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Getting started

Lunet is a static site generator that builds a website from a folder containing a config.scriban file. This guide walks you through installation, creating your first site, and running it locally.

Prerequisites

Lunet requires the .NET 10 SDK (or later). If you don't have it yet, download it from:

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/10.0

Install Lunet

Lunet is distributed as a .NET global tool:

dotnet tool install -g lunet

Verify the installation:

lunet --help

Create a new site

Create a new site using the built-in skeleton:

lunet init mysite
cd mysite

The skeleton uses the default Lunet template and creates:

  • config.scriban — site configuration that extends lunet-io/templates with project metadata
  • readme.md — a sample home page
  • menu.yml — top-level navigation (Home + Docs)
  • docs/readme.md — a starter documentation page
  • docs/menu.yml — sidebar navigation for the docs section

The template provides layouts, includes, CSS/JS assets, a theme switcher, and search — your site is fully functional out of the box. See the template readme for all configuration options.

Build your site

Build once:

lunet build

The output is written to .lunet/build/www/ by default. Open index.html in a browser to see the result.

For a production build, Lunet sets site.environment = "prod". To build in development mode:

lunet build --dev

Serve with live reload

For development, use the built-in server:

lunet serve

This starts a local web server at http://localhost:4000 with:

  • Live reload — changes to files are detected and the browser refreshes automatically via WebSocket.
  • Development mode — site.environment is set to "dev", so production-only features (like analytics) are disabled.
  • Local base URL — baseurl and basepath are overridden to point to localhost.

Adding content

Create Markdown files with YAML front matter to add pages:

---
title: "About"
---

# About this site

This is a Markdown page that will be converted to HTML.

Files with front matter are treated as pages and processed through the layout pipeline. Files without front matter (images, CSS, JS) are copied to the output as-is.

See Content & front matter for details on front matter formats and page variables.

Key concepts to learn next

  1. Configuration (config.scriban) — understand how the config file works as executable Scriban code and how it differs from page templates.
  2. Content & front matter — learn about pages vs static files and how front matter sets page-level variables.
  3. Site structure — understand the folder layout and the layered virtual filesystem.
  4. Layouts & includes — learn how Lunet wraps your content in reusable templates.
  5. Themes & extensions — use pre-built themes or create your own.
  6. CLI reference — full command and option reference.

See also