First Site
Create your first Hwaro site in 5 minutes.
1. Create Project
hwaro init my-site --scaffold blog
cd my-site
Built-in scaffolds:
| Scaffold | Description |
|---|---|
simple |
Landing pages, small sites (default) |
bare |
Minimal structure with semantic HTML only |
blog |
Posts with tags, reading time, and older/newer post navigation |
docs |
Documentation with sidebar and prev/next page navigation |
book |
Book with chapters, prev/next navigation, keyboard shortcuts |
Every scaffold shares one design-token system built on CSS light-dark() pairs,
so each site automatically follows the reader's OS color scheme — light for
light, dark for dark, with no extra setup. The styled scaffolds also ship a
theme switcher in the header: it cycles auto → light → dark, persists the
choice in localStorage, and applies it before first paint so there is no
flash. To force one scheme permanently (a dark-only site), add
:root { color-scheme: dark; } at the end of the generated css/style.css.
The scaffolds also carry a quiet modern layer: a sticky glass header, native
cross-document view transitions between pages, and (on blog posts and book
pages) a CSS-only reading-progress thread. All of it degrades gracefully on
older browsers and every animation respects prefers-reduced-motion.

simple — Landing pages, small sites
bare — Minimal structure, semantic HTML only
blog — Posts with tags and categories
docs — Documentation with sidebar
book — Book with chaptersTip: Looking for a more complete starting point? Check out the Hwaro Examples for ready-made boilerplates you can use right away.
2. Start Development Server
hwaro serve
Open http://localhost:3000. Changes reload automatically.
3. Project Structure
my-site/
├── config.toml # Site configuration
├── content/ # Markdown content
│ ├── index.md # Homepage
│ └── blog/ # Blog section
│ ├── _index.md
│ └── hello.md
├── templates/ # Jinja2 templates
├── static/ # Static files (CSS, JS, images)
└── public/ # Generated output
4. Edit Configuration
Open config.toml:
title = "My Site"
description = "A site built with Hwaro"
base_url = "https://example.com"
5. Create a Page
hwaro new content/about.md
Tip: run
hwaro newwith no arguments to open an interactive wizard that suggests a path and collects the title, description, tags, and more for you.
Edit content/about.md:
+++
title = "About"
+++
Welcome to my site!
Visit http://localhost:3000/about/.
6. Create a Section
Sections group related content. Create a blog section:
mkdir -p content/blog
Create content/blog/_index.md:
+++
title = "Blog"
sort_by = "date"
+++
My blog posts.
Create content/blog/first-post.md:
+++
title = "My First Post"
date = "2024-01-15"
tags = ["hello"]
+++
Hello, world!
Visit http://localhost:3000/blog/.
7. Build for Production
hwaro build
Deploy the public/ directory to any static host. See Deploy to GitHub Pages for a quick setup.
Optional: Build with an AI Agent
If you work with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or another skill-aware agent, Hwaro ships two Agent Skills that teach it how to drive the project you just created:
| Skill | What it does |
|---|---|
hwaro |
Runs the CLI properly — init, new, serve, build, doctor, and the content tools — using the --json output contract and HWARO_E_* exit codes instead of guessing from text. |
hwaro-design |
Designs and rethemes the site inside Hwaro's Crinja templates and light-dark() design tokens, under an anti-slop discipline that avoids generic AI-looking layouts. |
Install both with one command:
npx skills add hahwul/hwaro
Then ask the agent something like "add a projects section to this Hwaro site" or "retheme this blog to a warm dark palette" — it loads the matching skill on its own. See Agent Skills for manual install paths and per-agent directories, and AGENTS.md to record project-specific conventions the agent should follow first.
Next Steps
- CLI Commands — All available commands
- Configuration — Full config reference
- Writing Content — Pages, sections, taxonomies
- Agent Skills — Let an AI agent build and design the site
- Deploy — Hosting and deployment guides