing the problem.
  3. If it's a storage error: Wait five minutes and publish a new jot. Retry.
  4. If it's a settings error: Check your site settings for invalid entries.
  5. If the log is empty or shows no error: The build might still be processing. Wait a few more minutes.

If you're stuck after that, most issues are temporary. Jottings will keep retrying automatically.

The Philosophy Behind Builds

When I built Jottings, I made a specific choice: static site generation.

That means your site is pre-built, not generated on-demand when someone visits it. Every page is already HTML. Every feed is already generated. Your site loads fast because there's zero processing happening when people visit.

The trade-off is that every time you publish something, the whole site rebuilds. It takes a few seconds. That's the cost of having fast, SEO-friendly, globally-distributed sites.

I think it's worth it. And most people never even notice the build happening.

But when something goes wrong, understanding why it happens—understanding that a build is a real process with real steps—changes everything. You're not staring at an error message. You're reading a diagnostic report.

Try This

Next time you publish a jot, if you can see your build log, take 30 seconds to read it. Don't obsess over it. Just get familiar with what a successful build looks like for your site.

Then, if something ever breaks, you'll know exactly where to look.

And if you ever get stuck, that log is your explanation. It's not mysterious. It's just your site telling you what happened.

You don't need to be technical to use Jottings. But it's helpful to understand how it works. Your site is real. Your builds are real. And when something goes wrong, there's always a reason—and usually, a fix.

Start publishing. Your builds will do their thing in the background. And if you ever need to understand what's happening, the log is there waiting.

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