Astro Starter Kit

The Astro Starter Kit is a minimal boilerplate for building static websites with the Astro framework, providing a pre-configured project structure, example components, and npm scripts for local development and production builds. The kit runs on Astro, and the repository metadata lists topics including astro, react, starter, and vercel, indicating the intended stack and deployment platform.

What is the Astro Starter Kit?

The Astro Starter Kit is a starting point for new Astro projects, containing the folder structure, layout files, and example components you need to begin building. It takes a source folder with .astro and .md files as input, and npm run build produces a static site in ./dist/. The kit is maintained as a community starter, with links to the Astro documentation and Discord server in the README.

The project structure separates concerns into public/ for static assets, src/components/ for reusable UI, src/pages/ for route files, src/layouts/ for page layouts, and src/data/ for static JSON data. Example components such as BlogPreview.astro and Podcast.astro are included in the components folder, and the public/ directory holds a style folder plus favicon files.

Key Features

• Pre-configured folder structure — The project separates concerns into public/, src/components/, src/pages/, src/layouts/, and src/data/ for assets, reusable components, routes, layouts, and static JSON data.
• File-based routing — Any .astro or .md file placed in src/pages/ becomes a route at the same URL path automatically.
• Multi-framework components — Components in src/components/ can be written in Astro, React, Vue, Svelte, or Preact, giving flexibility for hybrid rendering.
• Example components included — The starter ships with working examples like BlogPreview.astro and Podcast.astro to reference.
• Static assets in public/ — Place images, favicons, and other files in public/ and they are served directly at the site root.
• Simple npm scripts — npm run start launches a dev server at localhost:3000, and npm run build outputs the optimized static site to ./dist/.

Who is it for?

• New Astro developers who want a clean scaffold to learn file-based routing and Astro's component model with examples to copy.
• Static site builders who need a lightweight starting point for a blog, portfolio, or document site without pulling in a heavier framework.
• Developers exploring the Astro island architecture who want to test how React, Vue, Svelte, or Preact components coexist in a single Astro project.

What can you do with the Astro Starter Kit?

• Personal bloggers: drop markdown files into src/pages/ to generate individual post routes, then customize the included page layout.
• Freelancers and agencies: scaffold a lean marketing or portfolio site and deploy the static output to a host like Vercel (a topic listed in the repository).
• Component testers: use the starter as a sandbox to prototype Astro components alongside React or Svelte components and see how they render together.

FAQ

How do I start the dev server?

Run npm install from the project root, then npm run start. The server will start at localhost:3000 and serve the Astro pages with hot reloading during development.

Where do I add new pages?

Create a new .astro or .md file in the src/pages/ directory. The filename becomes the URL path, so src/pages/about.md is served at /about.

How do I build the site for production?

Run npm run build from the root of the project. The production-ready static files are output to the ./dist/ directory, ready to deploy to any static host.