statica

Just HTML. A blazingly fast static site generator that builds on just HTML

Full reference: docs/guide.md · Man pages: docs/man/

Install

Rust (crates.io):

cargo install statica-cli --locked

JavaScript (npm):

npm i -D @statica/cli

Create a new site directly from npm:

npm create statica@latest my-site
cd my-site
statica

Homebrew:

brew tap akaizn-junior/statica
brew install statica

Prebuilt macOS and Linux binaries from GitHub releases. See homebrew/README.md for tap setup.

npx statica build .
# package.json scripts: "build": "statica build ."

From this repo (dev):

cargo install --path crates/statica-cli --force

Quick start

npm create statica@latest my-site
cd my-site
statica                 # build, watch, and serve cwd

Or use the installed CLI:

statica new my-site
cd my-site
statica                 # build, watch, and serve cwd
statica build           # one-off build

statica new creates a small localized starter with a centered logo, Guide and GitHub links, and English/French/Portuguese catalogs.

statica examples/blog
cd examples/blog/content && statica   # watches the project found via ../statica.toml
statica -h
statica -v

CLI

statica [PATH]              build + watch + serve (default)
statica build [PATH]        one-off build
statica serve [PATH]        preview out_dir with 404 fallback
statica watch [PATH]        watch + rebuild + serve
statica new <NAME>          scaffold
statica -h / --help
statica -v / --version

Project location: PATH (default .) → resolve against process cwd → walk up for statica.toml → site root is that dir, or project / --project under it.

Nested config tables use compact SPECs (CLI wins over the file):

statica build --rss 'title=Blog,limit=20,collections=posts'
statica build --sitemap 'filename=sitemap.xml,urls_per_file=50000'
statica build --process 'css=true,js=false,images=true'
statica build --minify 'html=true,css=true,js=true'
statica build --process --minify
statica build --pagination 'page_size=10,sort_desc=true,index=true'
statica build --i18n 'locales=en|pt,default=en'
statica build --render-mode serial
statica build --report-json report.json
statica watch --preview host=127.0.0.1,port=9000

Man pages

man docs/man/statica.1
man docs/man/statica-build.1
man docs/man/statica-serve.1
man docs/man/statica-watch.1
man docs/man/statica-new.1

Config (statica.toml)

Optional. Missing file → defaults. See docs/guide.md for the full reference.

project = ""                 # relative to this file; empty = here
out_dir = ".website"
site_url = ""                # needed for sitemap / RSS

[process]
enabled = false
css = true
js = true
images = true

[sitemap]
enabled = false
urls_per_file = 50000

[[pagination]]
page_size = 10
sort_by = "published_at"
sort_desc = true
index = true

[rss]
enabled = false
limit = 50

[performance]
render_mode = "auto"
render_threads = 0

[preview]
host = "0.0.0.0"
port = 4321

[i18n]
enabled = false
locales = ["en"]

Inline <style> (pages + fragments) is always transformed. Linked .css under asset_dirs is transformed when [process].css is on. Enable [minify] / --minify for a final pass on emitted HTML, CSS, and linked JS; inline scripts are preserved so scoped fragment behavior stays exact.

Set [performance].render_mode to auto, serial, or parallel. serial avoids rayon for page rendering; parallel always uses rayon; auto uses statica's default page-render profile. Use render_threads = 0 for the default worker count, or set --render-threads N to cap parallel page rendering.

Use --report-json [PATH] to write the build report as JSON for benchmarks, CI, and integrations. Omit PATH or pass - to write JSON to stdout; pass a file path to update that file. In watch, the report is written after the initial build and each rebuild.

statica watch performs conservative incremental rebuilds. Direct edits to an existing page index.html re-emit only that page route when global post-processing is off. Changes to shared inputs such as data, fragments, assets, config-driven processing, deleted files, or minified builds fall back to a full rebuild.

Authoring

statica source is valid HTML. It uses normal <template>, <slot>, and <link> elements as build-time authoring primitives, so keep them where HTML allows them.

index.html                 → .website/index.html
404/index.html             → .website/404/index.html
posts/[slug]/index.html    → .website/posts/{item.slug}/index.html
blog/[page]/index.html     → .website/blog/1/, blog/2/, …  ([[pagination]])

If the site does not define 404.html or 404/index.html, statica writes a default .website/404/index.html. Custom 404 pages are normal source pages and always win. statica serve returns the 404 page with HTTP status 404 for missing paths.

<link rel="statica/data" href="../content/posts.json" id="posts" />
<link rel="statica/fragment" type="text/html" href="../ui/post-card.html" id="post-card" />
<link rel="statica/font" href="@Google/?family=Outfit:wght@100..900&display=swap" />
<slot id="post-card"></slot>

@Google is a normal URL alias from [aliases.urls]; the Google Fonts preconnect behavior is handled by a built-in font recipe after alias resolution.

• Scalar page text → data-t="${item.field}", or literal text with data-t="Plain text"
• Attributes → ${item.slug} / ${page.pagination.next_href} / ${i18n.locale}
• Dynamic data href values use the same scoped attribute rules, so locale data uses paths like href="../content/posts.${i18n.locale}.json" after binding {i18n}
• Fragment mount: <slot id="fragment-id"></slot> passes the current item/context
• Fragment loop: <slot id="fragment-id" data-each="items"></slot> passes each item
• Fragment scripts are scoped by default; inside a fragment <script>, document.querySelector, document.querySelectorAll, and document.getElementById search only that fragment instance
• Page data-bind declares canonical roots such as {item}, {page}, {data}, or {i18n} before use
• Data link IDs are directly available by id; they cannot be named data, item, page, or i18n
• Collection: linked data + [slug]; current record is item
• Pagination: linked data + [page]; page chunk is page.pagination
• Fragments never receive canonical page context; pass values through the mount context or link fragment-local data

Keep content funnels build-time. Production output should not fetch site data at runtime unless you are intentionally adding unrelated client behavior.

Crate layout

• crates/statica-cli — CLI (cwd/project resolve, config, SPECs, watch/serve, man pages)
• crates/statica — discover → funnel → bind → scope → emit
• examples/blog — dogfood fixture
• docs/ — guide + man pages

License

MIT

Author

(c) 2026 Simão Nziaka