Quickstart

Markdown

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.

Scaffold.
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. 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.

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.

create-zerodirs [directory] [options]

  --pro                    Use the paid starter template (default: the free MIT edition)
  --dataset <name>         ai-tools | indie-tools | local-businesses
  --template-dir <path>    Copy from a local directory instead of fetching a release
                           (env: ZERODIRS_TEMPLATE_DIR)
  --name <name>            Site name
  --domain <host>          Production domain, e.g. dir.example.com
  --theme <preset>         default | warm | mono
  --package-manager <pm>   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

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.

Clone it.

A purchase gives you read access to the starter repository; clone it under the name you want the project to have.
Terminal
```
git clone git@github.com:zerodirs/zerodirs.git my-directory
cd my-directory
```
Install.
Terminal
```
pnpm install
```
postinstall copies the agent skills into .claude/skills/; that is the only thing it does.

Run it

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:

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

Make it yoursThe first hour after the dev server runs — name it, replace the demo content, brand it, switch things on.

Go liveOne command to your own domain, then the short list of things only you can do.

Listings and datasetsThe Markdown contract, the importer, datasets, and moving to a database.

Working with an agentRead this before the first prompt if you plan to hand it to Claude Code or Cursor.