What do you need to run Eleventy, and how do you start?

Updated

To run Eleventy you need a way to execute JavaScript on your computer, and the official recommendation is Node.js version 18 or newer. Once Node.js is in place, you create a Markdown file such as index.md and run Eleventy to generate your site. The steps below cover checking your setup, installing Node.js if needed, and producing your first output.

Check whether Node.js is already installed

Open a terminal and run:

node --version

The expected result is a version number. If the command is not found, or the number is below 18, install Node.js before continuing. Eleventy's own documentation frames this as a prerequisite rather than an optional step, so treat the version check as the gate for everything that follows.

If you are unsure what a terminal is, Eleventy's docs link to a separate explanation — the short version is that it is a text-based way to run commands on your machine, available on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Create your first content file

Eleventy works from files in your project directory. A minimal starting point is a Markdown file named index.md. You can create it in any text editor, or from the terminal.

On macOS or Linux:

echo '# Heading' > index.md

On Windows (PowerShell):

echo '# Heading' | out-file -encoding utf8 'index.md'

The expected result is a file containing a single Markdown heading. Eleventy will later turn that into HTML output.

Run Eleventy and verify the result

With Node.js 18+ available and index.md in place, run Eleventy from your project directory. The expected result is a generated output file (by default an HTML file derived from your Markdown). If you see output files appear, your setup is working; if the command fails, the most common cause is a Node.js version below 18 or Node.js not being on your PATH.

Where to go next

The Eleventy documentation lists several directions once the first build works:

  • Starter projects and tutorials — pre-built structures you can copy instead of assembling configuration yourself.
  • Template languages — Eleventy supports HTML, Markdown, MDX, JavaScript, JSX, TypeScript, WebC, Nunjucks, Liquid, Handlebars, Mustache, EJS, HAML, Pug, and Sass, so you can pick what you already know.
  • Configuration — adding a config file, copy files to output, add CSS/JS/fonts, and set up permalinks, layouts, and collections.
  • Plugins — including an Upgrade Helper plugin listed in the docs, plus Image, Fetch, Render, RSS, and syntax highlighting.

The current stable version shown in the documentation is 3.1.6, with a canary release at 4.0.0-alpha.10. The docs also offer a browser-based way to try Eleventy without a local install, which is useful if you want to see the output before committing to a Node.js setup.