Hiyd
Hiyd can commit a finished post straight into your Jekyll repository using the GitHub Contents API. You configure a repository once; after that, publishing is a single action from the editor or the Archive.
1. Create a fine-grained personal access token
On GitHub (in a browser):
- Go to Settings › Developer settings › Personal access tokens › Fine-grained tokens.
- Generate new token. Give it a name and an expiry.
- Under Repository access, choose Only select repositories and pick the one repository you will publish to.
- Under Permissions › Repository permissions, set Contents to Read and write. Leave everything else alone.
- Generate the token and copy it.
Why fine-grained: the token can touch only
the one repository you selected, and only its file contents. If it ever leaks,
the blast radius is a single repo.
2. Add the repository in Hiyd
Settings › GitHub Publishing › Add. Fill in:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | A label for this repo in Hiyd, with an icon and colour of your choice. |
| GitHub Username | The owner of the repository. |
| Repository | The repo name on its own, e.g. blog. |
| Folder Path | Where posts are committed. Default is _posts. Leave blank for the repository root. |
| Personal Access Token | Paste the token from step 1. |
| Commit message template | Default Add {filename} via Hiyd. Placeholders: {filename}, {title}, {datetime}. |
Hiyd validates the token against the repository before saving. Files are always committed to the repository’s default branch.
The token is stored in the iOS Keychain. It cannot be shown again or edited after saving — to change it, remove the repository and add it back. You can store up to five repositories.
3. Publish
From the editor’s ••• › Publish, or from a file in the Archive:
- Pick the repository.
- Hiyd checks whether a file already exists at that path. If it does, you are asked to confirm an overwrite.
- Hiyd commits the file and shows a link to view the commit on GitHub.
Your most recent publishes are kept in a local history so you can see what went where.
Limits and troubleshooting
- File size: GitHub’s Contents API is only practical for text, so Hiyd rejects files larger than 5 MB before sending anything.
- “Unable to access this repository”: check the username, the repository name (no owner prefix), and that the token’s Contents permission is Read and write for that repo.
- Rate limited: GitHub’s API has hourly limits; wait and retry.
- Wrong branch: Hiyd publishes to the default branch. Change the repository’s default branch on GitHub if you need posts to land elsewhere.