diff --git a/scripts/lib/utils.mjs b/scripts/lib/utils.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6a2769
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/lib/utils.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+export const fmtDate = (date) =>
+  new Date(date).toLocaleDateString("en-US", { year: "numeric", month: "long", day: "numeric" });
+
+export const toISODate = (d) => new Date(d).toISOString().split("T")[0];
+
+export const escapeHtml = (s = "") =>
+  s.replace(/[&<>"']/g, (ch) => ({ "&": "&amp;", "<": "&lt;", ">": "&gt;", '"': "&quot;", "'": "&#39;" }[ch]));
+
+export const escapeXml = (s = "") =>
+  s.replace(/[<>&'"]/g, (ch) => ({ "<": "&lt;", ">": "&gt;", "&": "&amp;", "'": "&apos;", '"': "&quot;" }[ch]));
+
+export const fixInternalLinks = (html) =>
+  html
+    .replace(/href="\.\//g, 'href="/')
+    .replace(/href="([^"]+)"(?=[^>]*>)/g, (_, href) =>
+      href.startsWith("http") || href.startsWith("#") || href.endsWith("/") || href.endsWith(".md")
+        ? `href="${href}"`
+        : `href="${href}/"`
+    );
+
+export const renderAuthorInline = (author = "Apophenia") => {
+  const src = String(author || "Apophenia");
+  const re = /\[([^\]]+)\]\(([^)]+)\)/g;
+  let out = "";
+  let last = 0;
+  let match;
+
+  while ((match = re.exec(src))) {
+    out += escapeHtml(src.slice(last, match.index));
+    const text = escapeHtml(match[1].trim());
+    const href = match[2].trim();
+    const safeHref = /^(https?:\/\/|\/)/.test(href) ? href : "#";
+    const normalized = safeHref === "#" || safeHref.endsWith("/") || safeHref.startsWith("http") ? safeHref : `${safeHref}/`;
+    out += `<a href="${escapeHtml(normalized)}">${text}</a>`;
+    last = re.lastIndex;
+  }
+
+  out += escapeHtml(src.slice(last));
+  return out;
+};