How this site is built: a fully custom Kotlin generator

Mohamad Almousli · 2026-10-06 · 3 min read

Every page you see here is generated by a project I wrote myself in Kotlin. It isn't an off-the-shelf site builder with a theme on top. It's a program built around exactly what this site needs, and that makes almost everything about running it easier.

Why my own project

Ready-made site builders are great until you want something they weren't designed for. Then you spend your time working around the tool instead of working on the site.

With my own project there is nothing to work around. Kotlin is the language I enjoy most, so the whole site is just Kotlin code: pages, components and styles alike. The compiler checks all of it, so a mistake shows up while I'm building, not on the live site.

Three languages, without the pain

The site is in English, German and Arabic, including a proper right-to-left layout for Arabic. Each page keeps its text separate per language, so translating means editing one file and never touching the layout.

Languages are built into the project's structure. If I add a new one, the build points at every page that's still missing its translation, so nothing gets forgotten.

Anything custom is just code

Because I own every part, any feature I want is just another component: the command palette, the project and blog search, the custom video player, the light and dark themes, the download section with checksums. I write it once, and every page gets it.

I also decide exactly what the site loads. Fonts, icons and images are hosted with the site itself, styles are built into each page, and the pages work even without JavaScript.

Better-organized code

Every page follows the same shape: one file for its structure and one for each language's text. Every widget is its own component with its own styles and behavior. Colors, spacing and fonts come from one shared place, so the design stays consistent, and changing it in one spot changes it everywhere.

So I always know where things live, and a change in one place doesn't quietly break another.

SEO built in

Every page declares its own title, description and preview image, and the site handles the rest. Language alternates, structured data for search engines, the sitemap and the blog feed are all generated from the same content as the pages themselves.

Since everything comes from one source, the search-engine data can never fall out of sync with what's actually on the page. When I add a post or a project, it shows up everywhere it should automatically.

Built to be robust

Data the site pulls from elsewhere, like project stats and release files, is cached between builds. If a service is down or limits my requests, the build uses the last good copy instead of failing.

Only files whose content actually changed get rewritten. Downloads are verified with checksums computed during the build, and the site rebuilds and publishes itself whenever something changes. If a build ever fails, nothing is published, so the last good version simply stays online.

Was it worth it?

For me, absolutely. The site is fast, respects visitors' privacy by default, and works exactly the way I want. And I enjoy working on it, which is the real reason a personal site gets updated at all.