Installation

This guide covers creating a new project with the Thulite CLI, installing dependencies, and starting the development server.

Prerequisites#

• Node.js —latest LTS version
• Hugo —latest extended version

Create a new project#

The following commands will start an interactive CLI that guides you through the setup process. Choose the package manager you have installed:

npm create thulite@latest

pnpm create thulite

yarn create thulite

bun create thulite

This will guide you through an interactive setup process where you’ll select your project name, choose the Doks template, and pick your preferred variant. Follow the prompts as shown below:

1. Enter your project name —this also is the installation directory

   │
   ◆  Project name:
   │  thulite-project
   └

2. Select the Doks theme template

   ◆  Select a template:
   │  ● Doks theme
   │  ○ Bolt theme
   │  ○ Tailwind CSS starter
   │  ○ Bootstrap starter
   │  ○ Basic starter
   └

3. Select a variant

   ◆  Select a variant:
   │  ● With recommended integrations (SEO and Images)
   └

4. Scaffolding project

   ◇  Scaffolding project in D:\TEST\thulite-project...
   │
   └  Done. Now run:
   
     cd thulite-project
     npm install
     npm run dev

You’ll now have a new project directory with all the necessary files and configurations for your site.

Install dependencies#

cd into your new project directory and install the dependencies before continuing.

npm install

pnpm install

yarn install

bun install

Start the development server#

When working locally, Hugo’s development server lets you preview your work and automatically refreshes your browser when you make changes.

Inside your project directory, run the following command to start the development server:

npm run dev

pnpm dev

yarn dev

bun dev

This will log a message to your terminal with the URL of your local preview. Open this —clickable— URL to start browsing your site.

Watching for changes in D:\TEST\thulite-project\{assets,content,layouts,node_modules,package.json,static}
Watching for config changes in D:\TEST\thulite-project\config\_default, D:\TEST\thulite-project\config\_default\menus
Start building sites …
hugo v0.148.1-98ba786f2f5dca0866f47ab79f394370bcb77d2f+extended windows/amd64 BuildDate=2025-07-11T12:56:21Z VendorInfo=gohugoio


                  │ EN
──────────────────┼────
 Pages            │ 28
 Paginator pages  │  0
 Non-page files   │  0
 Static files     │ 17
 Processed images │  4
 Aliases          │  4
 Cleaned          │  0

Built in 480 ms
Environment: "development"
Serving pages from disk
Web Server is available at http://localhost:1313/ (bind address 127.0.0.1)
Press Ctrl+C to stop

Next steps#

• Configure: Learn about common options in Customizing Doks.
• Navigate: Set up your sidebar with the Sidebar Navigation guide.
• Shortcodes: Discover built-in callouts, tabs, and more in the Shortcodes guide.
• Deploy: Publish your work with the Deploy your site guide in the Thulite docs.