Quick Start

Eleventy requires a way to run JavaScript on your computer and we recommend Node.js (version 18 or newer). You can check whether or not you have Node.js installed by running node --version in a Terminal. (Well, wait—what is a Terminal?) If node is not found or it reports a version number below 18, you will need to install Node.js before moving on.

Now we’ll create an index.md Markdown file. You can do this in the text editor of your choice or by running one of these commands in your terminal:

echo '# Heading' > index.md

echo '# Heading' | out-file -encoding utf8 'index.md'

echo '# Heading' | npx @11ty/create index.md

Run Eleventy using npx, an npm-provided command that is bundled with Node.js.

npx @11ty/eleventy --serve

pnpm dlx @11ty/eleventy --serve

yarn dlx @11ty/eleventy --serve

Eleventy compiles any files in the current directory matching valid file extensions (md is one of many) to the _site output folder. It might look like this:

[11ty] Writing _site/index.html from ./index.md (liquid)
[11ty] Wrote 1 file in 0.03 seconds (v3.1.2)
[11ty] Watching…
[11ty] Server at http://localhost:8080/

The --serve option also starts a local development server. Open up http://localhost:8080/ in your favorite web browser to view your web site.

If you’d like to experiment further with different template syntax, edit the following sample index.md file in your browser. Front Matter, Liquid and Markdown are in use.

---
title: Heading
---
# {{ title }}

• Read our full Get Started guide on the docs.
• Watch 6 minutes to Build a Blog from Scratch.

---
subject: World
---
# Hello {{ subject }}

You can type here!

- [Markdown](/docs/languages/markdown/)
- [Liquid](/docs/languages/liquid/)

## Posts

{%- for post in collections.posts %}
- [{{ post.data.title }}]({{ post.url}})
{%- endfor %}

_Built with {{ eleventy.generator }}_

---
title: First blog post ⬅️
tags: posts
---
# {{ title }}

---
title: Second blog post
tags: posts
---
# {{ title }}