Quick start

Start with the included site files or create the minimal configuration below. Your site needs DevLab installed in themes/devlab-theme and Zola 0.23.6 or newer.

Use the starter

The theme repository includes a starter/ directory with a homepage, a Manual documentation collection and one guide. It inherits theme defaults and contains no demonstration data. Building the copied site requires Zola alone.

From a checkout of the theme repository, copy these files to a new sibling directory. Choose a different destination name if ../my-site already exists:

mkdir ../my-site
cp -R starter/. ../my-site/
cd ../my-site

Install DevLab in this site's themes/devlab-theme, then follow Check and preview. The theme installation is separate from the copied site files.

Edit zola.toml to set the site title, description and deployment URL. The manual collection connects content/manual/_index.md to the global navigation; its page_template gives new guides the documentation layout automatically. Search and feeds start disabled.

Site configuration

For a minimal site without the starter, install DevLab first, then create zola.toml in the site root. Run the remaining commands from your site's directory:

base_url = "https://example.com"
title = "My site"
description = "Project notes."
default_language = "en"
theme = "devlab-theme"
compile_sass = true
build_search_index = false
generate_feeds = false

[markdown.highlighting]
light_theme = "github-light-high-contrast"
dark_theme = "github-dark-high-contrast"

Set base_url to the deployment address before publishing. title supplies the header and footer name. description is the metadata fallback for pages without their own description. Set default_language to the language of your content.

Zola settings belong in this file. Optional extra.devlab settings inherit from theme.toml. Omit fields whose defaults fit the site. Search and feeds are disabled in this configuration.

First page

Create the content directory:

mkdir -p content

Create content/_index.md:

+++
title = "Home"
+++

## Project notes

This site uses DevLab and Zola.

The default homepage renders the front-matter title and the Markdown body. Change them independently of the site's title in zola.toml.

Check and preview

zola check --skip-external-links
zola build
zola serve

zola build writes the deployable site to public/. Open the local address reported by zola serve. If another preview is running, choose a free port, for example zola serve --port 1112.

Add content