Create your first Astro project

Mach dich bereit, …

• Run the create astro setup wizard to create a new Astro project
• Start the Astro server in development (dev) mode
• View a live preview of your website in your browser

Launch the Astro setup wizard

Section titled Launch the Astro setup wizard

The preferred way to create a new Astro site is through our create astro setup wizard.

1. In the command line of your terminal, run the following command using your preferred package manager:

   npm

   # create a new project with npm
   npm create astro@latest -- --template minimal

   pnpm

   # create a new project with pnpm
   pnpm create astro@latest --template minimal

   Yarn

   # create a new project with yarn
   yarn create astro --template minimal

2. Confirm y to install create-astro

3. When the prompt asks you where to create the project, type in the name of a folder to create a new directory for your project, e.g. ./tutorial

   Note

   A new Astro project can only be created in a completely empty folder, so choose a name for your folder that does not already exist!

4. When the prompt asks you whether or not to install dependencies, type or select y.

5. When the prompt asks you whether or not to initialize a new git repository, type or select y.

When the install wizard is complete, you no longer need this terminal. You can now open VS Code to continue.

Open your project in VS Code

Section titled Open your project in VS Code

8. Open VS Code. You will be prompted to open a folder. Choose the folder that you created during the setup wizard.

9. If this is your first time opening an Astro project, you should see a notification asking if you would like to install recommended extensions. Click to see the recommended extensions, and choose the Astro language support extension. This will provide syntax highlighting and autocompletions for your Astro code.

10. Make sure the terminal is visible and that you can see the command prompt, such as:

    user@machine:~/tutorial$

    Keyboard shortcut

    To toggle the visibility of the terminal, use Ctrl + J (macOS: Cmd ⌘ + J).

You can now use the terminal built right into this window, instead of your computer’s Terminal app, for the rest of this tutorial.

Run Astro in dev mode

Section titled Run Astro in dev mode

In order to preview your project files as a website while you work, you will need Astro to be running in development (dev) mode.

Start the dev server

Section titled Start the dev server

11. Run the command to start the Astro dev server by typing into VS Code’s terminal:

    npm

    npm run dev

    pnpm

    pnpm run dev

    Yarn

    yarn run dev

    Now you should see confirmation in the terminal that Astro is running in dev mode. 🚀

View a preview of your website

Section titled View a preview of your website

Your project files contain all the code necessary to display an Astro website, but the browser is responsible for displaying your code as web pages.

12. Click on the localhost link in your terminal window to see a live preview of your new Astro website!

    (Astro uses http://localhost:4321 by default if port 4321 is available.)

    Here’s what the Astro “Empty Project” starter website should look like in the browser preview:

    

Using the Astro dev server

While the Astro server is running in dev mode, you will NOT be able to run commands in your terminal window. Instead, this pane will give you feedback as you preview your site.

You can stop the dev server at any time and return to the command prompt by typing Ctrl + C in the terminal.

Sometimes the dev server will stop on its own while you are working. If your live preview stops working, go back to the terminal and restart the dev server by typing npm run dev.

Checklist

Section titled Checklist

• I can create a new Astro project.
• I can start the Astro dev server.

Resources

Section titled Resources

• Getting Started with Visual Studio Code external — a video tutorial for installing, setting up and working with VS Code