Getting Started

If you prefer video tutorials, watch the introduction on YouTube.

There's also an online editor where you can play around with the language.

Installation

Idyll is a program that is used via the command line. If you aren't comfortable with the command line already, I'd recommend watching Daniel Shiffman's short introduction before starting.

To use Idyll you must first install it using npm. If you don't have npm, first install it by following these instructions.

$ npm install -g idyll

Note that depending on how npm is installed, you may have to run the above command prefixed with sudo.

Once the installation has finished, the idyll command will be available in your shell.

Creating a project

Idyll provides a built-in project template to help you get started. Run

$ idyll create

to create a new project. You can choose either article or multipage from the menu to create a single post or a multipage setup (for making blogs, books, etc.).

For a single post, the generator will produce the following files:

• index.idyll - The main Idyll file, write your text in here.
• styles.css - Add any custom styles.
• components/ - Any component defined in this folder can be used in the idyll markup.
• data/ - If you want to include a dataset in your project, put it in here (supports CSV or JSON).
• static/ - A folder for static file such as images.
• package.json - This file contains all the configuration for your project.

After the project has been created, navigate to the root of the new folder, and run idyll. Idyll will compile your project and open it in your web browser. Every time you save the index.idyll file, the system will automatically recompile everything and update the page in the browser.