create-elytra

Scaffold a new Elytra project — the code-first web CMS with a native visual page builder.

npm create elytra@latest my-site
# or: pnpm create elytra my-site

This generates a pnpm workspace with a visual studio (Vite + TanStack Start) and a delivery frontend (Next.js App Router) over one canonical project graph. It starts in playground mode — in-memory, seeded, no signup — so you can edit immediately, then connect a Convex deployment when you're ready (CONNECT.md in the generated project).

Usage

npm create elytra@latest [directory] [options]

Options:
  --name <name>    Project name (default: derived from the directory)
  --mode <mode>    playground (default) | connected
  --playground     Start in in-memory playground mode (no signup)
  --connected      Scaffold wired for a Convex deployment (you provision it)
  --locale <code>  Content locale (en, de, en-GB, …). Asked for interactively,
                   REQUIRED otherwise; "de" also ships German studio labels
  -y, --yes        Accept defaults, skip prompts (then --locale is required)

The locale is a choice, not a default

An interactive run asks for the content locale, and a non-interactive one requires --locale. Nothing invents one, because it is not a display setting: defaultLocale is the literal key your content is stored under (localized: { de: { title: '…' } }). Adding a locale later is additive — locales: ['de', 'en'], existing content keeps its key — but changing the default re-keys every localized document, which is a data migration, not a config edit.

Non-interactive (agents, CI) — the -- is npm's own convention for separating its flags from the invoked package's; it's required through npm create but not when running the bin directly (npx, pnpm dlx, a local install) — either way works, since a leading -- is accepted and ignored:

npm create elytra@latest my-site -- -y --name "My Site" --locale en
# direct bin — no `--` needed (but harmless if you include it):
npx create-elytra@latest my-site -y --name "My Site" --locale en

Without --locale, a run that cannot ask (-y, CI=1, or no terminal) fails and writes nothing.

What you get

my-site/
├── elytra.config.ts     # project config-as-code
├── cms/                 # collections, routes, redirects (your content model)
├── components/          # your page-builder components
├── studio/              # the visual builder
└── frontend/            # the delivery site

Then:

cd my-site
pnpm install
pnpm --filter studio dev      # edit immediately, no signup
pnpm --filter frontend dev    # the delivery site