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Getting started

Overview

Root.js is a web development tool capable of static site generation (SSG) or server side rendering (SSR) using TSX to render components to HTML. Under the hood, Root.js is powered by Vite and comes with all of the modern features that Vite provides. TSX templates are rendered by Preact and, by default, does not output any client-side JavaScript to the resulting HTML.

Root.js optionally comes with Root CMS which can be installed via a plugin. Root CMS is powered by Firebase and its suite of cloud-based products, so you get a complete web development experience right from the start. Learn more about setting up Root CMS in the CMS Setup Guide.

Scaffolding a Root.js project

Root.js requires Node.js 18+ to run. You are welcome to use any package manager, but we generally recommend pnpm for new projects, which is shipped with Node.js and can be enabled by running the command "corepack enable".

To scaffold a project using the Root.js starter package:

bash
pnpm create @blinkk/root myproject
cd myproject
pnpm install

You can also scaffold a template from one of our many examples by adding the "--template" flag, for example:

bash
pnpm create @blinkk/root --template=<template> myproject

Running the dev server

After scaffolding a project and installing dependencies via "pnpm install", you can start a dev server by running:

bash
pnpm dev

The dev server should be running at http://localhost:4007

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