Lewis Gatsby Starter Blog is a Gatsby boilerplate for starting a blog or personal website, preconfigured with ESLint and Prettier on a React foundation.
What is Lewis Gatsby Starter Blog?
Lewis Gatsby Starter Blog is a custom Gatsby starter template maintained on GitHub by user lewislbr. It provides a minimal blog boilerplate that includes the core Gatsby configuration files so you can create a new blog or personal site with a single gatsby new command. The template runs on Gatsby, a React-based static site generator, and outputs a browser-ready site served at http://localhost:8000 during development, alongside a GraphiQL data explorer at http://localhost:8000/___graphql.
Key Features
- Prebuilt Gatsby configuration — The project ships with
gatsby-config.jsfor site metadata and plugins andgatsby-node.jsfor Node API customization, so the build pipeline is ready out of the box. - ESLint integration — A
.eslintrcfile provides linting rules for JavaScript and React, helping catch syntax and logic errors before deployment. - Prettier integration — A
.prettierrcfile enforces a consistent code style across all files. - Standard src directory — The
/srcfolder is where front-end code lives, including the site header and page templates, withsrc/pages/index.jsas the editable homepage. - GraphiQL built in — During development, Gatsby exposes a query tool at
http://localhost:8000/___graphqlfor experimenting with GraphQL data queries. - MIT license — The project includes a LICENSE file, allowing free use for personal and commercial projects.
- Styled with styled-components — Repository topics list styled-components as the styling system for component-level styling.
Who is it for?
- Bloggers and personal website owners — start a new site with a minimal, readable codebase and a quick local development workflow.
- Developers new to Gatsby — use the preconfigured setup to learn how Gatsby files like
gatsby-config.jsandgatsby-node.jswork without needing to build them from scratch. - Developers who want consistent code quality — the included ESLint and Prettier configurations handle linting and formatting automatically.
What can you do with it?
- Launch a blog quickly: run
gatsby new my-blog https://github.com/lewislbr/lewis-gatsby-starter-blog, thengatsby developto serve the site locally athttp://localhost:8000. - Customize the homepage: edit
src/pages/index.jsand see browser updates in real time via hot reloading. - Explore your data with GraphiQL: open
http://localhost:8000/___graphqlto run and test GraphQL queries against your site's content. - Reuse the configuration files: lift the
.eslintrc,.prettierrc, and Gatsby config files for use in other Gatsby projects.
How does the starter work?
The README documents a three-step quick start: first, use the Gatsby CLI to create a site from the repository URL; second, navigate into the project and run gatsby develop; third, edit source files and the browser refreshes automatically. The template relies on Gatsby's default build and development servers, so no extra backend setup is required.
Alternatives
- Gatsby's official blog starter — the default starter maintained by the Gatsby team.
FAQ
Is Lewis Gatsby Starter Blog free to use?
Yes. The project includes an MIT license, so you can use it for personal or commercial websites without paying licensing fees.
What's included in the starter?
The starter includes the essential Gatsby files: gatsby-config.js, gatsby-node.js, package.json, plus configuration for ESLint (.eslintrc) and Prettier (.prettierrc). It also has a src directory with front-end code, including a homepage at src/pages/index.js.
How do I run the project locally?
Run gatsby new my-blog <repo-url> to create a site, then enter the directory and run gatsby develop. The site will be available at http://localhost:8000.
Does this starter include a CMS?
The README doesn't mention any CMS integration. It focuses on the core Gatsby setup, so you'd add a CMS like Contentful or Netlify CMS yourself if needed.
