Jekyll-GOVUK

A minimal, self-contained Jekyll theme that integrates the GOV.UK Design System using Sass. Built for fast prototyping and personal publishing with a GOV.UK look and feel — without needing Node.js or external JS.

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🔧 Key Features

• 🇬🇧 GOV.UK Frontend styles and components (pure Sass — no JS or Node)
• 🧱 Modular Sass setup via _sass/govuk-frontend
• 🎨 Customisable via _sass/theme-overrides
• 🗂 GOV.UK layout structure using Jekyll includes and layouts
• 🌐 100% GitHub Pages compatible — no plugins required

🚀 Quick Start (Local Development)

git clone https://github.com/jonathanthomas83/jekyll-govuk.git
cd jekyll-govuk
bundle install
bundle exec jekyll serve

Then visit: http://localhost:4000

📦 GitHub Pages Deployment

This theme works out of the box with GitHub Pages. Add the following to your site’s _config.yml:

remote_theme: jonathanthomas83/jekyll-govuk

There’s no need for plugins, custom build steps, or Node.js. Just commit and push to your main or gh-pages branch and enable GitHub Pages in your repo settings.

🧪 Use the Theme via Bundler

You can also install this theme using Bundler (recommended for more control):

# In your Gemfile
gem "jekyll-govuk", git: "https://github.com/jonathanthomas83/jekyll-govuk.git"

And in _config.yml:

theme: jekyll-govuk

🗂 Project Structure

.
├── _layouts/               # Base layouts with GOV.UK structure
├── _includes/              # Header, footer, wrapper, head
├── _sass/
│   ├── govuk-frontend/     # Core GOV.UK Design System Sass
│   └── theme-overrides/    # Your custom theme styles
├── assets/
│   └── main.css            # Precompiled CSS for GitHub Pages
├── docs/                   # GitHub Pages live demo folder
├── LICENSE.txt             # License
├── README.md               # This file
├── CHANGELOG.md            # Changelog
└── jekyll-govuk.gemspec    # For optional RubyGems publishing

🎨 Customisation

You can override fonts, spacing, colours, and more in:

_sass/theme-overrides/_your-custom.scss

Use @import in your build to include any custom styles.

💡 Example

To see this theme in action, visit the live demo:
👉 jonathanthomas83.github.io/jekyll-govuk

📝 License

MIT — free to use, modify, fork, or republish.