SCHOI1337

Automating My Writeup Workflow with Writeup-Formatter

May 09, 2025

Background

I had over 80 Hack The Box writeups stored in Obsidian.

They were inconsistent — missing front matter, unoptimized images, and unstructured headings.

To publish them on my Jekyll-based blog, I needed a way to standardize formatting, generate metadata, and handle images automatically.

This led to the creation of Writeup-Formatter.

Purpose

The goal was to simplify the migration of raw .md files into clean, blog-ready posts without manual edits.

The script handles structure, images, and SEO formatting to reduce repetition and enforce consistency.

Features

  • Converts Obsidian-style .md files into _posts/YYYY-MM-DD-boxname.md
  • Randomly assigns a publish date within the past 1.5 years
  • Generates front matter (title, date, tags, description)
  • Normalizes image handling:
    • Renames, resizes, and compresses screenshots
    • Moves them to /assets/images/
    • Rewrites image links inside Markdown

Folder Structure

Before

htb_writeups/
├── forest/
│   ├── forest.md
│   └── Attachments/
│       ├── screen1.png
├── monteverde/
│   ├── monteverde.md
│   └── Attachments/
│       └── screenshot.jpg

After Running the Script

_posts/
├── 2024-10-01-forest.md
├── 2024-09-12-monteverde.md

assets/images/
├── forest1.png
├── monteverde1.jpg

If forest.md is missing, the script creates a minimal template automatically.

Front Matter Example

---
title: "Forest"
date: 2024-08-21
tags: ["htb", "hackthebox", "forest", "writeup", "ctf", "cybersecurity"]
description: "Structured walkthrough of Forest on Hack The Box."
---

Usage

  1. Prepare folders under htb_writeups/, one per box:
    • boxname.md (optional)
    • Attachments/ for screenshots
  2. Install dependencies:
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install pillow

Result

The script outputs a clean, Jekyll-compatible post with structured content and image links. This saves time when publishing multiple writeups and ensures consistency across posts.

Repository

Available here👉 Writeup-formatter