The Apollo theme provides a default homepage that lists your recent blog posts. However, you might want to create a custom homepage that better reflects your personality and work. This guide will walk you through the process of creating a custom homepage with the Apollo theme.

1. Create a Custom Homepage Template

The first step is to create a custom homepage template. In the root of your Zola project, create a new file at templates/home.html. This file will contain the HTML for your custom homepage.

You can use the following code as a starting point:

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block main_content %}
    <main>
        <article>
            <section class="body">
                <h1>Welcome to my custom homepage!</h1>
                <p>This is where you can introduce yourself and your work.</p>
            </section>
        </article>
    </main>
{% endblock main_content %}

This template extends the theme's base.html template and overrides the main_content block with your own content.

2. Set the Homepage Template

Next, you need to tell Zola to use your custom homepage template. In the content directory of your Zola project, you should have a _index.md file. If you don't have one, create one.

In this file, add the following front matter:

+++
template = "home.html"
+++

This tells Zola to use the templates/home.html file to render your homepage.

3. Add Content to Your Homepage

Now you can add content to your homepage. The content of the content/_index.md file will be available in your templates/home.html template as the section variable.

For example, you can add a title and some introductory text to your content/_index.md file:

+++
title = "Hey there! 👋🏼"
template = "home.html"
+++

I'm a software engineer who loves to write about technology and programming.

You can then display this content in your templates/home.html template:

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% macro home_page(section) %}
    <main>
        <article>
            <section class="body">
                {{ post_macros::page_header(title=section.title) }}
                {{ section.content | safe }}
            </section>
        </article>
    </main>
{% endmacro home_page %}

{% block main_content %}
    {{ self::home_page(section=section) }}
{% endblock main_content %}

4. Displaying Posts

You can also display a list of your recent posts on your homepage. The following code shows how to display the 5 most recent posts:

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% macro home_page(section) %}
    <main>
        <article>
            <section class="body">
                {{ post_macros::page_header(title=section.title) }}
                {{ section.content | safe }}
            </section>
        </article>
    </main>
{% endmacro home_page %}

{% block main_content %}
    {{ self::home_page(section=section) }}

    <h1>Recent articles</h1>
    <main class="post-list">
        {% set section = get_section(path="posts/_index.md") %}
        {{ post_macros::list_posts(pages=section.pages | slice(end=5)) }}
    </main>
{% endblock main_content %}

This code gets the posts section and then uses the post_macros::list_posts macro to display the 5 most recent posts.

You can also highlight specific posts by getting them by their path:

{% set highlights = [
    get_page(path="posts/my-first-post.md"),
    get_page(path="posts/my-second-post.md"),
] %}
<main class="post-list">
    {{ post_macros::list_posts(pages=highlights) }}
</main>

This is just a starting point. You can customize your homepage as much as you want.