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The benson.vc site follows Hugo’s standard directory structure with customizations for the Congo theme. This guide explains the purpose of each directory and important files.

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Overview

Here’s the complete directory structure: 
benson/
├── archetypes/          # Content templates
├── assets/              # Source files for processing
├── config/              # Site configuration
│   └── _default/        # Default configuration files
├── content/             # All content (markdown files)
├── i18n/                # Internationalization translations
├── layouts/             # HTML templates and overrides
│   ├── _default/        # Default layout templates
│   ├── partials/        # Reusable template components
│   └── shortcodes/      # Custom shortcodes
├── public/              # Generated static site (build output)
├── resources/           # Cached processed resources
├── static/              # Static files (copied as-is)
├── themes/              # Theme directory (unused with modules)
├── .hugo_build.lock     # Build lock file
├── go.mod               # Hugo module dependencies
├── go.sum               # Module checksums
└── hugo.toml            # Legacy config (use config/ instead)

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Directory details

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archetypes/

Templates for new content created with hugo new. 
archetypes/
└── default.md           # Default content template
When you run hugo new content/posts/my-post/index.md, Hugo uses archetypes/default.md as the template, pre-populating frontmatter fields.

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assets/

Source files that need processing (SCSS, JavaScript, images). The Congo theme processes these during build. 
assets/
├── css/
└── js/
Files here are processed by Hugo Pipes for:
  • SCSS compilation
  • Asset minification
  • Image processing
  • Fingerprinting for cache busting

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config/

The primary configuration directory. This project uses the modular configuration approach instead of a single hugo.toml. 
config/
└── _default/
    ├── config.toml      # Main site configuration
    ├── languages.en.toml # English language settings
    ├── markup.toml      # Markdown rendering options
    ├── menus.en.toml    # Navigation menu structure
    ├── module.toml      # Hugo module configuration
    └── params.toml      # Theme-specific parameters
Key files:

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config.toml

Core site settings (config/_default/config.toml:1-18): 
baseURL = "https://benson.vc/"
defaultContentLanguage = "en"
enableRobotsTXT = true
summaryLength = 0

[pagination]
  pagerSize = 10

theme = "congo"
googleAnalytics = "G-RS2TMEY2KX"

[outputs]
  home = ["HTML", "RSS", "JSON"]

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module.toml

Hugo module configuration (config/_default/module.toml:1-5): 
[hugoVersion]
  extended = false
  min = "0.87.0"

[[imports]]
  path = "github.com/jpanther/congo/v2"
This imports the Congo theme v2.11.0 via Go modules.

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content/

All your Markdown content files. This is where you write posts and pages. 
content/
├── posts/
│   └── on-the-proliferation-of-artifical-intelligence/
│       └── index.md
└── things-to-do-in-san-francisco/
    └── index.md
Content organization:
  • Each post/page can be a single .md file or a directory with index.md
  • Using directories (leaf bundles) allows you to co-locate images and resources
  • Directory names become URL slugs (e.g., posts/my-post/ → /posts/my-post/)

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i18n/

Internationalization translation files. Used for multi-language support with the Congo theme. 
i18n/
└── en.yaml              # English translations (if overriding theme defaults)

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layouts/

Custom templates that override or extend the Congo theme’s layouts. 
layouts/
├── _default/
│   └── baseof.html      # Base template override
├── index.html           # Homepage template
├── partials/
│   ├── about-me.html    # Custom about section
│   ├── angel-investments.html # Investment portfolio display
│   ├── article-link.html # Article link component
│   ├── head.html        # Custom <head> modifications
│   ├── header/
│   │   └── basic.html   # Header customization
│   ├── home/
│   │   └── profile.html # Homepage profile section
│   ├── logo.html        # Custom logo
│   ├── recent-articles.html # Recent posts display
│   └── schema.html      # Structured data (SEO)
└── shortcodes/
    └── figure.html      # Custom figure shortcode
How overrides work: Hugo looks for templates in this order:
  1. layouts/ (your custom templates)
  2. Theme’s layouts/ (from Congo module)
This allows you to selectively override specific templates without modifying the theme.

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public/

Generated directory - contains the built static site. Do not edit files here directly. 
public/
├── index.html
├── posts/
├── css/
├── js/
├── images/
└── ...
Generated by running:
  • hugo - production build
  • hugo server - serves from memory (doesn’t write here)
This directory should be:
  • Excluded from version control
  • Used as your deployment source
  • Regenerated for each build

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resources/

Generated directory - Hugo’s cache for processed assets. 
resources/
└── _gen/
    ├── assets/
    └── images/
Can be safely deleted to force reprocessing. Typically excluded from version control.

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static/

Static files copied directly to public/ without processing. 
static/
├── favicon.ico
├── robots.txt
├── images/
└── files/
Files here are served at the root URL. For example:
  • static/favicon.ico → https://benson.vc/favicon.ico
  • static/images/logo.png → https://benson.vc/images/logo.png
Use this for:
  • Favicons
  • Root-level files (robots.txt, sitemap.xml)
  • Files that don’t need processing

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themes/

Traditionally for theme files, but unused in this project because the Congo theme is loaded via Hugo modules (see go.mod).

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Important files

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go.mod and go.sum

Hugo module dependencies (go.mod:1-6): 
module github.com/andrewbenson/benson

go 1.21.6

require github.com/jpanther/congo/v2 v2.11.0 // indirect
These files:
  • Define the Congo theme dependency (v2.11.0)
  • Are managed by hugo mod commands
  • Ensure reproducible builds
  • Lock dependency versions (go.sum contains checksums)
Common commands: 
# Update all modules
hugo mod get -u

# Update specific module
hugo mod get -u github.com/jpanther/congo/v2

# View dependency graph
hugo mod graph

# Clean module cache
hugo mod clean

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hugo.toml

Legacy root configuration file (hugo.toml:1-4). This project uses config/_default/ instead, making this file largely redundant: 
baseURL = 'https://example.org/'
languageCode = 'en-us'
title = 'My New Hugo Site'
The actual configuration is in config/_default/config.toml. You can safely ignore or remove this file.

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.hugo_build.lock

Build lock file created by Hugo. Should be excluded from version control (it’s in .gitignore).

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.gitignore

Specifies files to exclude from Git: 
.DS_Store
Consider adding: 
public/
resources/
.hugo_build.lock

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Configuration cascade

Hugo’s configuration follows a specific hierarchy:
  1. Root config: hugo.toml (legacy, mostly unused here)
  2. Default config: config/_default/*.toml (primary configuration)
  3. Environment config: config/production/*.toml or config/development/*.toml (optional)
  4. Command line: Flags passed to hugo or hugo server
Later sources override earlier ones.

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Build outputs

When you run hugo, the build process:
  1. Reads configuration from config/_default/
  2. Loads the Congo theme module
  3. Processes content from content/
  4. Applies templates from layouts/ and theme
  5. Processes assets from assets/
  6. Copies files from static/
  7. Generates output to public/
The generated public/ directory contains:
  • HTML pages
  • Processed CSS and JavaScript
  • Optimized images
  • RSS feed (index.xml)
  • JSON search index (for theme search)
  • Sitemap (sitemap.xml)

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Next steps

Now that you understand the project structure:

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