Astro Tailwind DaisyUI Starter

What is the astro-tailwind-daisyui-starter? The astro-tailwind-daisyui-starter is a production-ready Astro boilerplate that combines Astro 6, Tailwind CSS 4, and DaisyUI 5 to generate a static content-first website with built-in blog support, SEO metadata, and dark mode. It is created by aholbreich and released under the MIT license. The repository contains a base layout, a small set of components, a minimal typed blog collection in Markdown and MDX, and a single DaisyUI reference page, all intended to be kept, adapted, or deleted. You supply your site URL and metadata through .env and src/site-config.ts, add posts to src/content/blog/, and it produces a static HTML site with sitemap, robots.txt, and accessibility features.

What makes it stand out?

It focuses on a small, opinionated stack: Astro for the site shell, Tailwind for styling, and DaisyUI for UI components, with Alpine JS used only where a few lines of client-side behavior help.

• Astro 6 core — Static-first framework with zero client-side JavaScript by default; requires Node 22.12.0 or newer. Tailwind CSS 4 is wired in through the @tailwindcss/vite plugin.
• DaisyUI 5 UI layer — A reference page demonstrates the available components; you can remove it or swap the theme in src/styles/theme.css later.
• Typed blog content collection — Posts use Markdown or MDX with a schema in src/content.config.ts; sample posts include images, video embeds, and code blocks.
• SEO and sitemap wired up — An SEO meta component, sitemap generation, and robots.txt are included. The production URL (PUBLIC_SITE_URL) and Twitter handle (PUBLIC_TWITTER_HANDLE) are validated in astro.config.mjs and reused for canonical URLs.
• Dark mode with no flash — The layout bootstraps the theme before first paint, so visitors never see the wrong theme briefly.
• Inter font via Astro fonts API — A local variable font is registered in astro.config.mjs, exposed as --font-inter, and mapped to Tailwind's --font-sans so both Tailwind and DaisyUI inherit the same typeface.
• Accessibility basics — Skip link and reduced-motion support are part of the base layout.
• GitHub Actions CI — A workflow runs astro check and a production build for every push.

Who is it for?

This starter suits developers who want a production-ready but understandable Astro project instead of a blank repo or a large scaffolding system.

• Developers launching a blog or content site — You get SEO, sitemap, RSS-ready structure, and a dark mode toggle without wiring them yourself.
• Astro newcomers — One site config file and a small component set make it easy to read the whole project.
• DaisyUI evaluators — The included reference page lets you try DaisyUI 5 components with Tailwind 4 before deciding whether to keep them.
• Teams that want CI from day one — The starter ships with a GitHub Actions workflow that checks types and builds the site.

What can you do with it?

With the blog collection and example pages already in place, the starter supports several concrete projects.

• Publish a Markdown or MDX blog — Add a post with title, description, pubDate, and draft status in its frontmatter, and the collection generates typed content for your pages.
• Build a personal or marketing site — Edit src/site-config.ts and swap the sample pages; the layout and sitemap adapt to the URL set in .env.
• Prototype DaisyUI components — Use the reference page as a playground, then delete it when you are ready to ship.
• Learn Astro content collections — The schema in src/content.config.ts shows exactly how Astro validates frontmatter for the blog collection.

How does it work?

You can scaffold a project with pnpm create astro@latest --template aholbreich/astro-tailwind-daisyui-starter, or clone the repository and run pnpm install. Then pnpm dev starts the dev server at localhost:4321. Set PUBLIC_SITE_URL and PUBLIC_TWITTER_HANDLE in .env, edit the site config, add content, and run pnpm build to generate the static site.

FAQ

Is the astro-tailwind-daisyui-starter free?

Yes. The starter is open source under the MIT license, so it is free to use and modify for personal or commercial projects.

Does it include a CMS, database, or authentication?

No. The README explicitly lists these as intentionally not included. It is a static starter focused on content, SEO, and styling, with no app-style state management.

Does it support server-side rendering?

Not out of the box. The default output is a static site with no adapter. You can add a deployment adapter later if your platform needs SSR, an image service, or edge runtime support.

What Node.js version is required?

Astro 6 requires Node 22.12.0 or newer. The repository includes an .nvmrc that pins this baseline.

How do I change the site metadata?

Set PUBLIC_SITE_URL and PUBLIC_TWITTER_HANDLE in .env; the starter validates them in astro.config.mjs, then uses them in src/site-config.ts for sitemap, canonical URLs, and social metadata. Other settings like title, navigation, and footer text live in src/site-config.ts.