Starter

Starter is a barebones Jekyll site template that integrates with Prose, a web-based content editor, to give you a minimal responsive site with the ability to manage pages from a browser.

What is Starter?

Starter is a minimal starting point for building responsive websites with Jekyll, the static site generator. It is maintained as the "prose/starter" repository on GitHub and is designed to be used with Prose, a content editor for GitHub-hosted sites. The template provides a barebones file structure and layout that you can fork and extend, rather than a complete theme with many components.

The template takes a Jekyll project structure — HTML, Markdown, and Jekyll configuration — as its input, and produces a static website that can be served locally or hosted on GitHub Pages. It does not bundle a CSS framework or JavaScript build step, keeping the base as clean as possible.

Key Features

• Responsive base layout — The included layout adjusts to different screen sizes without requiring a front-end framework.
• Prose content management — Manage site content through Prose's web interface, which connects to your GitHub repository.
• Simple local workflow — After forking and installing Jekyll, run jekyll serve --watch and view the site at http://localhost:4000/starter/.
• Open-source repository — The source lives at github.com/prose/starter; the project has 353 stars and accepts feedback through its issues page.
• Barebones structure — No included CSS framework or JavaScript build step, so you can add your own tools without stripping out defaults.

Who is it for?

• Jekyll beginners who want a clean, minimal base to learn how Jekyll pages and layouts work.
• Content editors who prefer writing in a web interface (Prose) instead of editing Markdown files locally.
• Developers who need a lightweight responsive site skeleton and plan to manage content through GitHub.

What can you do with Starter?

• Launch a personal site — Fork the repo, install Jekyll, and customize the layout and pages to publish your own content.
• Test Prose's editing workflow — Use Prose to create or edit Markdown pages directly from the browser and commit them to your GitHub repository.
• Study a minimal Jekyll setup — Inspect the barebones configuration to understand how Jekyll builds a site without additional plugins.

How does Starter work?

1. Fork the "prose/starter" repository on GitHub.
2. Install Jekyll using the official installation guide at jekyllrb.com.
3. Run jekyll serve --watch from the project root to start a local server.
4. Open http://localhost:4000/starter/ in your browser to preview the site.

FAQ

Is Starter free to use?

Starter is an open-source project hosted on GitHub, so you can fork and use it free of charge. The repository does not specify a license in the provided content, so check the repository for licensing details.

Do I need to install Jekyll?

Yes, Jekyll is required to build and serve the site. The project's setup instructions link to the official Jekyll installation documentation.

Can I use Prose without GitHub?

Prose itself is a content editor that works with GitHub-hosted repositories. Since Starter is designed for this workflow, you'll need a GitHub repository to use Prose effectively.

Where can I report problems?

The project's README directs users to the GitHub issues page (github.com/prose/starter/issues) to report problems or contribute.