The Astro Starter Kit: Minimal is the official scaffold for the Astro framework, providing a single index.astro page and the smallest file set needed to start a static site. Published by the Astro team in the withastro/astro repository, it is intended as a blank slate for developers who want to build a site without any preset structure, styling, or sample content.
What is the Astro Starter Kit: Minimal?
The Astro Starter Kit: Minimal is a bare-bones Astro project template that creates a functional one-page site with no extra UI, styling, or content. It takes a project name and outputs a directory containing only public/, src/pages/index.astro, and package.json. It runs on the Astro static-site build system, which compiles .astro and .md files from the pages directory into static HTML during the build step.
Key Features
- Minimal file structure — The scaffold contains exactly three real items: a public/ folder for static assets, a src/pages/index.astro page, and a package.json manifest.
- File-based routing — Astro exposes each .astro or .md file in src/pages/ as a URL route matching its filename, so adding about.md creates /about.
- Multi-framework component support — The README notes that src/components/ can hold Astro, React, Vue, Svelte, or Preact components, although the minimal template includes no components by default.
- Standard npm commands — npm run dev starts a local development server at localhost:4321, npm run build outputs the production site to ./dist/, and npm run preview serves that build locally.
- Official Astro CLI integration — the astro CLI supports commands like astro add and astro check via npm run astro, and npm run astro -- --help shows all options.
- One-line installation — the project can be created with npm create astro@latest -- --template minimal from any terminal.
- Cloud IDE support — the template links out to ready-made containers in StackBlitz, CodeSandbox, and GitHub Codespaces for browser-based development.
Who is it for?
- New Astro developers who want the smallest official starting point to learn file-based routing, the build pipeline, and component integration.
- Developers building custom static sites who need a clean slate without preset UI components, CSS frameworks, or sample blog posts.
- Starter maintainers who plan to create their own Astro template and want the official minimal base to fork and add their own stack, such as Tailwind or a CMS.
What can you do with it?
- Personal landing page: edit src/pages/index.astro with your own markup, run npm run build, and deploy the resulting ./dist/ folder to any static host.
- Learning playground: add a .md file or a React/Vue/Svelte component to see how Astro integrates them and immediately inspect the static output.
- Base for a larger project: use astro add from the CLI to attach Tailwind, React, or a CMS adapter and grow the site from the minimal skeleton.
How does it work?
After installation, npm install pulls the dependencies and npm run dev starts the development server at localhost:4321. Changes to src/pages/index.astro are reflected via hot reload. Running npm run build generates the final static site in ./dist/, which can be previewed with npm run preview before deployment.
Pros and cons
- Pros: truly minimal and dependency-free beyond Astro itself; official support and documentation; no lock-in to a UI library or styling approach.
- Cons: includes no styling, components, or sample pages, so all layout and functionality must be built from scratch; only a single page is scaffolded.
FAQ
How do I create a project with this template?
Run npm create astro@latest -- --template minimal in your terminal, then npm install and npm run dev. This is the official install command shown in the README.
What is the default dev server port?
The development server runs at localhost:4321, as stated in the built-in commands table.
Does this starter include Tailwind CSS or any framework?
No. The minimal starter ships only the Astro core with no styling system, component library, or integrations. You can add them later with astro add.
Can I use this starter for a production staging site?
Yes. npm run build creates the production site in ./dist/, and npm run preview lets you test that build locally. The output is plain static HTML that can be deployed anywhere.
Where do I place images and other static assets?
Images go in the public/ folder, where they are served as-is at the root path. The README explicitly states that any static asset can be placed there.
