YiiPress Documentation

Quickstart

This guide uses the static yiipress binary. It is the recommended way to use YiiPress because it includes the PHP runtime and native extensions.

1. Create a site directory

BASH
mkdir myblog
cd myblog

Install YiiPress for your platform using the command on the documentation home page.
The installer puts the executable on PATH, so the same commands work on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

BASH
yiipress --version

2. Create the initial files

Run:

BASH
yiipress init:content

This creates content/config.yaml, content/navigation.yaml, and two starter collections. Edit content/config.yaml:

YAML
title: My Blog
description: A personal blog
base_url: https://example.com
languages: [en]

date_format: "F j, Y"
entries_per_page: 10

permalink: /:collection/:slug/

taxonomies:
  - tags
  - categories

3. Review collections

yiipress init:content creates a page collection for standalone pages and a blog collection for dated posts:

TEXT
content/
├── page/
│   └── _collection.yaml
└── blog/
    └── _collection.yaml

4. Write your first post

Create the post with the scaffold command:

BASH
yiipress new "Hello World" --collection=blog

Then edit the generated file in content/blog/. A typical post looks like this:

MARKDOWN
---
title: "Hello World"
tags:
  - general
---

Welcome to my blog! This is my first post.

## What is YiiPress?

YiiPress is a static blog engine built on [Yii3](https://yiisoft.github.io/docs/guide/intro/what-is-yii.html). It is:

- Exceptionally fast
- File-based (no database)
- Extensible with plugins

5. Create a page

Use the same command without --collection for a root-level page:

BASH
yiipress new "About"

A simple content/about.md page looks like this:

MARKDOWN
---
title: "About"
---

This is my personal blog where I write about programming.

6. Add navigation

Edit content/navigation.yaml:

YAML
main:
  - title: Home
    url: /
  - title: Blog
    url: /blog/
  - title: About
    url: /about/

7. Build the site

BASH
yiipress build

This generates static HTML in the output/ directory:

output/
├── blog/
│   ├── feed.xml
│   ├── feed.json
│   ├── hello-world/
│   │   └── index.html
│   ├── rss.xml
│   └── index.html
├── about/
│   └── index.html
├── tags/
│   ├── general/
│   │   └── index.html
│   └── index.html
└── sitemap.xml

8. Preview locally

Start the dev server:

BASH
yiipress serve

Open the URL printed by the command. The preview server rebuilds after content changes and refreshes the browser.

Build options

Include drafts and future-dated posts during development:

BASH
yiipress build --drafts --future

Use multiple workers for faster builds:

BASH
yiipress build --workers=4

By default, YiiPress uses --workers=auto, which detects available CPU capacity and uses up to 4 workers automatically.

Disable cache for a clean build:

BASH
yiipress build --no-cache

Next steps

  • Add authors in content/authors/ — see Content
  • Customize permalinks — see Content
  • Configure markdown extensions — see Configuration
  • Link between posts using relative .md paths — see Content
  • Learn about all build options — see Commands