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Introduction

What Simple Engine is and why you might use it.

Simple Engine is a fast, modern static site generator that lets you build websites with Markdown and Tailwind CSS. Write content in Markdown, customize layouts with Nunjucks templates, and deploy static HTML with zero runtime dependencies.

Package: npmjs.com/package/simple-engine · Source: github.com/chriscasper/Simple-Engine

Features

  • Markdown-based content — Write in Markdown with frontmatter support
  • Tailwind CSS v4 — Utility-first styling via @tailwindcss/vite
  • Vite tooling — Fast production builds and a Vite-powered dev server
  • Hot reload — Instant updates while editing content and layouts
  • Nunjucks templates — Flexible layouts with custom filters
  • Collections — Group posts and pages for indexes and feeds
  • Syntax highlighting — Shiki-powered code blocks
  • SEO ready — Canonical URLs, Open Graph, Twitter cards, JSON-LD
  • AI discoverability — llms.txt, raw markdown endpoints, configurable AI crawler rules
  • Sitemap + RSS — Generated at build time
  • Drafts — Preview unpublished content with simple dev --drafts
  • Zero config defaults — Configure only when you need to

Requirements

  • Node.js >= 20.0.0
  • npm or yarn

What’s new in 2.0

Simple Engine 2.0 is on a modern 2026 stack:

  • TypeScript + Vite + Tailwind CSS v4
  • Nunjucks templates with Markdown + Shiki
  • Collections, drafts preview, sitemap, and RSS
  • SEO + AI discoverability (llms.txt, JSON-LD, raw markdown)
  • Validated config/frontmatter and a real default starter template

Migrating from the old Gulp-based 1.x? See Migration.

Support

Next step

Jump to Getting started to scaffold a project in under a minute.

These docs are adapted from the project README.