Every once in a while, someone asks me how this site works. The short answer: it is a static site generated by MkDocs, themed with MkDocs Material, deployed to GitHub Pages via GitHub Actions, with Cloudflare Pages serving pull request build previews and Cloudflare handling DNS for the custom domain. No CMS, no database, no runtime server. Every page is a Markdown file in a Git repository. Everything runs automatically on every push to main.
This post walks through how all those pieces fit together, with the actual configuration files that run this blog today.
Every open-source project on GitHub eventually reaches the point where someone outside the immediate author wants to help. They open an issue that is missing half the information needed to reproduce it. They submit a pull request on the main branch that touches a dozen unrelated files. Or they send a message asking where to start.
A well-written CONTRIBUTING.md is the answer to all of those situations before they happen. It is the first thing a potential contributor reads when they want to get involved, and it sets the tone for every interaction that follows. Done right, it reduces back-and-forth, keeps the project moving, and signals to contributors that the project is organized and worth their time.
This post walks through how I write CONTRIBUTING.md files for my open-source projects: what goes in them, why each section matters, and how to write guidelines that contributors will actually follow.
If you have been using Task (go-task/task) as your task runner and build tool, you have probably run into the same friction I did: getting it installed cleanly inside a GitHub Actions workflow is more annoying than it should be. There is no native support on GitHub-hosted runners, so you end up writing a curl one-liner, hand-rolling a cache step, or copy-pasting boilerplate across every workflow in every repository. It works, but it is not great.
tenthirtyam/setup-task is my solution to that problem. It is a purpose-built GitHub Action that handles downloading, caching, and configuring Task in a single step so you can get back to what actually matters: the tasks themselves.
I'm incredibly excited to announce the v2.0.0 release of vmware/packer-plugin-vmware.
This isn't just an incremental update; it's the culmination of months of dedicated effort to refactor, modernize, and refocus the plugin for the future.
Additionally, this is the first release of the plugin after the transfer of the project to Broadcom under the vmware GitHub organization.
🚀 Redefining the Plugin's Mission
The first and most significant change is a decision to refine the plugin's focus. Moving forward, the plugin will exclusively target the VMware Desktop Hypervisors: VMware Fusion Pro and VMware Workstation Pro.
For a long time, the plugin carried the maintenance burden of supporting VMware ESX. While this was useful in the past, the ecosystem has evolved. Broadcom provides the feature-rich Packer Plugin for VMware vSphere vmware/packer-plugin-vsphere which is purpose-built for vSphere environments. Continuing to maintain parallel ESX support in this plugin created a confusing user experience as well as split or duplicated development focus. By removing it, efforts will be dedicated to creating the best possible plugin experience for the desktop hypervisor user base.
Similarly, support is removed for the Workstation Player which has reached end-of-availability.
This sharpened focus is the bedrock upon which the release is built, enabling a more stable, feature-rich, and maintainable plugin.
✨ Enhancements
The release will introduces some highly requested features that unlock new and more efficient workflows.
The development and maintenance of the the following Packer plugins have been transferred from HashiCorp to Broadcom under the github.com/vmware organization as of January 27, 2026 🥳 🎉
Packer Plugin for VMware Desktop Hypervisors (vmware/vmware)
No changes are required in your configurations and plugin initialization will be automatically redirected from github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-vmware to github.com/vmware/packer-plugin-vmware. However, we encourage you to consider updating your configurations to source from vmware/ from hashicorp/ in the packer block.
Over the past few years, Broadcom has established a valuable partnership with the Packer team at HashiCorp, and we're incredibly grateful for their contributions and continued guidance.
This transition underscores the dedication to the plugin and our commitment to:
Continuing development: We're eager to invest in the plugin's future, bringing new features and improvements to better serve your needs.
Maintaining stability: We will continue to iterate to enhance the plugin's stability and reliability for your image automation workflows.
Fostering community engagement: We highly value your feedback and look forward to collaborating with you on the plugin's evolution.
As the maintainer for these plugins, I'm excited about this next step and the opportunity to further enhance the plugin in collaboration with you.