[CI] Migrate to npm-managed local Hugo and standardise Makefile targets

[hebypaul]

Current Behavior

Currently, local development for exoscale-academy relies on a globally installed Hugo binary or uses inconsistent npx invocations. This can lead to version mismatch issues between contributors and CI environments, causing build failures or discrepancies. Additionally, some documentation might reference outdated Makefile targets.

Desired Behavior

A contained, highly reproducible local development environment where dependencies are strictly managed. Just like the main Meshery documentation, running make setup should fetch the correct hugo-extended NPM dependency. Subsequent commands (make site, make build, make serve, etc.) should automatically route to this local binary, eliminating the need for a global Hugo installation.

Implementation

This approach ports over the standardized build processes established in other Layer5 repositories to the exoscale-academy repository.

Specific changes should include:

• Makefile: Add a check-deps target to validate npm and the local hugo binary before execution. Reroute build, site, serve, clean, and theme-update to trigger npm run scripts.
• package.json: Add dev:* scripts (e.g., dev:build, dev:clean, dev:serve, dev:site) to explicitly handle Hugo commands with the correct flags, stripping out unnecessary npx prefixes. Update package update scripts to use npm exec instead of npx.
• Documentation: Update README.md and CONTRIBUTING.md to remove references to outdated targets and emphasize the make setup -> make site workflow.

Acceptance Tests

• make setup installs the local hugo-extended dependency cleanly.
• make site successfully spins up the local development server using the NPM-managed binary.
• make clean correctly wipes the build cache.
• A user without a globally installed Hugo can build the site from a fresh clone.

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Contributor Guide and Resources

• 📚 Instructions for contributing to exoscale-academy
  • academy-template documentation site, example and theme
• 🎨 Wireframes and designs for Layer5 site in Figma (open invite)
• 🙋🏾🙋🏼 Questions: Layer5 Discussion Forum and Layer5 Community Slack