PitCrew: A Portfolio Template for Robotics Teams

Image generated using ChatGPT “Make me an image of a robot from FTC/FRC in a pit, with a couple of students around it as the PITCREW. Need this as an image for a blog article.”

Demo Link: https://braineatingmachines.com/pitcrew/

Browsing through multiple websites, and forum/facebook posts around FTC and FRC, I realized a lot of teams build their websites using Wordpress. Wordpress is a great CMS tool with good plugins and templates. It is a good tool to build your web presence if you are a business. For a cash-strapped robotics team, it is an additional line item on your monthly expense sheet. Hosting a Wordpress site needs a specific set of servers and backend components. The running and maintenance costs add up.

As a team who writes code, and hosts it on GitHub, GitHub Pages is also the perfect place to host your team’s website, directly from a repository on GitHub.

If you interested to build a website from scratch, check the documentation on GitHub pages.

To reduce the initial learning curve, I’ve built a simple template with the help of Claude Code. Check the README file on how to get started.

The rest of the article below is generated by Claude, based on the README file.

What is PitCrew?

PitCrew is a free, open-source Jekyll template designed specifically for FIRST robotics teams. Whether you’re competing in FTC or FRC, PitCrew gives you everything you need to showcase your team’s journey, achievements, and technical work—without requiring web development expertise.

Key Features

Season Tracking

Document each competition season with dedicated pages for your robot, match results, and lessons learned. Keep a running history that sponsors and judges can browse.

Awards Showcase

Highlight your team’s accomplishments with a dedicated awards section. From Inspire Awards to Engineering Excellence, display what makes your team stand out.

Team Blog

Share updates, build logs, and outreach events. Keep your community engaged with regular news posts.

Documentation Hub

Create internal docs for programming guides, mechanical standards, or onboarding materials. Everything lives in one organized place.

Customizable Theming

Supports dark mode out of the box. Customize colors to match your team branding while staying true to FIRST’s official color palette.

Use Cases

Competition Judging – Give judges a polished portfolio to review your engineering notebook digitally
Sponsor Outreach – Impress potential sponsors with a professional online presence
Team Recruitment – Attract new members by showcasing your team culture and projects
Knowledge Transfer – Preserve institutional knowledge as students graduate

Getting Started

Fork the repository
Edit _config.yml with your team info
Add your content to the _posts, _seasons, and _docs folders
Deploy to GitHub Pages for free hosting

Focus on building robots, let PitCrew handle your web presence.