What is utterances?

Utterances is a comments widget built on Github which allows you to comment on blog posts using Github Pages

  • When you comment on a blog post, utterances will create a GitHub issue in the designated repository to store the comments
  • You need to authenticate with your Github account as this prevents spam
  • If you scroll down to the bottom of a page, you can see if utterances are there or not
  • If you cloned one of nighthawkcoders repositories, utterances.html will be within your blog’s _includes folder

How to install

  • Visit this page Utterances and press the button that says “install”
  • Select the option which applies utterances to all of your repositories
  • You can check if it was installed correctly by going to your repository
    • Repository –> Settings –> Github apps (this is under integrations)
    • You should see utterances under installed Github apps

How to use

  • If Github pages was set up correctly, then posts/ipynb files using hacks and tangibles should have utterances enabled
  • If the category is not a hack or tangible, OR utterances is not working for whatever reason, then use the script below to enable utterances on the post
<!-- Use this script to add comments to your blog posts manually
<script src="https://utteranc.es/client.js"
        repo="nighthawkcoders/portfolio_2025"
        issue-term="title"
        label="blogpost-comment"
        theme="github-light"
        crossorigin="anonymous"
        async>
</script>
-->

Troubleshooting/Common Mistakes

  • Make sure that the category is a hack or a tangible. Utterances will not automatically work on plans
    • Use the script above if you want comments on posts such as plans
  • Check if Github Pages is working
    • Go to your repository on Github. Settings -> Pages -> Change deploy from branch to Github Actions
      • If this wasn’t done, the website wouldn’t exist and utterances would only work on localhost