Install Project Broadsheet

Download the source, install its dependencies, and start a local preview server. The entire process takes 3–5 minutes on a modern machine.

Project Broadsheet is a static site built with Eleventy, so the only prerequisite is Node.js, the JavaScript runtime used to run the build. If you haven't installed Node yet, download it from nodejs.org. Version 18 or later is required.

If you prefer not to use the terminal at all, see Using Project Broadsheet without the terminal for a browser-only setup path.

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/jonajinga/broadsheet.git my-publication
cd my-publication

Cloning copies the full source code of Project Broadsheet onto your machine. Rename my-publication to whatever fits your project, this becomes the folder you work in.

Install dependencies

npm install

npm install reads the package.json file and downloads the supporting packages Project Broadsheet needs: Eleventy, Pagefind (the search index builder), an RSS plugin, an HTML minifier, and a handful of utilities. None of them run in production, they only build the site.

Expect about a minute on a typical home connection.

Run the preview server

npm start

This starts a local preview server with automatic reloading. Open http://localhost:8080 in your browser. When you edit a file, the browser refreshes on its own so you can see changes immediately.

Build for production

npm run build

A production build writes the finished website to a folder called _site/. That folder contains every page as a plain HTML file, every stylesheet, every image, and the Pagefind search index. You can upload _site/ to any static host (Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, Vercel, even a USB drive served as a web folder).

What to do next

• After your first deploy for a 10-step checklist to get the publication ready for readers.
• Configure meta.js to set your publication name and integration keys.
• Write your first article to create your first Markdown file.
• No terminal? Use Decap CMS for browser-based editing.