Gatsby Markdown Starter

Gatsby Markdown Starter is a Gatsby.js boilerplate for building markdown-based websites like documentation hubs and blogs, built on the official gatsby-default-starter and published under the cvluca GitHub account.

What is Gatsby Markdown Starter?

Gatsby Markdown Starter is a starting point for creating static websites that are driven by Markdown files. It takes Markdown content as input and produces a static site with a responsive sidebar layout, processed through the gatsby-transformer-remark plugin. The template is based on gatsby-starter-default and runs on the Gatsby static site generator, making it suitable for hosting on any static file server.

Key Features

The page explicitly lists Responsive Web Design, Sidebar, and Anchor as core features, while the included plugins add further capabilities.

• Responsive Web Design — The layout adapts its appearance across different screen sizes, so the site is usable on mobile and desktop.
• Sidebar — A sidebar component is included for navigating between markdown pages, which suits documentation and blog structures.
• Anchor — Heading anchor links are available, likely through the gatsby-remark-autolink-headers plugin, to deep-link to specific sections.
• Offline support — The gatsby-plugin-offline plugin is included, enabling service workers so the site works when the user is offline.
• Image optimization — Thanks to gatsby-image, gatsby-plugin-sharp, and gatsby-transformer-sharp, images inside markdown are optimized and responsive.
• Math typesetting — gatsby-remark-katex renders KaTeX formulas inside markdown files, which is useful for technical or mathematical documentation.
• SEO and metadata — gatsby-plugin-react-helmet allows customizing the document head for titles, meta tags, and structured data.
• PWA manifest — gatsby-plugin-manifest generates a web app manifest, so the site can be installed as a progressive web app.

Who is it for?

Gatsby Markdown Starter is aimed at anyone who wants to publish content primarily authored in Markdown and needs a modern static site.

• Technical writers — They can craft documentation in Markdown and get a site with sidebar navigation and heading anchors for easy section linking.
• Bloggers — They can write posts as Markdown files and rely on the preconfigured transformer plugins to convert them into a styled blog.
• Developers — They can use the starter as a foundation, extending it with React components and GraphQL queries because it is built on Gatsby.

What can you do with Gatsby Markdown Starter?

Because the template is markdown-driven and Gatsby brings a rich plugin ecosystem, several concrete uses follow from the listed plugins.

• Documentation sites: Create multi-page guides where each Markdown file becomes a page, and the sidebar helps readers move between topics.
• Blog publishing: Write blog posts in Markdown; the starter already includes image processing and SEO plugins needed for a production blog.
• Math-heavy content: Use the built-in KaTeX support to write equations in Markdown for course notes or scientific documentation.
• Offline-first sites: Combine the offline plugin with the manifest plugin to turn a simple Markdown site into an installable, offline-capable web app.

How does it work?

The readme provides a quick start workflow using the Gatsby CLI.

1. Run gatsby new gatsby-starter-markdown https://github.com/cvluca/gatsby-starter-markdown to create a new site.
2. Change into the directory with cd gatsby-starter-markdown/ and run gatsby develop to start the local dev server at localhost:8000.
3. Edit content and components; the site also exposes a GraphQL playground at localhost:8000/___graphql for querying site data.

Pros and cons

Known strengths and limitations from the repository README.

• Pros: Based on the official gatsby-default-starter, includes a prepared plugin set for images, manifest, offline, and SEO, and offers a responsive layout with a sidebar.
• Cons: The TODO list reveals that a footer, search functionality, and more examples are not yet implemented, so you would need to add those yourself.

Alternatives

Other Gatsby starters exist for similar markdown-site use cases.

• gatsby-starter-blog — The official Gatsby blog starter, which focuses specifically on blogging and includes pagination and RSS feed support.

FAQ

Is Gatsby Markdown Starter free?

The repository is publicly available on GitHub with no license or pricing information mentioned in the README, so the starter can be used freely as a starting point for your own project.

How do I create a new site from this starter?

Use the Gatsby CLI command gatsby new gatsby-starter-markdown https://github.com/cvluca/gatsby-starter-markdown, then navigate into the folder and run gatsby develop. The site will be available at localhost:8000.

Does it support math formulas?

Yes. The starter includes the gatsby-remark-katex plugin, which renders KaTeX math expressions inside Markdown files, making it suitable for scientific or technical documentation.

Can I use it for a blog?

The README describes the template as a boilerplate for markdown-based websites such as Documentation and Blog, so blogging is a supported use case. The included sidebar and image plugins are common for blog sites.

What plugins are included with Gatsby Markdown Starter?

Twelve Gatsby plugins are listed in the README: gatsby-image, gatsby-plugin-manifest, gatsby-plugin-offline, gatsby-plugin-react-helmet, gatsby-plugin-sharp, gatsby-remark-images, gatsby-remark-autolink-headers, gatsby-remark-katex, gatsby-source-filesystem, gatsby-transformer-json, gatsby-transformer-remark, and gatsby-transformer-sharp.