hugoBasicExample

hugoBasicExample is the official example site repository from the Hugo team (gohugoio) that provides starter content for testing Hugo themes and serves as the default demo content on the Hugo Themes Showcase. The repo contains a minimal content tree—sample posts, a headless homepage bundle, and an about page—so any compatible theme can be rendered and evaluated without creating your own content.

What is hugoBasicExample?

hugoBasicExample is a boilerplate content repository for the Hugo static site generator, maintained by the Hugo team on GitHub under the gohugoio organization. It takes a Hugo theme as its input and produces a runnable example site when you start the local development server with hugo server -t THEMENAME. The repository itself contains no theme code; it supplies only the content and structure that themes expect, and it is the same content used for demos on the Hugo Themes Showcase.

Key Features

• Sample blog content — The /content/post/ directory includes several markdown articles you can use to see how a theme renders post listings and individual pages.
• Headless homepage bundle — A homepage page bundle is set up as a headless bundle, which is useful for single-page applications that need structured data without a rendered HTML page.
• About page — An about.md file creates the /about/ page that many themes include in their demos, so navigation menus and about templates work immediately.
• Theme switching — Running hugo server -t YOURTHEME lets you swap any compatible Hugo theme into the same content set to compare layouts side-by-side.
• Official demo standard — Because this content powers the Hugo Themes Showcase demos, it has become the de facto standard sample site across the Hugo theme ecosystem.
• Minimal setup — The README lists only two shell commands to clone and run the site, with no build step or configuration beyond installing Hugo.

Who is it for?

• Hugo theme developers — Use this content to verify that a theme renders posts, taxonomies, and the about page correctly before submitting it for review at the Hugo Themes repository.
• Site owners choosing a theme — Clone hugoBasicExample, run any candidate theme with hugo server -t THEME, and preview the same sample content under different designs without writing your own content first.
• Single-page application builders — Use the headless homepage bundle to deliver structured homepage data to a separate frontend application while keeping content management in Hugo.

How does it work?

1. Install Hugo from the official installation guide.
2. Clone the hugoBasicExample repository and change into its directory.
3. Clone the theme you want to test (or all Hugo Themes using the instructions in the hugoThemes repository).
4. Run hugo server -t YOURTHEME to start a local server that renders the sample content with that theme.
5. If the theme does not fit the provided content structure, the Hugo Themes README still welcomes theme submissions for review via the hugoThemes issues page.

What can you do with it?

• Evaluate themes quickly — Swap in a theme and instantly see how it handles posts, the about page, and the homepage without building a site from scratch.
• Create a starter site — Use the sample content as a base for a personal blog or portfolio, replacing the placeholder posts with your own markdown.
• Develop single-page apps — Leverage the headless homepage bundle as a content API that feeds a custom frontend built in any JavaScript framework.