# Quickstart > From nothing to the demo directory running on your machine — with create-zerodirs or from the repository you were given. You are reading one page of the ZeroDirs documentation. ZeroDirs is a paid Astro + Cloudflare Workers starter for directory sites: every page is rendered to static HTML at build time, the site ships no client JavaScript outside `/search/`, and one file — `site.config.ts` — carries roughly 80% of the customisation. Two things to hold on to before you act on anything below: - `site.config.ts` is validated by a zod schema with ten cross-field rules. After any edit to it, run `pnpm check:config`; every problem is reported as `site.config.ts › : ` and the whole file is checked at once. - The repository ships its own `AGENTS.md` with twenty hard rules, and a machine-checked test suite behind them. If you are working inside a ZeroDirs project, read that file first — it overrides anything general you infer from this page. Source: https://zerodirs.com/docs/start/quickstart/ --- Two routes to a running directory: the CLI scaffolds a project and asks you a few questions; cloning the repository gives you the starter exactly as it ships, demo data included. Both end at the same place — `pnpm dev`, and the demo site on your machine with no account, no key and no database of your own. ## Before you start | You need | Check | You should see | | --- | --- | --- | | Node 22.18 or newer — Node 24 is what the starter is tested on and what `.nvmrc` pins | `node --version` | `v24.x.x` (or `v22.18.0` and up) | | pnpm — the repository pins the version in `package.json`, and `corepack enable` installs that one | `pnpm --version` | a `10.x` version | | git — to clone, and to pull updates later | `git --version` | any version | wrangler is a dependency of the project, not something you install: `pnpm exec wrangler` runs the pinned one. ## Install **With the CLI** 1. Scaffold. ```sh title="Terminal" npm create zerodirs@latest my-directory -- --pro # npm needs the `--` pnpm create zerodirs my-directory --pro yarn create zerodirs my-directory --pro bun create zerodirs my-directory --pro ``` Without `--pro` you get the free MIT edition, which is the same code with the paid half deleted — see [Free vs Pro](https://zerodirs.com/docs/about/free-vs-pro/). With `--pro` the CLI clones the private starter repository using **your own** git credentials; it never handles a licence key and never signs you in to anything. 2. Answer the questions. The site name, the domain, a sample dataset, a theme, and — on the paid template — whether you want public submissions and how you want to send email. `--yes` skips all of it and takes the conservative answer to every question: no submissions, no payments, `console` email, the free plan. Each alternative needs an account or a key a non-interactive run cannot have, so `--yes` refusing them is the point. ```text create-zerodirs [directory] [options] --pro Use the paid starter template (default: the free MIT edition) --dataset ai-tools | indie-tools | local-businesses --template-dir Copy from a local directory instead of fetching a release (env: ZERODIRS_TEMPLATE_DIR) --name Site name --domain Production domain, e.g. dir.example.com --theme default | warm | mono --package-manager pnpm | npm | yarn | bun -y, --yes Accept every default; ask nothing --no-cloudflare Never call wrangler; create no Cloudflare resources --no-install Do not install dependencies ``` 3. Read `SETUP.md`. The CLI rewrites `site.config.ts` through its AST, so the file keeps its comments and keeps type-checking; the same for `wrangler.jsonc`. It generates `.dev.vars` with a fresh `ADMIN_SECRET` and `TOKEN_SECRET`, loads the chosen dataset into `src/content/`, and writes a `SETUP.md` listing everything it deliberately left to you. It does **not** sign you in, upload a secret, run a deploy, write to a remote database, run `git init`, install anything globally, send telemetry, or overwrite a directory that already has files in it. The site's whole shape — the URL scheme, the noun for a listing, the structured-data type, the categories and tags — comes from the dataset's own `meta.json`. A dataset declaring `kind: "business"` produces `seo.jsonLd.listing: 'localBusiness'`, which is what makes the detail pages emit LocalBusiness structured data. **From the repository** 1. Clone it. A purchase gives you read access to the starter repository; clone it under the name you want the project to have. ```sh title="Terminal" git clone git@github.com:zerodirs/zerodirs.git my-directory cd my-directory ``` 2. Install. ```sh title="Terminal" pnpm install ``` `postinstall` copies the agent skills into `.claude/skills/`; that is the only thing it does. ## Run it ```sh title="Terminal" pnpm dev ``` Before the dev server starts, `pnpm dev` does three things a fresh clone would otherwise discover one error at a time, and prints a line for each: ```text dev: wrote .env from .env.example — LISTINGS_SOURCE=files, the default for a local build dev: wrote .dev.vars from .dev.vars.example — placeholder secrets for local development; pnpm cf:setup replaces them dev: applied 2 migrations to the local D1 (.wrangler/state) ``` It never touches a Cloudflare account and never writes over a file that exists. On the next run the first two lines are gone and the third says `dev: local D1 is up to date`. ### Verify | | Open | You should see | | --- | --- | --- | | The site | `http://localhost:4321/` | the demo directory: the AI-tools dataset, its categories and tags | | Submissions | `http://localhost:4321/submit/` | the first step of the form. It works locally against the Miniflare database that was just migrated | | The admin | `http://localhost:4321/admin/login/` | the login form. The password is `ADMIN_SECRET` in `.dev.vars` — a placeholder, and the configuration report on `/admin/` says so | > **Search finds nothing under pnpm dev** > > Pagefind only indexes during a real build. `pnpm build`, then `pnpm preview`, is how to try search > locally. This is correct behaviour, not a bug in the search island. > **Free edition** > > `pnpm dev` there is just the Astro dev server: no database, no `/submit/`, no `/admin/`. ## Next - [Make it yours](https://zerodirs.com/docs/start/make-it-yours/) — The first hour after the dev server runs — name it, replace the demo content, brand it, switch things on. - [Go live](https://zerodirs.com/docs/deploy/go-live/) — One command to your own domain, then the short list of things only you can do. - [Listings and datasets](https://zerodirs.com/docs/configure/data/) — The Markdown contract, the importer, datasets, and moving to a database. - [Working with an agent](https://zerodirs.com/docs/agents/overview/) — Read this before the first prompt if you plan to hand it to Claude Code or Cursor.