Eleventy Base Blog

Eleventy Base Blog is a starter repository from the Eleventy team (11ty) that scaffolds a blog powered by the Eleventy static site generator, producing a fast static site from Markdown and Nunjucks templates.

What is Eleventy Base Blog?

Eleventy Base Blog is a minimal starter repository that demonstrates how to build a blog with Eleventy, the static site generator by Zach Leatherman (maintained by the 11ty project). It takes blog posts written in Markdown (or any configured template format) plus Nunjucks layouts and a global data file named _data/metadata.json, and outputs a fully static HTML site. The project includes example pages, an RSS feed, and a collection system for posts, so it works as both a tutorial and a starting point for a new blog.

Key Features

• Template flexibility — Content can be written in any template format, not just Markdown; supported formats are configured in .eleventy.js under templateFormats.
• Passthrough copying — Because css and png are listed in templateFormats even though they are not template types, those files are copied to the output directory unchanged with the same folder structure.
• Tag-based navigation — Adding the nav tag to a template puts that page in the top-level site navigation, as demonstrated on index.njk and about/index.md.
• Blog collection — Posts can live in any directory; they just need the post tag to be pulled into the blog's post collection.
• RSS feed included — feed/feed.njk generates an XML feed and doubles as an example of reading global data from _data/metadata.json.
• Reusable post list include — _includes/postlist.njk is a Nunjucks include that renders a list of all posts and is used by index.njk.
• Three layout layers — _includes/layouts/base.njk provides HTML structure, home.njk wraps the homepage, and post.njk wraps blog posts into base.njk.
• One-click deployment — The repo links to Netlify and Vercel deploy buttons that spin up a built site with just a few clicks.

Who should use Eleventy Base Blog?

• Developers new to Eleventy — Learn how a complete blog is structured: layouts, collections, and global data in one small repo.
• Static-site bloggers — Start a blog that renders to plain HTML and can be hosted on GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel, or Glitch, all of which have live demos linked from the README.
• Site builders wanting a minimal base — Clone the repository, edit _data/metadata.json for site name and description, and replace the example posts rather than building from scratch.

What can you do with Eleventy Base Blog?

• Publish a blog — Write Markdown posts in the posts/ directory, tag them with post, and run npx eleventy to generate the final static site.
• Add a content page — Copy the pattern from about/index.md with the nav tag to get a page that also appears in navigation.
• Customize the build — Adjust templateFormats in .eleventy.js to change which template languages and file types are processed or copied.
• Develop locally — Use npx eleventy --serve for a local dev server, --watch for automatic rebuilds on file changes, and DEBUG=* npx eleventy for verbose output.

How does Eleventy Base Blog work?

The README's getting-started guide walks through four steps: clone the repository, run npm install, edit _data/metadata.json to set site metadata, and run npx eleventy to build. After that, the site output is ready to host, and the three npm-script alternatives cover local serving, watching, and debug modes.

FAQ

Is Eleventy Base Blog free?

Yes, it is an open-source starter repository published on GitHub under the Eleventy organization. Eleventy itself is also open-source, so there is no licensing cost to use this blog setup.

What template formats does it support?

Any template format configured in .eleventy.js under templateFormats is supported. Out of the box it includes Markdown for posts and Nunjucks for layouts, plus css and png passthrough copying.

How do I add a page to the site navigation?

Add the nav tag to the page's front matter. The README notes that this tag is what places a template into the top-level navigation, with index.njk and about/index.md as working examples.

Where can I put blog posts?

Blog posts can live in any directory. They only need the post tag in their front matter to be collected into the blog collection, even though the default setup groups them under posts/.

How do I deploy this?

Use the Netlify or Vercel deploy buttons in the README, or push the cloned repository to GitHub and enable GitHub Pages, which is the third demo host listed.