Getting Started with seite

seite is an AI-native static site generator built in Rust. It ships as a single binary with no runtime dependencies, no Node.js, no Go, no Ruby. Install it, scaffold a site, and deploy in minutes. Every build produces HTML, raw markdown, and LLM discovery files automatically, so your content is readable by browsers, search engines, and AI models from day one.

By the end of this guide you'll have a working site with a blog post, a docs page, and a theme: built and running locally. The whole process takes about five minutes.

Prerequisites

No runtime dependencies are required. seite is a single binary that runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows. If you want to install from source rather than using the prebuilt binary, you'll need the Rust toolchain.

For the optional AI agent and AI theme generation features, install Claude Code: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code.

Installation

Quick install (macOS and Linux)

curl -fsSL https://seite.sh/install.sh | sh

This downloads a prebuilt binary for your platform and installs it to ~/.local/bin.

To install a specific version:

VERSION=v0.1.0 curl -fsSL https://seite.sh/install.sh | sh

Quick install (Windows)

irm https://seite.sh/install.ps1 | iex

Install from source

If you have the Rust toolchain installed (all platforms):

cargo install seite

Platform support

Verify

seite --version

Create Your First Static Site

Scaffold a new site with posts, docs, and pages collections:

seite init mysite --title "My Site" --description "A personal blog" --collections posts,docs,pages
cd mysite

This creates the following structure:

mysite/
├── content/
│   ├── posts/     # Date-based blog posts with RSS
│   ├── docs/      # Documentation with sidebar navigation
│   └── pages/     # Standalone pages (about, contact, etc.)
├── templates/     # Tera templates (override bundled themes)
├── public/        # Root-level files (favicon.ico, .well-known/, _redirects)
├── static/        # Static assets (CSS, JS, images) → dist/static/
├── seite.toml      # Site configuration
├── .claude/       # Claude Code agent configuration (includes MCP server)
└── .seite/         # Project metadata (version tracking)

The seite.toml file controls your site's title, description, base URL, and collections. The defaults work out of the box. You can tune settings later as needed.

Create Content

Add a blog post:

seite new post "Hello World" --tags intro,welcome

This creates content/posts/2026-02-18-hello-world.md with frontmatter:

---
title: "Hello World"
date: 2026-02-18
tags:
  - intro
  - welcome
---

Your content here...

Add a documentation page or a standalone page:

seite new doc "Setup Guide"
seite new page "About"

Open the generated markdown file in your editor and write your content below the --- frontmatter delimiter. Add a description field for better SEO: seite uses it for meta tags, Open Graph, and JSON-LD structured data automatically.

Build Your Static Site

Build the site to the dist/ directory:

seite build

Builds are fast: typically under a second, even with dozens of pages. Every build produces a complete, deployment-ready output:

• HTML pages with clean URLs (/posts/hello-world). SEO-optimized with canonical URLs, Open Graph tags, Twitter Cards, and JSON-LD structured data. No plugins or config needed.
• Markdown copies alongside every HTML file, so AI models and developer tools can consume your content directly.
• RSS feed at /feed.xml for subscribers.
• XML sitemap at /sitemap.xml with hreflang alternates if you add translations.
• Search index at /search-index.json: client-side search works out of the box in all bundled themes.
• LLM discovery files at /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt, making your site discoverable by AI search engines and coding agents.

This triple output (HTML + Markdown + LLM files) is what makes seite an AI-native static site generator. Your content is readable by browsers, search engines, and AI models from a single build command.

Development Server

Start a dev server with live reload:

seite serve --open

The --open flag launches the site in your default browser automatically. The server starts at http://localhost:3000 (auto-increments if the port is taken), displays both local and network URLs, and watches for file changes. An interactive REPL lets you run commands without restarting:

seite> new post "Another Post"
seite> theme apply dark
seite> build
seite> status
seite> stop

Choose a Theme

seite ships with 10 bundled themes compiled into the binary, no downloads or CDN required.

List available themes:

seite theme list

Apply a bundled theme:

seite theme apply dark

The bundled themes include default, minimal, dark, docs (sidebar navigation), brutalist, and bento (card grid). Browse them in the Theme Gallery.

You can also generate a custom theme with AI:

seite theme create "minimal serif with warm colors"

This spawns Claude Code to write a complete templates/base.html with all SEO, accessibility, and i18n features built in. See Building Custom Themes for details.

Deploy Your Site

When you're ready to go live, seite deploys to GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, or Netlify with a single command.

First, set your deploy target during init or in seite.toml:

[deploy]
target = "cloudflare"    # or "github-pages" or "netlify"

Then deploy:

seite deploy

This runs pre-flight checks, builds the site, and pushes it live. Non-main branches automatically get preview deploys. See the Deployment docs for full setup instructions for each target.

Updating

Update the binary itself:

seite self-update

After updating, bring your project's config files up to date:

seite upgrade

This adds any new configuration that shipped with the new version (e.g., MCP server settings, new permission entries). It's additive and non-destructive. Your existing settings are preserved.

Next Steps

Now that your static site generator is up and running, explore these guides to get the most out of seite:

• Collections: understand how posts, docs, pages, changelog, and roadmap collections work and how to add custom ones
• Configuration: the full seite.toml reference for images, analytics, contact forms, and more
• Templates & Themes: customize the look, override template blocks, and browse all 10 bundled themes
• Building Custom Themes: create a theme from scratch or modify a bundled one with the theme builder skill
• Deployment: detailed setup for GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, and Netlify including custom domains
• Multi-Language: add translations with filename-based i18n and per-language RSS, sitemap, and search
• Shortcodes: embed YouTube, Vimeo, callouts, figures, contact forms, and custom components
• Contact Forms: add a contact form with Formspree, Web3Forms, Netlify Forms, HubSpot, or Typeform
• Workspaces: manage multiple sites in a single repository
• AI Agent: let Claude write content, debug builds, and generate themes for you
• MCP Server: structured AI access to your site via the Model Context Protocol
• CLI Reference: every command and flag in one place