laughing-man

Turn your Markdown into a self-hosted newsletter.

Write your newsletter in Markdown with whatever tools you like (Obsidian, Logseq, VSCode, etc.). laughing-man turns them into a static archive site and email-ready newsletter HTML. Host on Cloudflare Pages, deliver to subscribers with Resend. Fully self-hosted, fully free within their free tiers. No CMS, no database, no code.

Installation

Requires Node.js 22+ (for npx) and a domain name.

npm install -g @sadcoderlabs/laughing-man

Or run without installing:

npx @sadcoderlabs/laughing-man --help

Usage

If you're the type who skips the manual, just copy this prompt to your agent:

How do I use this tool? Read https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sadcoderlabs/laughing-man/main/skills/laughing-man/SKILL.md

Initiate

Generate laughing-man.yaml in any folder:

cd /path/to/your/markdown/folder/
laughing-man init

Preview

Preview your newsletter website (and the email template) with the local server:

laughing-man preview

Configure

name: Your Newsletter Name
description: A newsletter by [Your Name](https://blog.example.com)
issues_dir: .
attachments_dir: .

theme: laughing-man
syntax_highlight_theme: material-theme-lighter

author:
  name: Your Name
  url: https://example.com
  x_handle: "@your_handle"

web_hosting:
  provider: cloudflare-pages
  project: your-newsletter-name
  domain: example.com

email_hosting:
  provider: resend
  from: "Your Name <[email protected]>"
  reply_to: [email protected]

env:
  CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN: "cf_xxxxx" # or set CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN env var
  RESEND_API_KEY: "re_xxxxx" # or set RESEND_API_KEY env var

• Get your Cloudflare API token from dash.cloudflare.com/profile/api-tokens
  • Permissions:
    • Account | Cloudflare Pages | Edit
    • Zone | DNS | Edit
  • Account Resources
    • Include | your account name
  • Zone Resources:
    • Include | Specific zone | example.com
• Get your Resend API key from resend.com/api-keys
  • Permission: Full access
    • Because the subscribe function creates contacts, not just sends email

Deploy

Set up Cloudflare Pages (project + custom domain + DNS) and deploy:

laughing-man setup web                 # Create Cloudflare Pages project + custom domain + DNS
laughing-man deploy                    # Deploy to Cloudflare Pages

Set up Resend and send an issue:

laughing-man setup newsletter          # Verify Resend API key + sender domain + DNS
laughing-man send <issue-number>       # Send an issue via Resend Broadcast