Start a New Site

Create a minimal, runnable blank site with no Ruby toolchain:

jigyll new my-site
cd my-site
jigyll serve

Open the address printed by serve (by default, http://localhost:4000). Build static output instead with jigyll build.

The new site contains:

my-site/
├── _config.yml
├── _data/
├── _drafts/
├── _includes/
├── _layouts/default.html
├── _posts/
├── _sass/
├── assets/
├── index.md
└── .gitignore

The blank scaffold's index.md uses the included default layout, so it builds immediately. Blank is the only default: Jigyll has no --blank flag, and creating a site does not create a Gemfile, invoke Bundler, or require Ruby.

Start with a theme

Clone a Git theme and select it in the generated configuration:

jigyll new my-site --theme GIT_URL

This clones the repository to _theme/<theme-name>/, adds theme: <theme-name> to _config.yml, and lets the theme supply _layouts/default.html. The theme URL must end in a safe directory name (such as my-theme.git) and the cloned theme must include that default layout. git is required only for this themed form.

jigyll new refuses a non-empty destination. It stages the complete scaffold beside the target and publishes it only after all writes and theme validation succeed.