- What is Systatic and how does it work with Laravel?
- Systatic is a build-time static site generator for PHP that compiles Markdown content with front matter and Blade templates into plain static HTML. It uses Laravel-style Blade and filesystem conventions, so Laravel developers can reuse familiar layout and component skills. It is not a runtime Laravel dependency and never touches a request path, so it cannot affect production traffic.
- How do I install Systatic in a Laravel project?
- You install it with Composer using damcclean/systatic and run a single build command to generate the static HTML output. It is strongly recommended to keep it in an isolated site repository rather than embedding it in an existing Laravel application. Embedding it can put the package's pinned PHP and Illuminate constraints in direct conflict with your framework versions.
- Is Systatic actively maintained and safe for production use?
- The project shows effectively no adoption signal, with zero stars, zero dependents, and no visible release cadence, so you should assume a bus factor of one. Because it only produces a static HTML artifact at build time, the operational risk sits in your CI build pipeline rather than in production availability. If you adopt it, plan for fork ownership and treat the ongoing maintenance cost as part of the decision.
- Does Systatic support PHP 8.2, PHP 8.3, and current Laravel versions?
- There is no confirmed guarantee that Systatic resolves against current PHP 8.2 or 8.3 and modern Illuminate releases. Packages of this vintage often pin constraints that no longer resolve from a clean Composer 2.x lockfile. You must validate installation and a full build on your target runtime before making any commitment, because failure here collapses the business case.
- What are the best alternatives to Systatic for PHP static site generation?
- Tighten's Jigsaw occupies the same niche with PHP, Blade, Markdown, and static output, and it is actively maintained. Other options such as Eleventy, Hugo, and Astro are strong but offer no Blade advantage to a Laravel team. Any case for Systatic has to be a specific reason not to use Jigsaw, and that argument is weak on the available evidence.
- How does Systatic organize content, collections, and templates?
- Systatic is opinionated about directory conventions and a single configuration file, with collections for organizing posts and pages. Content is written in Markdown with front matter, and layouts and components are written in Blade. Adopters should adapt to its structure rather than try to retrofit an existing site's information architecture.
- Can Systatic bundle CSS and JavaScript or process images?
- No, Systatic has no asset pipeline story, so CSS and JavaScript bundling and image processing are left to the adopting team. You should budget for bringing Vite or an equivalent tool as part of the estimate rather than treating it as an afterthought. The generator's job ends at producing static HTML from Markdown and Blade.
- How fast are Systatic builds and does it support incremental builds?
- There is no evidence of incremental builds or parallel rendering, so assume full single-threaded rebuilds. Assume build time scales linearly with page count, and measure the real page count and build-time ceiling for your intended content set rather than estimating. Because content is plain Markdown and output is plain HTML, you can migrate away later if build performance becomes a problem.
- Can I use Systatic inside an existing Laravel application?
- It is technically possible to embed Systatic in a Laravel app, but it is not the preferred placement. An isolated site repository that depends only on the generator avoids collisions between the package's dependency constraints and your framework's pinned versions. Prefer the isolated model unless you have a hard requirement to coexist with the existing application.
- How do I test a Systatic site before deploying it?
- Evaluation cost is very low: a Composer require and one build command produce the static HTML artifact, which you can publish to any static host or CDN. A credible proof of concept is an afternoon of work, so the decision cost is near zero even if the answer is no. Check the build output and your intended page count before deciding whether to invest further.