Getting Started

Get your first site up and running in 5 minutes.

Create a New Site

jackdaw new my-blog
cd my-blog.site

This creates a new directory with the following structure:

my-blog.site/
├── site/
│   ├── src/           # Your content (Markdown files)
│   ├── templates/     # ERB templates
│   └── assets/        # Static files (CSS, images, JS)
└── public/            # Generated site (after build)

Project Structure

Content (site/src/)

Write your content in Markdown:

# Hello World

This is my first post!

File naming convention: [date-]name.type.md

Templates (site/templates/)

ERB templates with access to content:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title><%= title %></title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1><%= title %></h1>
  <%= content %>
</body>
</html>

Assets (site/assets/)

Static files copied as-is to output:

Build Your Site

# Full build
jackdaw build

# Clean build (remove old files first)
jackdaw build --clean

# Verbose output
jackdaw build --verbose

Output goes to public/ directory.

Development Server

Start the dev server with live reload:

jackdaw serve

Visit http://localhost:4000 and edit your files - changes appear instantly!

Options:

jackdaw serve --port 3000        # Custom port
jackdaw serve --no-livereload    # Disable live reload

Create Content

Use templates to quickly create new content:

# Create a blog post
jackdaw create blog "My First Post"
# → Creates: 2026-01-06-my-first-post.blog.md

# Create a page
jackdaw create page "About"
# → Creates: about.page.md

# Create in subdirectory
jackdaw create page "docs/installation"
# → Creates: docs/installation.page.md

List available templates:

jackdaw template list

Your First Blog Post

Let’s create a blog:

  1. Create blog template (site/templates/blog.html.erb):
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title><%= title %></title>
  <meta name="description" content="<%= excerpt %>">
</head>
<body>
  <article>
    <h1><%= title %></h1>
    <time><%= date.strftime('%B %d, %Y') %></time>
    <%= content %>
  </article>
</body>
</html>
  1. Create a post:
jackdaw create blog "Building Fast Sites"
  1. Edit the content (site/src/2026-01-06-building-fast-sites.blog.md):

# Building Fast Sites

Static sites are fast, secure, and easy to deploy.

## Why Static?

- **Speed** - No database queries
- **Security** - No server-side code
- **Scalability** - Just files on a CDN
  1. Build and view:
jackdaw serve

What’s Next?