Jekyll Starter Theme (Minimal) is a minimalistic Jekyll starter theme for building classic multi-page web sites; it serves as a boilerplate that compiles Markdown and HTML source pages into a static HTML site in the _site folder.
What is the Jekyll Starter Theme (Minimal)?
The theme is a minimal Jekyll starter template from Henry Themes (the GitHub account behind the henrythemes/jekyll-starter-theme repository). It is designed for "classic" web sites — simple page-based sites rather than blogs or web apps. As input it takes Jekyll configuration (_config.yml), a single layout file (_layouts/default.html), a CSS file (css/style.css), and sample pages written in Markdown (index.md, two.md) and HTML (three.html). Running Jekyll produces a _site folder containing the compiled .html pages and the stylesheet copied unchanged. The entire starter is dedicated to the public domain.
What makes the Jekyll Starter Theme (Minimal) stand out?
The selling point is its extreme simplicity: there is no JavaScript, no build step beyond Jekyll itself, and no theme framework — just one layout and one stylesheet. Its file tree is small enough to understand at a glance:
- Minimal file structure — the repository contains only
_config.yml,_layouts/default.html,css/style.css, and three sample pages. - Markdown and HTML input — sample pages include
index.mdandtwo.mdin Markdown plusthree.htmlin raw HTML, demonstrating both formats. - Single master layout — the
default.htmllayout wraps every page, so changing it restyles the whole site. - Plain CSS output —
css/style.cssis copied 1:1 into the build output; no preprocessing is included. - Public domain license — the theme is dedicated to the public domain; there are no restrictions on reuse.
- Live demo — a working demo is hosted at
henrythemes.github.io/jekyll-starter-themeso you can see the output before downloading.
Who should use the Jekyll Starter Theme (Minimal)?
This starter suits anyone who wants a Jekyll site without learning the conventions of a full-featured theme. Jekyll newcomers can clone it and study how a minimal project fits together. Developers building a brochure-style website with a few pages can use it as a base and drop in their own content. Theme authors who want a clean slate for crafting a new Jekyll theme will find the single-layout structure easy to extend.
What can you do with the Jekyll Starter Theme (Minimal)?
- Jekyll beginners: clone the repository, edit
index.mdandtwo.mdin Markdown, and runjekyll buildto see the generated static site in_site. - Static site developers: replace the CSS and add your own pages in Markdown or HTML to assemble a fast, dependency-free website.
- Theme designers: use the minimal layout as a scaffold for a custom Jekyll theme, or upgrade to the Jekyll Starter Theme V2 for shared includes, Sass/SCSS preprocessing, and a config-driven navigation menu.
How does the Jekyll Starter Theme (Minimal) work?
The workflow is the standard Jekyll build process: put your Markdown or HTML pages in the project root, keep the layout and CSS in their folders, then run jekyll build (or jekyll serve for local preview). Jekyll renders each page through _layouts/default.html and writes the result to _site, applying the _config.yml settings. The README's before-and-after file trees document this: the source tree becomes the _site output tree with .html files.
FAQ
Is the Jekyll Starter Theme (Minimal) free?
Yes. The repository is dedicated to the public domain, as indicated by the public-domain license badge in the README. You can use it for personal or commercial projects with no limitations.
Does this starter theme support blogging?
No. It is intentionally built for "classic" web pages — not for blogs. There are no post layouts, archives, or blog-related files; for a blog-focused Jekyll theme you'd need to add those or use a different starter.
What Jekyll version do I need?
The README does not state a required Jekyll version. The starter uses only standard Jekyll features — configuration, layouts, and Markdown/HTML page conversion — so it should work with current Jekyll releases.
Where is the live demo?
A live demo is hosted at henrythemes.github.io/jekyll-starter-theme and linked from the README. The demo shows the compiled output of the three sample pages.
How do I switch to the V2 starter theme?
The README points to the separate repository henrythemes/jekyll-starter-theme-v2. That version adds _includes partials, Sass/SCSS with variables, and an auto-built navigation menu, making it a more advanced starting point.
