Came up with the pages/ directory that's templates which are rendered into public for the static pages.

main.go

@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ package main
 
 import (
   "log"
+  "strings"
+  "io/fs"
+  "fmt"
+  "path/filepath"
   "os"
   "os/signal"
   "syscall"
@@ -16,6 +20,56 @@ import (
   "zedshaw.games/webapp/data"
 )
 
+func Fail(err error, format string, v ...any) error {
+  err_format := fmt.Sprintf("ERROR: %v; %s", err, format)
+  log.Printf(err_format, v...)
+  return err
+}
+
+func RenderPages(pages_path string, target string) {
+  engine := html.New(pages_path, ".html")
+  engine.Load()
+
+  err := filepath.WalkDir(pages_path,
+    func(path string, d fs.DirEntry, err error) error  {
+      if !d.IsDir() {
+        if err != nil { return Fail(err, "path: %s", path); }
+
+        dir := filepath.Dir(path)
+        err = os.MkdirAll(dir, 0750)
+        if err != nil {
+          return Fail(err, "making dir %s", dir);
+        }
+
+        split_path := strings.Split(path, string(os.PathSeparator))[1:]
+        source_name := strings.Join(split_path, "/")  // Render wants / even on windows
+        ext := filepath.Ext(source_name)
+        template_name, found := strings.CutSuffix(source_name, ext)
+
+        if found && ext == ".html" {
+          prefixed_path := append([]string{target}, split_path...)
+
+          target_path := filepath.Join(prefixed_path...)
+
+          // compare time stamps and skip if not newer
+
+          out, err := os.OpenFile(target_path, os.O_RDWR|os.O_CREATE, 0644)
+          if err != nil { return Fail(err, "writing file %s", target_path) }
+
+          err = engine.Render(out, template_name, fiber.Map{"Title": "Hello"})
+          if err != nil { return Fail(err, "failed to render %s", path) }
+
+          log.Printf("RENDER: %s -> %s", template_name, target_path)
+          out.Close()
+        }
+      }
+
+      return nil
+    })
+
+  if err != nil { log.Fatalf("can't walk content") }
+}
+
 func main() {
   log.SetFlags(log.LstdFlags | log.Lshortfile)
 
@@ -28,6 +82,8 @@ func main() {
     StrictRouting: true,
   })
 
+  RenderPages("./pages", "./public")
+
   app.Use(logger.New())
   app.Use(recov.New())