gnarzilla_

You need to set environment variables in your terminal, before running (or re-running) the npx command

export CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID="your-account-id-here" export CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN="your-token-here"

Both account ID and API token can be found in the Cloudflare dashboard, after you've created a CF account.

OR - I have updated the newest version with a built-in fix, token prompt if browser login fails. v1.0.6

Re-run: npx create-deadlight-blog@latest

It'll: 1. Try browser `wrangler login`. 2. Fallback: Prompt `CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN` + `ACCOUNT_ID` (no pre-export needed). 3. Proceed to D1/deploy.

*Get token* (if needed): 1. [dash.cloudflare.com/profile/api-tokens](https://dash.cloudflare.com/profile/api-tokens) → Custom: - Cloudflare D1 *Edit* (Account). - Cloudflare Workers Scripts *Edit* (Account). - Cloudflare Workers KV *Edit* (Account). 2. Account ID: Dashboard → Account Home (right sidebar).

Tested headless—works

OP here. I built Deadlight because I wanted a blogging platform that actually works on high-latency connections (Satellite, 2G, Mesh).

Most modern platforms require megabytes of JS hydration just to show text. Deadlight sends raw semantic HTML from Cloudflare's edge using D1 (SQLite). It’s readable in `lynx` or on a 300-baud terminal.

*The Stack:* - Cloudflare Workers (Compute) - D1 (Storage) - Zero client-side JS (for readers)

*The Lock-in Question:* Building on proprietary edge infra is a risk. I included an "Eject" script that dumps the remote D1 DB to a local SQLite file and generates a docker-compose file, so you can self-host/migrate off Cloudflare instantly if needed.

I just released a CLI launcher (`npx create-deadlight-blog`) if you want to spin up an instance to test the latency.

Happy to answer questions about the architecture or the LoRa integration I'm working on.

Hi HN,

I’ve been working on a minimal blog/site framework called Deadlight. It’s text-first, built entirely on Cloudflare Workers + D1 (SQLite), and comes with:

Markdown support

Built-in auth

Dark/light themes

No backend/server — everything runs on the edge

Under 150KB total size

No build step, no framework, no database to manage. Just deploy and go.

I built it because I wanted something between a static site generator and a full CMS — but that could run completely on Cloudflare’s free tier. I also wanted to own my data and deployment without managing a VPS or container.

It’s not perfect, but it works. Setup takes ~5 minutes if you already have a Cloudflare account.

Live demo: https://deadlight.boo

GitHub: https://github.com/gnarzilla/deadlight-bootstrap

Would love feedback from folks here — especially thoughts on edge-first architecture and if you'd want to build on something like this.

Happy to answer questions about Cloudflare Workers/D1 too.