Set up a new event

Creates the four things a new event needs: a data file, a set of pages, a vanity redirect, and directories for images.

Gather

• Year (<YYYY>) and city as it should be displayed (Boston, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires)
• Whether the city has run an event before — that changes the redirect step
• Social handles, if known. All optional and all editable later

The slug

<city-slug> is the city lowercased, accents folded, non-letters dropped, spaces to hyphens: São Paulo → sao-paulo, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires → ciudad-autonoma-de-buenos-aires.

The event is then referred to two different ways, and both are used:

• <YYYY>/<city-slug> for the data directory
• <YYYY>-<city-slug> for everything else (the "event slug")

1. Check it does not already exist

ls -d data/events/<YYYY>/<city-slug> content/events/<YYYY>-<city-slug> 2>/dev/null

If either exists, stop — this event is already set up.

2. Data file

mkdir -p data/events/<YYYY>/<city-slug>
cp utilities/examples/data/events/main.yml data/events/<YYYY>/<city-slug>/main.yml

Then replace the placeholders throughout the copied file:

Placeholder	Replace with	Example
yyyy-city	the event slug	2027-boston
YYYY	the year	2027
City	the display city	Boston
yourlocation	the venue, or the city for now	Boston
devopsdayscityabbr	the event's social handle	devopsdaysbos
city_email	the city slug	boston

Leave startdate, enddate, and the CFP and registration dates blank until they are real. An event with no startdate shows on the site as upcoming-date-TBD, which is correct.

Two things that will break the build later if you get them wrong:

• name: must be the event slug, in quotes: name: "2027-boston". It is the only field with a hard error guard in the theme.
• If you set startdate, you must also set enddate. Several templates read enddate unguarded inside an if startdate block.

3. Pages

cp -r utilities/examples/content/events/yyyy-city content/events/<YYYY>-<city-slug>

That gives nine pages: welcome.md, contact.md, conduct.md, conduct-fr.md, conduct-pt-br.md, location.md, propose.md, registration.md, sponsor.md.

In every one of them, replace CITY with the display city and YYYY with the year — including in the Description lines, which are used for social sharing and SEO.

In welcome.md, also replace yyyy-city in the aliases line with the event slug.

welcome.md ships with most of its body commented out — the logo, location, register, propose, program, speakers and Twitter blocks. Uncomment each as it becomes real. Do not uncomment the program and speakers blocks before those pages exist.

Delete conduct-fr.md and conduct-pt-br.md if the event does not need them.

4. Redirect

static/_redirects gives every city a vanity URL: devopsdays.org/<city-slug> points at the current year's event.

If the city has run before, find its existing line and change only the year, keeping the line where it is:

/boston/*		/events/2027-boston/:splat		302

If it is a new city, append a new line at the end of the file. Netlify matches first-to-last, so any one-off path redirect for that city must stay above its wildcard line.

5. Asset directories

mkdir -p assets/events/<YYYY>-<city-slug>/speakers
mkdir -p assets/events/<YYYY>-<city-slug>/organizers
mkdir -p static/events/<YYYY>-<city-slug>/sharing

Git does not track empty directories, so these only land in the PR once they contain something. Create them now so later steps do not fail.

Images that should follow when they exist:

File	Requirements
assets/events/<slug>/logo.png	Must be named exactly logo.png. Used on the event page and the site front page
assets/events/<slug>/logo-square.png	Optional. Overrides the auto-crop on the front page. PNG, at least 300×300, ideally 600×600
static/events/<slug>/sharing/sharing.jpg	Social card. At least 1200×630, ratio 1.91:1. Then set sharing_image: "sharing.jpg" in main.yml

6. Organizers, and what comes next

The generated main.yml has placeholder organizers (John Doe, Jane Smith, Sally Fields). Replace them with the real team before opening the PR — see .claude/skills/add-organizer/SKILL.md, and note the required email to info@devopsdays.org.

Trim nav_elements: to the pages that actually exist. A new event normally starts with sponsor, contact and conduct, and adds propose, location, registration, program and speakers as they become real.

7. Verify

• name: in main.yml matches the event slug exactly
• No YYYY, CITY, City, yyyy-city or devopsdayscityabbr placeholders remain:

  grep -rnE 'YYYY|yyyy-city|devopsdayscityabbr|city_email|yourlocation' \
    data/events/<YYYY>/<city-slug>/ content/events/<YYYY>-<city-slug>/
  

• The placeholder organizers are gone
• static/_redirects has exactly one wildcard line for this city
• Preview /events/<YYYY>-<city-slug>/

8. Submit

Follow .claude/skills/submit-changes/SKILL.md.

PR title: [BOS-2027] Set up Boston 2027.