static_

Installation

Requirements

  • Node.js 20.19 or newer (22 or newer recommended) and npm
  • macOS, Linux or Windows
  • A Netlify or Cloudflare account only when you deploy. Their command-line tools are downloaded on demand with npx.

Check your versions:

node --version
npm --version

Install the CLI

Static is installed once, globally. Clone the repository, install its dependencies and link the static command:

git clone <repository-url> static
cd static
npm install
npm link

Confirm it works:

static help

npm link makes static available in every terminal. To update later, git pull && npm install inside the repository. To remove it, run npm unlink -g static.

Create a project

Run static new in the folder where you keep your sites. It creates a new sub-folder there:

cd ~/sites
static new my-site

You are asked for a template and the site's production URL. In scripts, skip the prompts:

static new my-site --template=blog --url=https://example.com --yes
template contains
default a minimal site: layout, home page, example page, dark mode
blog home, posts, notes (microblog), tags, an about page, RSS
business services, FAQ, contact page and LocalBusiness structured data

Projects are remembered in ~/.static/projects.json, which is how static dev my-site works from any folder. Inside a project folder the name is optional: just run static dev.

No per-project install

A project contains only your content and configuration: no package.json, no node_modules. Vue, Tailwind, Vite and image tooling are all provided by the CLI, so every project builds with the same versions and a new project is ready immediately.

Next

Start the dev server with static dev, then read Project structure.