Jackdaw

Lightning-fast static site generator for Ruby

Jackdaw is a minimal, fast static site generator that emphasizes:

  • Speed - Build 600 files in under 1 second with parallel processing
  • Convention over configuration - Zero config required to get started
  • Developer experience - Live reload, incremental builds, intuitive CLI
  • Simplicity - Markdown + ERB templates, that’s it

Quick Start

# Install
gem install jackdaw

# Create a new site
jackdaw new my-blog
cd my-blog.site

# Start developing
jackdaw serve

Why Jackdaw?

⚡️ Blazing Fast

  • Parallel processing for maximum speed
  • Incremental builds - only rebuild what changed
  • 693 files/second full build, 16,280 files/second incremental

🎯 Convention Over Configuration

  • No configuration files needed
  • Intuitive project structure
  • Smart defaults that just work

🛠 Great Developer Experience

  • Live reload development server
  • Helpful CLI commands
  • Clear error messages
  • Ruby 4.0 ready

📦 Everything Included

  • Markdown with GitHub-flavored syntax
  • Syntax highlighting with Rouge
  • Partials and layouts
  • RSS/Atom feeds
  • Sitemap generation
  • SEO helpers

Key Features

  • Markdown - Write content in Markdown
  • ERB Templates - Flexible templating with Ruby
  • Live Reload - Changes appear instantly in browser
  • Parallel Processing - Multi-core performance
  • Type-based Routing - Automatic content organization
  • Incremental Builds - Only rebuild changed files
  • RSS/Atom Feeds - Automatic feed generation for blogs
  • Sitemap - SEO-friendly sitemap.xml
  • Zero Config - Convention over configuration

Learn More

Performance Benchmarks

Operation Time Files/Second
Full build (600 files) 0.87s 693
Incremental build 0.04s 16,280
Cold start 0.69s 870

Open Source

Jackdaw is MIT licensed and available on GitHub.