Tearsheet

Tearsheet is a free, MIT-licensed Astro theme for paid newsletters that builds a static issue archive and strips the members-only part of every issue at build time, so paywalled text never reaches the published HTML or the feed.

What is Tearsheet?

Tearsheet is an Astro 7 and Tailwind CSS v4 theme for a newsletter that wants its archive on a site it owns. You write issues as Markdown or MDX in a type-safe content collection; the build outputs a static home page, issue pages, an archive grouped by year, topic pages, a subscribe page with a plans table, a thank-you page, about, privacy, terms and a 404. The visual language borrows from the trade journal and analyst briefing: heavy rules instead of cards, the issue number hung large in the margin, an archive set like a ledger, and a single green reserved for numbers. It is published by ondelva under the MIT license.

What makes Tearsheet stand out?

• The Cut — the free part of a members issue ends with a heavy rule, a word count (You've read 410 of 1,320 words · 910 words, 5 min for members), a meter and a subscribe form; the remainder is removed during the build so it is absent from the HTML and the feed. pnpm check:cut proves it after every build.
• Static output, almost no JavaScript — Astro 7 with Tailwind CSS v4, no client-side JavaScript except the light/dark theme toggle, responsive down to 360px.
• Computed issue metadata — issue numbers and ISO week labels derived from each issue's date.
• Ledger archive — archive by year with a free/members meter on every row, plus a switch for a plain "Continue reading" link instead of the meter-and-form treatment.
• Build-time image handling — pictures inside issues are resized into a srcset at build time and captioned in plain Markdown; a picture placed after the cut marker is cut along with the text.
• Subscribe integrations — forms for Buttondown, plain HTML, and a DEMO_FORMS=1 mode for preview builds.
• SEO and analytics — meta tags, Open Graph, JSON-LD, feed, sitemap, robots.txt, and an analytics slot for Plausible, GA4 or Umami.
• CI quality gates — Lighthouse 95+ on all four categories checked in CI alongside the leak check; AGENTS.md ships for Claude Code and Cursor.

Who is it for?

• Analyst and consultant newsletters — publish free teaser issues with the paid back half removed automatically, keeping the archive on your own domain rather than a newsletter platform.
• Reporters and trade-journal writers — use the margin issue numbers, ISO week labels and rule-based layout to make an archive read like a printed ledger.
• Astro developers building for clients — start from a configured theme, override colour tokens in src/styles/theme.css and site settings in src/config.ts instead of writing pages from scratch.

How does Tearsheet work?

Scaffold a project with pnpm create astro@latest my-newsletter -- --template ondelva/astro-theme-tearsheet (Node.js 22.12+ and pnpm 9 or newer; package.json pins the exact pnpm version). Run pnpm dev to preview, including a /styleguide page listing every colour token and type size that is excluded from builds. Move site name, URL, cadence, plans, Buttondown username and switches into src/config.ts, write issues with the cut marker, then deploy the static output to Cloudflare, Vercel, Netlify or GitHub Pages and set SITE_URL.

Pricing

Two editions. The free edition is this repository, MIT-licensed with a removable footer credit and GitHub Issues support. Pro is $49 for one person and $129 for a team of up to ten, adding search via Pagefind (free parts only), an All/Free/Members archive filter, per-issue share cards with number and meter, four colour presets, two font pairings, Substack import, extra components and commercial licensing.

FAQ

Is Tearsheet free?

Yes. The edition in the public repository is MIT-licensed, includes The Cut, and supports Buttondown subscribe forms. A paid Pro edition adds search, an archive filter, Substack import, extra components, per-issue share cards, colour presets and font pairings.

What is The Cut?

The Cut removes the members-only portion of an issue during the static build. Only the free part, a word-count line, a meter and the subscribe form are published; a pnpm check:cut script verifies after every build that the members text is absent from the output and the feed.

Can a static site run a paywall?

No. Tearsheet does not attempt to gate access at runtime; it ensures the members text is never published in the first place, so the HTML and feed contain only the free portion of each issue.

Does it deploy to my host?

Yes. The output is static and runs on Cloudflare, Vercel, Netlify and GitHub Pages, each with a one-click clone-and-build button. Set SITE_URL to your address afterwards.

What should I watch out for with the repository?

The members text is cut from the built site, not from the repository, so the docs advise making your new repository private before publishing your first members issue.