🪢 DOMStack

domstack: Cut the gordian knot of modern web development and build websites with a stack of html, md, css, ts, tsx, (and/or js/jsx).

DOMStack provides a few project conventions around esbuild ande Node.js that lets you quickly, cleanly and easily build websites and web apps using all of your favorite technolgies without any framework specific impurities, unlocking the web platform as a freeform canvas.

It's fast to learn, quick to build with, and performs better than you are used to.

npm install @domstack/static

Usage

$ domstack --help
Usage: domstack [options]

    Example: domstack --src website --dest public

    --src, -s             path to source directory (default: "src")
    --dest, -d            path to build destination directory (default: "public")
    --ignore, -i          comma separated gitignore style ignore string
    --drafts              Build draft pages with the `.draft.{md,js,ts,html}` page suffix.
    --eject, -e           eject the DOMStack default layout, style and client into the src flag directory
    --watch, -w           build, watch and serve the site build
    --watch-only          watch and build the src folder without serving
    --copy                path to directories to copy into dist; can be used multiple times
    --help, -h            show help
    --version, -v         show version information
domstack (v11.0.0)

domstack builds a src directory into a dest directory (default: public). domstack is also aliased to a dom bin.

Running domstack will result in a build by default.
Running domstack --watch or domstack -w will build the site and start an auto-reloading development web-server that watches for changes (provided by Browsersync).
Running domstack --eject or domstack -e will extract the default layout, global styles, and client-side JavaScript into your source directory and add the necessary dependencies to your package.json.

domstack is primarily a unix bin written for the Node.js runtime that is intended to be installed from npm as a devDependency inside a package.json committed to a git repository. It can be used outside of this context, but it works best within it.

Core Concepts

domstack is a static site generator that builds a website from "pages" in a src directory, nearly 1:1 into a dest directory. By building "pages" from their src location to the dest destination, the directory structure inside of src becomes a "filesystem router" naturally, without any additional moving systems or structures.

A src directory tree might look something like this:

src % tree
.
├── md-page
│        ├── README.md # directories with README.md in them turn into /md-page/index.html.
│        ├── client.ts # Every page can define its own client.ts script that loads only with it.
│        ├── style.css # Every page can define its own style.css style that loads only with it.
│        ├── loose-md-page.md # loose markdown get built in place, but lacks some page features.
│        └── nested-page # pages are built in place and can nest.
│               ├── README.md # This page is accessed at /md-page/nested-page/.
│               ├── style.css # nested pages are just pages, so they also can have a page scoped client and style.
│               └── client.js # Anywhere JS loads, you can use .js or .ts
├── html-page
│        ├── client.tsx # client bundles can also be written in .jsx/.tsx
│        ├── page.html # Raw html pages are also supported. They support handlebars template blocks.
│        ├── page.vars.ts # pages can define page variables in a page.vars.ts
│        └── style.css
├── js-page
│        └── page.js # A page can also just be a plain javascript function that returns content. They can also be type checked.
├── ts-page
│        ├── client.ts # domstack provides type-stripping via Node.JS and esbuild
│        ├── page.vars.ts # use tsc to run typechecking
│        └── page.ts
├── feeds
│        └── feeds.template.ts # Templates let you generate any file you want from variables and page data.
├── page-with-workers
│        ├── client.ts
│        └── page.ts
│        ├── counter.worker.ts # Web workers use a .worker.{ts,js} naming convention and are auto-bundled
│        └── analytics.worker.js
├── layouts # layouts can live anywhere. The inner content of your page is slotted into your layout.
│        ├── blog.layout.ts # pages specify which layout they want by setting a `layout` page variable.
│        ├── blog.layout.css # layouts can define an additional layout style.
│        ├── blog.layout.client.ts # layouts can also define a layout client.
│        ├── article.layout.ts # layouts can extend other layouts, since they are just functions.
│        ├── javascript.layout.js # layouts can also be written in javascript
│        └── root.layout.ts # the default layout is called "root"
├── globals # global assets can live anywhere. Here they are in a folder called globals.
│        ├── global.client.ts # you can define a global client that loads on every page.
│        ├── global.css # you can define a global css file that loads on every page.
│        ├── global.vars.ts # site wide variables get defined in global.vars.ts
│        ├── markdown-it.settings.ts # You can customize the markdown-it instance used to render markdown
│        └── esbuild.settings.ts # You can even customize the build settings passed to esbuild
├── README.md # This is just a top level page built from a README.md file.
├── client.ts # the top level page can define a page scoped js client.
├── style.css # the top level page can define a page scoped css style.
└── favicon-16x16.png # static assets can live anywhere. Anything other than JS, CSS and HTML get copied over automatically.

The core idea of domstack is that a src directory of markdown, html and ts/js "inner" documents will be transformed into layout wrapped html documents in the dest directory, along with page scoped js and css bundles, as well as a global stylesheet and global js bundle.

It ships with sane defaults so that you can point domstack at a standard markdown documented repository and have it build a website with near-zero preparation.

Examples

A collection of examples can be found in the ./examples folder.

To run examples:

$ git clone [email protected]:bcomnes/domstack.git
$ cd domstack
# install the top level deps
$ npm i
$ cd example:{example-name}
# install the example deps
$ npm i
# start the example
$ npm start

Additional examples

Here are some additional external examples of larger domstack projects. If you have a project that uses domstack and could act as a nice example, please PR it to the list!

Blog Example - A personal blog written with DOMStack
Isomorphic Static/Client App - Pages build from client templates and hydrate on load.
Zero-Conf Markdown Docs - A npm package with markdown docs, transformed into a website without any any configuration

Pages

Pages are a named directories inside of src, with one of the following page files inside of it.

md pages are CommonMark markdown pages, with an optional YAML front-matter block.
html pages are an inner html fragment that get inserted into the page layout.
ts/js pages are a ts/js file that exports a default function that resolves into an inner-html fragment that is inserted into the page layout.

Variables are available in all pages. md and html pages support variable access via handlebars template blocks. ts/js pages receive variables as part of the argument passed to them. See the Variables section for more info.

Pages can define a special variable called layout determines which layout the page is rendered into.

Because pages are just directories, they nest and structure naturally as a filesystem router. Directories in the src folder that lack one of these special page files can exist along side page directories and can be used to store co-located code or static assets without conflict.

`md` pages

A md page looks like this on the filesystem:

src/page-name/README.md
# or
src/page-name/loose-md.md

md pages have two types: a README.md in a folder, or a loose whatever-name-you-want.md file.
README.md files transform to an index.html at the same path, and whatever-name-you-want.md loose markdown files transform into whatever-name-you-want.html files at the same path in the dest directory.
md pages can have YAML frontmatter, with variables that are accessible to the page layout and handlebars template blocks when building.
You can include html in markdown files, so long as you adhere to the allowable markdown syntax around html tags.
md pages support handlebars template placeholders.
You can disable md page handlebars processing by setting the handlebars variable to false.
md pages support many github flavored markdown features.

An example of a md page:

---
title: A title for a markdown page
favoriteColor: 'Blue'
---

Just writing about web development.

## Favorite colors

My favorite color is {{ vars.favoriteColor }}.

`html` pages

A html page looks like this:

src/page-name/page.html

html pages are named page.html inside an associated page folder.
html pages are the simplest page type in domstack. They let you build with raw html for when you don't want that page to have access to markdown features. Some pages are better off with just raw html, and the rules with building html in a real html file are much more flexible than inside of a md file.
html page variables can only be set in a page.vars.js file inside the page directory.
html pages support handlebars template placeholders.
You can disable html page handlebars processing by setting the handlebars variable to false.

An example html page:

<h2>Favorite frameworks</h2>
<ul>
  <li>React</li>
  <li>Vue</li>
  <li>Svelte</li>
  <!-- favoriteFramework defined in page.vars.js -->
  <li>{{ vars.favoriteFramework }}</li>
</ul>

`ts`/`js` pages

A ts/js page looks like this:

src/page-name/page.ts
# or
src/page-name/page.js

js/ts pages consist of a named directory with a page.js or page.ts inside of it, that exports a default function that returns the contents of the inner page.
a js/ts page needs to export default a function (async or sync) that accepts a variables argument and returns a string of the inner html of the page, or any other type that your layout can accept.
A js/ts page can export a vars object or function (async or sync) that takes highest variable precedence when rendering the page. export vars is similar to a md page's front matter.
A js/ts page receives the standard domstack Variables set.
There is no built in handlebars support in js/ts pages, however you are free to use any template library that you can import.
js/ts pages are run in a Node.js context only.

An example TypeScript page:

import type { PageFunction } from '@domstack/static'

export const vars = {
  favoriteCookie: 'Chocolate Chip with Sea Salt'
}

export default const page: PageFunction<typeof vars}> = async ({
  vars
}) => {
  return /* html */`<div>
    <p>This is just some html.</p>
    <p>My favorite cookie: ${vars.favoriteCookie}</p>
  </div>`
}

It is recommended to use some level of template processing over raw string templates so that HTML is well-formed and variable values are properly escaped. Here is a more realistic TypeScript example that uses preact with htm and domstack page introspection.

import { html } from 'htm/preact'
import { dirname, basename } from 'node:path'
import type { PageFunction } from '@domstack/static'

type BlogVars = {
  favoriteCake: string
}

export const vars = {
  favoriteCake: 'Chocolate Cloud Cake'
}

export default const blogIndex: PageFunction<BlogVars> = async ({
  vars: { favoriteCake },
  pages
}) => {
  const yearPages = pages.filter(page => dirname(page.pageInfo.path) === 'blog')
  return html`<div>
    <p>I love ${favoriteCake}!!</p>
    <ul>
      ${yearPages.map(yearPage => html`<li><a href="${`/${yearPage.pageInfo.path}/`}">${basename(yearPage.pageInfo.path)}</a></li>`)}
    </ul>
  </div>`
}

Page Styles

You can create a style.css file in any page folder. Page styles are loaded on just that one page. You can import common use styles into a style.css page style using css @import statements to re-use common css. You can @import paths to other css files, or out of npm modules you have installed in your projects node_modues folder. css page bundles are bundled using esbuild.

An example of a page style.css file:

/* /some-page/style.css */
@import "some-npm-module/style.css";
@import "../common-styles/button.css";

.some-page-class {
  color: blue;

  & .button {
    color: purple;
  }
}

Page JS Bundles

You can create a client.ts or client.js file in any page folder. Page bundles are client side JS bundles that are loaded on that one page only. You can import common code and modules from relative paths, or npm modules out of node_modules. The client.js page bundles are bundle-split with every other client-side js/ts entry-point, so importing common chunks of code are loaded in a maximally efficient way. Page bundles are run in a browser context only, however they can share carefully crafted code that also runs in a Node.js or layout context. ts/js page bundles are bundled using esbuild.

An example of a page client.js file:

/* /some-page/client.ts */
import { funnyLibrary } from 'funny-library'
import { someHelper } from '../helpers/foo.js'

await someHelper()
await funnyLibrary()

.tsx/.jsx

Client bundles support .jsx and .tsx. They default to preact, so if you want mainlain react, customize your esbuild settings to load that instead. See the react example for more details.

Page variable files

Each page can also have a page.vars.ts or page.vars.js file that exports a default sync/async function or object that contains page specific variables.

// export an object
export default {
  my: 'vars'
}

// OR export a default function
export default () => {
  return { my: 'vars' }
}

// OR export a default async function
export default async () => {
  return { my: 'vars' }
}

Page variable files have higher precedent than global.vars.ts variables, but lower precedent than frontmatter or vars ts/js page exports.

Draft pages

If you add a .draft.{md,html,ts,js} to any of the page types, the page is considered a draft page. Draft pages are not built by default. If you pass the --drafts flag when building or watching, the draft pages will be built. When draft pages are omitted, they are completely ignored.

Draft pages can be detected in layouts using the page.draft === true or pages[n].draft === true variable. It is a good idea to display something indicating the page is a draft in your templates so you don't get confused when working with the --drafts flag.

Any static assets near draft pages will still be copied because static assets are processed in parallel from page generation (to keep things fast). If you have an idea on how to relate static assets to a draft page for omission, please open a discussion issue.

Draft pages let you work on pages before they are ready and easily omit them from a build when deploying pages that are ready.

Web Workers

You can easily write web workers for a page by adding a file called ${name}.worker.ts or ${name}.worker.js where name becomes the name of the worker filename in the workers.json file. DOMStack will build these similarly to page client.ts bundles, and will even bundle split their contents with the rest of your site.

page-directory/
  ├── page.js
  ├── client.js
  ├── counter.worker.js  # Worker with counter functionality
  └── data.worker.js     # Worker for data processing

To use a woker, load in a ./workers.json file that is generated along with the worker bundle to get the final name of the worker entrypoint and then create a worker with that filename.

// First, fetch the workers.json to get worker paths in your client.ts
async function initializeWorkers() {
  const response = await fetch('./workers.json');
  const workersData = await response.json();

  // Initialize workers with the correct hashed filenames
  const counterWorker = new Worker(
    new URL(`./${workersData.counter}`, import.meta.url),
    { type: 'module' }
  );

  // Use the worker
  counterWorker.postMessage({ action: 'increment' });

  counterWorker.onmessage = (e) => {
    console.log(e.data);
  };

  return counterWorker;
}

const worker = await initializeWorkers();

See the Web Workers Example for a complete implementation.

Layouts

Layouts are "outer page templates" that pages get rendered into. You can define as many as you want, and they can live anywhere in the src directory.

Layouts are named ${layout-name}.layout.js where ${layout-name} becomes the name of the layout. Layouts should have a unique name, and layouts with duplicate name will result in a build error.

Example layout file names:

src/layouts/root.layout.js # this layout is references as 'root'
src/other-layouts/article.layout.js # this layout is references as 'article'

At a minimum, your site requires a root layout (a file named root.layout.js), though domstack ships a default root layout so defining one in your src directory is optional, though recommended.

All pages have a layout variable that defaults to root. If you set the layout variable to a different name, pages will build with a layout matching the name you set to that variable.

The following markdown page would be rendered using the article layout.

---
layout: 'article'
title: 'My Article Title'
---

Thanks for reading my article

A page referencing a layout name that doesn't have a matching layout file will result in a build error.

The default `root.layout.js`

A layout is a ts/js file that export default's an async or sync function that implements an outer-wrapper html template that will house the inner content from the page (children) being rendered. Think of the frame around a picture. That's a layout. 🖼️

It is always passed a single object argument with the following entries:

vars: An object of global, page folder, and page variables merged together. Pages can customize layouts by providing or overriding global defaults.
scripts: array of paths that should be included onto the page in a script tag src with type module.
styles: array of paths that should be included onto the page in a link rel="stylesheet" tag with the href pointing to the paths in the array.
children: A string of the inner content of the page, or whatever type your js page functions returns. md and html page types always return strings.
pages: An array of page data that you can use to generate index pages with, or any other page-introspection based content that you desire.
page: An object with metadata and other facts about the current page being rendered into the template. This will also be found somewhere in the pages array.

The default root.layout.ts is featured below, and is implemented with preact and htm, though it could just be done with a template literal or any other template system that runs in Node.js.

root.layout.ts can live anywhere in the src directory.

import { html } from 'htm/preact'
import { render } from 'preact-render-to-string'
import type { LayoutFunction } from '@domstack/static'

type RootLayoutVars = {
  title: string,
  siteName: string,
  defaultStyle: boolean,
  basePath?: string
}

export default const defaultRootLayout: LayoutFunction<RootLayoutVars> = ({
  vars: {
    title,
    siteName = 'Domstack',
    basePath,
    /* defaultStyle = true  Set this to false in global or page vars to disable the default style in the default layout */
  },
  scripts,
  styles,
  children,
  pages,
  page,
}) => {
  return /* html */`
    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
      ${render(html`
        <head>
          <meta charset="utf-8" />
          <title>${title ? `${title}` : ''}${title && siteName ? ' | ' : ''}${siteName}</title>
          <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, user-scalable=no" />
          ${scripts
            ? scripts.map(script => html`<script type='module' src="${script.startsWith('/') ? `${basePath ?? ''}${script}` : script}" />`)
            : null}
          ${styles
            ? styles.map(style => html`<link rel="stylesheet" href="${style.startsWith('/') ? `${basePath ?? ''}${style}` : style}" />`)
            : null}
        </head>
      `)}
      ${render(html`
        <body className="safe-area-inset">
        ${typeof children === 'string'
            ? html`<main className="mine-layout app-main" dangerouslySetInnerHTML=${{ __html: children }}></main>`
            : html`<main className="mine-layout app-main">${children}</main>`
        }
        </body>
      `)}
    </html>
  `
}

If your src folder doesn't have a root.layout.js file somewhere in it, domstack will use the default default.root.layout.js file it ships. The default root layout includes a special boolean variable called defaultStyle that lets you disable a default page style (provided by mine.css) that it ships with.

Nested layouts

Since layouts are just functions™️, they nest naturally. If you define the majority of your html page meta detritus in a root.layout.js, you can define additional layouts that act as child wrappers, without having to re-define everything in root.layout.ts.

For example, you could define a blog.layout.ts that re-uses the root.layout.ts:

import defaultRootLayout from './root.layout.js'
import { html } from 'htm/preact'
import { render } from 'preact-render-to-string'
import type { LayoutFunction } from '@domstack/static'

// Import the type from root layout
import type { RootLayoutVars } from './root.layout'

// Extend the RootLayoutVars with blog-specific properties
interface BlogLayoutVars extends RootLayoutVars {
  authorImgUrl?: string;
  authorImgAlt?: string;
  authorName?: string;
  authorUrl?: string;
  publishDate?: string;
  updatedDate?: string;
}

const blogLayout: LayoutFunction<BlogLayoutVars> = (layoutVars) => {
  const { children: innerChildren, ...rest } = layoutVars
  const vars = layoutVars.vars

  const children = render(html`
    <article className="article-layout h-entry" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/NewsArticle">
      <header className="article-header">
        <h1 className="p-name article-title" itemprop="headline">${vars.title}</h1>
        <div className="metadata">
          <address className="author-info" itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
            ${vars.authorImgUrl
              ? html`<img height="40" width="40" src="${vars.authorImgUrl}" alt="${vars.authorImgAlt}" className="u-photo" itemprop="image" />`
              : null
            }
            ${vars.authorName && vars.authorUrl
              ? html`
                  <a href="${vars.authorUrl}" className="p-author h-card" itemprop="url">
                    <span itemprop="name">${vars.authorName}</span>
                  </a>`
              : null
            }
          </address>
          ${vars.publishDate
            ? html`
              <time className="dt-published" itemprop="datePublished" datetime="${vars.publishDate}">
                <a href="#" className="u-url">
                  ${(new Date(vars.publishDate)).toLocaleString()}
                </a>
              </time>`
            : null
          }
          ${vars.updatedDate
            ? html`<time className="dt-updated" itemprop="dateModified" datetime="${vars.updatedDate}">Updated ${(new Date(vars.updatedDate)).toLocaleString()}</time>`
            : null
          }
        </div>
      </header>

      <section className="e-content" itemprop="articleBody">
        ${typeof innerChildren === 'string'
          ? html`<div dangerouslySetInnerHTML=${{ __html: innerChildren }}></div>`
          : innerChildren
        }
      </section>
    </article>
  `)

  const rootArgs = { ...rest, children }
  return defaultRootLayout(rootArgs)
}

export default blogLayout

Now the blog.layout.js becomes a nested layout of root.layout.js. No magic, just functions.

Alternatively, you could compose your layouts from re-usable template functions and strings. If you find your layouts nesting more than one or two levels, perhaps composition would be a better strategy.

Layout styles

You can create a ${layout-name}.layout.css next to any layout file. While the layout file can live anywhere in src, the layout style must live next to the associated layout file.

/* /layouts/article.layout.css */
.layout-specific-class {
  color: blue;

  & .button {
    color: purple;
  }
}

/* This layout style is included in every page rendered with the 'article' layout */

Layout styles are loaded on all pages that use that layout. Layout styles are bundled with esbuild and can bundle relative and npm css using css @import statements.

Layout TS/JS Bundles

You can create a ${layout-name}.layout.client.ts or ${layout-name}.layout.client.js next to any layout file. While the layout file can live anywhere in src, the layout client bundles must live next to the associated layout file.

/* /layouts/article.layout.client.ts */

console.log('I run on every page rendered with the \'article\' layout')

/* This layout client is included in every page rendered with the 'article' layout */

Layout ts/js bundles are loaded on all pages that use that layout. Layout ts/js bundles are bundled with esbuild and can bundle relative and npm modules using ESM import statements.

Nested layout TS/JS bundles and styles

If you create a nested layout that imports another layout file, and that imported layout has a layout style and/or layout js bundle, there is no magic that will include those layout styles and clients into the importing layout. To include those layout styles and clients into an additional layout, just import them into the additional layout client and style files. For example, if article.layout.ts wraps root.layout.ts, you must do the following:

/* article.layout.css  */
@import "./root.layout.css";

This will include the layout style from the root layout in the article layout style.

/* article.layout.client.ts  */
import './root.layout.client.ts'

Adding these imports will include the root.layout.ts layout assets into the blog.layout.ts asset files.

Static assets

All static assets in the src directory are copied 1:1 to the public directory. Any file in the src directory that doesn't end in .ts, .js, .css, .html, or .md is copied to the dest directory.

`--eject` flag

The --eject (or -e) flag extracts DOMStack's default layout, global CSS, and client-side JavaScript into your source directory. This allows you to fully customize these files while maintaining the same functionality.

When you run domstack --eject, it will:

Create a default root layout file at layouts/root.layout.js (or .mjs depending on your package.json type)
Create a default global CSS file at globals/global.css
Create a default client-side JavaScript file at globals/global.client.js
Add the necessary dependencies to your package.json:
- mine.css
- preact
- htm
- preact-render-to-string
- highlight.js

It is recomended to eject early in your project so that you can customize the root layout as you see fit, and de-couple yourself from potential unwanted changes in the default layout as new versions of DOMStack are released.

`--copy` directories

You can specify directories to copy into your dest directory using the --copy flag. Everything in those directories will be copied as-is into the destination, including js, css, html and markdown, preserving the internal directory structure. Conflicting files are not detected or reported and will cause undefined behavior.

Copy folders must live outside of the dest directory. Copy directories can be in the src directory allowing for nested builds. In this case they are added to the ignore glob and ignored by the rest of domstack.

This is useful when you have legacy or archived site content that you want to include in your site, but don't want domstack to process or modify it. In general, static content should live in your primary src directory, however for merging in old static assets over your domstack build is sometimes easier to reason about when it's kept in a separate folder and isn't processed in any way.

For example:

src/...
oldsite/
├── client.js
├── hello.html
└── styles/
    └── globals.css

After build:

src/...
oldsite/...
public/
├── client.js
├── hello.html
└── styles/
    └── globals.css

Templates

Template files let you write any kind of file type to the dest folder while customizing the contents of that file with access to the site Variables object, or inject any other kind of data fetched at build time. Template files can be located anywhere and look like:

name-of-template.txt.template.ts
${name-portion}.template.ts

Template files are a ts/js file that default exports one of the following sync/async functions:

Simple string template

A function that returns a string. The name-of-template.txt portion of the template file name becomes the file name of the output file.

// name-of-template.txt.template.ts
import type { TemplateFunction } from '@domstack/static'

interface TemplateVars {
  foo: string;
  testVar: string;
}

export default const simpleTemplate: TemplateFunction<TemplateVars> = async ({
  vars: {
    foo,
    testVar
  }
}) => {
  return `Hello world

This is just a file with access to global vars: ${foo}`
}

Object template

A function that returns a single object with a content and outputName entries. The outputName overrides the name portion of the template file name.

import type { TemplateFunction } from '@domstack/static'

interface TemplateVars {
  foo: string;
}
export default async ({
  vars: { foo }
}) => ({
  content: `Hello world

This is just a file with access to global vars: ${foo}`,
  outputName: './single-object-override.txt'
})

Object array template

A function that returns an array of objects with a content and outputName entries. This template file generates more than one file from a single template file.

import type { TemplateFunction } from '@domstack/static'

interface TemplateVars {
  foo: string;
  testVar: string;
}

export default const objectArrayTemplate: TemplateFunction<TemplateVars> = async ({
  vars: {
    foo,
    testVar
  }
}) => {
  return [
    {
      content: `Hello world

This is just a file with access to global vars: ${foo}`,
      outputName: 'object-array-1.txt'
    },
    {
      content: `Hello world again

This is just a file with access to global vars: ${testVar}`,
      outputName: 'object-array-2.txt'
    }
  ]
}

AsyncIterator template

An AsyncIterator that yields objects with content and outputName entries.

import type { TemplateAsyncIterator } from '@domstack/static'

interface TemplateVars {
  foo: string;
  testVar: string;
}

export default const templateIterator: TemplateAsyncIterator<TemplateVars> = async function * ({
  vars: {
    foo,
    testVar
  }
}) {
  // First item
  yield {
    content: `Hello world

This is just a file with access to global vars: ${foo}`,
    outputName: 'yielded-1.txt'
  }

  // Second item
  yield {
    content: `Hello world again

This is just a file with access to global vars: ${testVar}`,
    outputName: 'yielded-2.txt'
  }
}

RSS Feed Template Example

Templates receive the standard variables available to pages, so its possible to perform page introspection and generate RSS feeds of website content.

The following example shows how to generate an RSS and JSON feed of the last 10 date sorted pages with the blog layout using the AsyncIterator template type.

import pMap from 'p-map'
import jsonfeedToAtom from 'jsonfeed-to-atom'
import type { TemplateAsyncIterator } from '@domstack/static'

interface TemplateVars {
  title: string;
  layout: string;
  siteName: string;
  homePageUrl: string;
  authorName: string;
  authorUrl: string;
  authorImgUrl?: string;
  siteDescription: string;
  language: string;
}

export default const feedsTemplate: TemplateAsyncIterator<TemplateVars> = async function * ({
  vars: {
    siteName,
    siteDescription,
    homePageUrl,
    language = 'en-us',
    authorName,
    authorUrl,
    authorImgUrl,
  },
  pages
}) {
  const blogPosts = pages
    .filter(page => page.pageInfo.path.startsWith('blog/') && page.vars['layout'] === 'blog')
    .sort((a, b) => new Date(b.vars.publishDate) - new Date(a.vars.publishDate))
    .slice(0, 10)

  const jsonFeed = {
    version: 'https://jsonfeed.org/version/1',
    title: siteName,
    home_page_url: homePageUrl,
    feed_url: `${homePageUrl}/feed.json`,
    description: siteDescription,
    author: {
      name: authorName,
      url: authorUrl,
      avatar: authorImgUrl
    },
    items: await pMap(blogPosts, async (page) => {
      return {
        date_published: page.vars['publishDate'],
        title: page.vars['title'],
        url: `${homePageUrl}/${page.pageInfo.path}/`,
        id: `${homePageUrl}/${page.pageInfo.path}/#${page.vars['publishDate']}`,
        content_html: await page.renderInnerPage({ pages })
      }
    }, { concurrency: 4 })
  }

  yield {
    content: JSON.stringify(jsonFeed, null, '  '),
    outputName: './feeds/feed.json'
  }

  yield {
    content: jsonfeedToAtom(jsonFeed),
    outputName: './feeds/feed.xml'
  }
}

Global Assets

There are a few important (and optional) global assets that live anywhere in the src directory. If duplicate named files that match the global asset file name pattern are found, a build error will occur until the duplicate file error is resolved.

`global.vars.ts`

The global.vars.ts or global.vars.js file should export default a variables object or a (sync or async) function that returns a variable object. The variables in this file are available to all pages, unless the page sets a variable with the same key, taking a higher precedence.

export default {
  siteName: 'The name of my website',
  authorName: 'Mr. Wallace'
}

`browser` variable

global.vars.ts can uniquely export a browser object. These object variables are made available in all js bundles. The browser export can be an object, or a sync/async function that returns an object.

export const browser = {
  'process.env.TRANSPORT': 'http',
  'process.env.HOST': 'localhost'
}

The exported object is passed to esbuild's define options and is available to every js bundle.

`global.client.ts`

This is a script bundle that is included on every page. It provides an easy way to inject analytics, or other small scripts that every page should have. Try to minimize what you put in here.

console.log('I run on every page in the site!')

`global.css`

This is a global stylesheet that every page will use. Any styles that need to be on every single page should live here. Importing css from npm modules work well here.

`esbuild.settings.ts`

This is an optional file you can create anywhere. It should export a default sync or async function that accepts a single argument (the esbuild settings object generated by domstack) and returns a modified build object. Use this to customize the esbuild settings directly. You can break domstack with this, so be careful. Here is an example of using this file to polyfill node builtins in the browser bundle:

import { polyfillNode } from 'esbuild-plugin-polyfill-node'
// BuildOptions re-exported from esbuild
import type { BuildOptions } from '@domstack/static'

export default const esbuildSettingsOverride = async (esbuildSettings: BuildOptions): Promise<BuildOptions> => {
  esbuildSettings.plugins = [polyfillNode()]
  return esbuildSettings
}

Important esbuild settings you may want to set here are:

target - Set the target to make esbuild run a few small transforms on your CSS and JS code.
jsx - Unset this if you want default react transform.
jsxImportSource - Unset this if you want default react transform.

`markdown-it.settings.ts`

This is an optional file you can create anywhere. It should export a default sync or async function that accepts a single argument (the markdown-it instance configured by domstack) and returns a modified markdown-it instance. Use this to add custom markdown-it plugins or modify the parser configuration. Here are some examples:

import markdownItContainer from 'markdown-it-container'
import markdownItPlantuml from 'markdown-it-plantuml'
import type { MarkdownIt } from 'markdown-it'

export default const markdownItSettingsOverride = async (md: MarkdownIt) => {
  // Add custom plugins
  md.use(markdownItContainer, 'spoiler', {
    validate: (params: string) => {
      return params.trim().match(/^spoiler\s+(.*)$/) !== null
    },
    render: (tokens: any[], idx: number) => {
      const m = tokens[idx].info.trim().match(/^spoiler\s+(.*)$/)
      if (tokens[idx].nesting === 1) {
        return '<details><summary>' + md.utils.escapeHtml(m[1]) + '</summary>\n'
      } else {
        return '</details>\n'
      }
    }
  })

  md.use(markdownItPlantuml)

  return md
}

import markdownIt, { MarkdownIt } from 'markdown-it'
import myCustomPlugin from './my-custom-plugin'

export default const markdownItSettingsOverride = async (md: MarkdownIt) => {
  // Create a new instance with different settings
  const newMd = markdownIt({
    html: false,        // Disable HTML tags in source
    breaks: true,       // Convert \n to <br>
    linkify: false,     // Disable auto-linking
  })

  // Add only the plugins you want
  newMd.use(myCustomPlugin)

  return newMd
}

markdownItSettingsOverride

By default, DOMStack ships with the following markdown-it plugins enabled:

Variables

Pages, Layouts, and postVars all receive an object with the following parameters:

vars: An object with the variables of global.vars.ts, page.vars.ts, and any front-matter,vars exports and postVars from the page merged together.
pages: An array of [PageData](https://github.com/bcomnes/d omstack/blob/master/lib/build-pages/page-data.js) instances for every page in the site build. Use this array to introspect pages to generate feeds and index pages.
page: An object of the page being rendered with the following parameters:
- type: The type of page (md, html, or js)
- path: The directory path for the page.
- outputName: The output name of the final file.
- outputRelname: The relative output name/path of the output file.
- pageFile: Raw src path details of the page file
- pageStyle: file info if the page has a page style
- clientBundle: file info if the page has a page js bundle
- pageVars: file info if the page has a page vars

Template files receive a similar set of variables:

vars: An object with the variables of global.vars.ts
pages: An array of PageData instances for every page in the site build. Use this array to introspect pages to generate feeds and index pages.
template: An object of the template file data being rendered.

`postVars` post processing variables (Advanced) {#postVars}

In page.vars.ts files, you can export a postVars sync/async function that returns an object. This function receives the same variable set as pages and layouts. Whatever object is returned from the function is merged into the final vars object and is available in the page and layout. This is useful if you want to apply advanced rendering page introspection and insert it into a markdown document (for example, the last few blog posts on a markdown page.)

For example:

import { html } from 'htm/preact'
import { render } from 'preact-render-to-string'
import type { PostVarsFunction } from '@domstack/static'

export const postVars: PostVarsFunction = async ({
  pages
}) => {
  const blogPosts = pages
    .filter(page => page.vars.layout === 'article')
    .sort((a, b) => new Date(b.vars.publishDate) - new Date(a.vars.publishDate))
    .slice(0, 5)

  const blogpostsHtml = render(html`<ul className="blog-index-list">
      ${blogPosts.map(p => {
        const publishDate = p.vars.publishDate ? new Date(p.vars.publishDate) : null
        return html`
          <li className="blog-entry h-entry">
            <a className="blog-entry-link u-url u-uid p-name" href="/${p.pageInfo.path}/">${p.vars.title}</a>
            ${
              publishDate
                ? html`<time className="blog-entry-date dt-published" datetime="${publishDate.toISOString()}">
                    ${publishDate.toISOString().split('T')[0]}
                  </time>`
                : null
            }
          </li>`
        })}
    </ul>`)

  return {
    blogPostsHtml: blogpostsHtml
  }
}

This postVars renders some html from page introspection of the last 5 blog post titles. In the associated page markdown, this variable is available via a handlebars placeholder.

<!-- README.md -->
## [Blog](./blog/)

{{{ vars.blogPostsHtml }}}

TypeScript Support

domstack supports TypeScript via native type-stripping in Node.js.

Requires Node.js ≥23 (built-in) or Node.js 22 with the NODE_OPTIONS="--experimental-strip-types" domstack env variable.
Seamlessly mix .ts, .mts, .cts files alongside .js, .mjs, .cjs.
No explicit compilation step needed—Node.js handles type stripping at runtime.
Fully compatible with existing domstack file naming conventions.
Anywhere DOMStack loads JS files, it can now load TS files.

Supported File Types

Anywhere you can use a .js, .mjs or .cjs file in domstack, you can now use .ts, .mts, .cts. When running in a Node.js context, type-stripping is used. When running in a web client context, esbuild type stripping is used. Type stripping provides 0 type checking, so be sure to set up tsc and tsconfig.json so you can catch type errors while editing or in CI.

Recommended `tsconfig.json`

Install @voxpelli/tsconfig which provides type checking in .js and .ts files and preconfigured for --no-emit and extend with type stripping friendly rules:

{
  "extends": "@voxpelli/tsconfig/node20.json",
  "compilerOptions": {
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "erasableSyntaxOnly": true,
    "allowImportingTsExtensions": true,
    "rewriteRelativeImportExtensions": true,
    "verbatimModuleSyntax": true
  },
  "include": [
    "**/*",
  ],
  "exclude": [
    "**/*.js",
    "node_modules",
    "coverage",
    ".github"
  ]
}

Using TypeScript with domstack Types

You can use domstack's built-in types to strongly type your layout, page, and template functions. The following types are available:

import type {
  LayoutFunction,
  PostVarsFunction,
  PageFunction,
  TemplateFunction,
  TemplateAsyncIterator
} from '@domstack/static'

They are all generic and accept a variable template that you can develop and share between files.

Design Goals

Convention over configuration. All configuration should be optional, and at most it should be minimal.
Align with the index.html/README.md pattern.
The HTML is the source of truth.
Don't re-implement what the browser already provides!
- No magic <link> or <a> tag magic.
- Don't facilitate client side routing. The browser supports routing by default.s
- Accept the nature of the medium. Browsers browse html documents. Don't facilitate shared state between pages.
Library agnostic. Strings are the interchange format.
Pages are shallow apps. New page, new blank canvas.
Just a program. js pages and layouts are just JavaScript programs. This provides an escape hatch to do anything. Use any template language want, but probably just use tagged template literals.
Steps remain orthogonal. Static file copying, css and js bundling, are mere optimizations on top of the src folder. The src folder should essentially run in the browser. Each step in a domstack build should work independent of the others. This allows for maximal parallelism when building.
Standardized entrypoints. Every page in a domstack site has a natural and obvious entrypoint. There is no magic redirection to learn about.
Pages build into index.html files inside of named directories. This allows for naturally colocated assets next to the page, pretty URLs and full support for relative URLs.
No parallel directory structures. You should never be forced to have two directories with identical layouts to put files next to each other. Everything should be colocatable.
Markdown entrypoints are named README.md. This allows for the src folder to be fully navigable in GitHub and other git repo hosting providing a natural hosted CMS UI.
Real TC39 ESM from the start.
Garbage in, garbage out. Don't over-correct bad input.
Conventions + standards. Vanilla file types. No new file extensions. No weird syntax to learn. Language tools should just work because you aren't doing anything weird or out of band.
Encourage directly runnable source files. Direct run is an incredible, undervalued feature more people should learn to use.
Support typescript, via ts-in-js and type stripping features. Leave type checking to tsc.
Embrace the now. Limit support on features that let one pretend they are working with future ecosystem features e.g. pseudo esm (technology predictions nearly always are wrong!)

FAQ

Why DOMStack?

: DOMStack is named after the DOM (Document Object Model) and the concept of stacking technologies together to build websites. It represents the layering of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a cohesive build system.

How does domstack relate to sitedown

: domstack used to be called siteup which is sort of like "markup", which is related to "markdown", which inspired the project sitedown to which domstack is a spiritual off-shoot of. Put a folder of web documents in your domstack build system, and generate a website.

Examples

Look at examples and domstack dependents for some examples how domstack can work.

Implementation

domstack bundles the best tools for every technology in the stack:

js and css is bundled with esbuild.
md is processed with markdown-it.
static files are processed with cpx2.
ts support via native typestripping in Node.js and esbuild.
jsx/tsx support via esbuild.

These tools are treated as implementation details, but they may be exposed more in the future. The idea is that they can be swapped out for better tools in the future if they don't make it.

Build Process Flow

The following diagram illustrates the DomStack build process:

                    ┌─────────────┐
                    │    START    │
                    └──────┬──────┘
                           │
                           ▼
                 ┌──────────────────┐
                 │ identifyPages()  │
                 │                  │
                 │ • Find pages     │
                 │ • Find layouts   │
                 │ • Find templates │
                 │ • Find globals   │
                 │ • Find settings  │
                 └────────┬─────────┘
                          │
                          │
      ┌───────────────────┼───────────────────┐
      │                   │                   │
      ▼                   ▼                   ▼
┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐
│ buildEsbuild()  │ │ buildStatic()   │ │  buildCopy()    │
│                 │ │                 │ │                 │
│ • Bundle JS/CSS │ │ • Copy static   │ │ • Copy extra    │
│ • Generate      │ │   files         │ │   directories   │
│   metafile      │ │ (if enabled)    │ │   from opts     │
└────────┬────────┘ └────────┬────────┘ └────────┬────────┘
         │                   │                   │
         └───────────────────┼───────────────────┘
                             │
                             ▼
                    ┌──────────────────┐
                    │  buildPages()    │
                    │                  │
                    │ • Process HTML   │
                    │ • Process MD     │
                    │ • Process JS     │
                    │ • Apply layouts  │
                    └────────┬─────────┘
                             │
                             ▼
                    ┌──────────────────┐
                    │  Return Results  │
                    │                  │
                    │ • siteData       │
                    │ • esbuildResults │
                    │ • staticResults  │
                    │ • copyResults    │
                    │ • pageResults    │
                    │ • warnings       │
                    └──────────────────┘

The build process follows these key steps:

Page identification - Scans the source directory to identify all pages, layouts, templates, and global assets
Destination preparation - Ensures the destination directory is ready for the build output
Parallel asset processing - Three operations run concurrently:
- JavaScript and CSS bundling via esbuild
- Static file copying (when enabled)
- Additional directory copying (from --copy options)
Page building - Processes all pages, applying layouts and generating final HTML

This architecture allows for efficient parallel processing of independent tasks while maintaining the correct build order dependencies.

buildPages() Detail

The buildPages() step processes pages in parallel with a concurrency limit:

                    ┌──────────────────┐
                    │  buildPages()    │
                    └────────┬─────────┘
                             │
                    ┌────────▼─────────┐
                    │ Resolve Once:    │
                    │ • Global vars    │
                    │ • All layouts    │
                    └────────┬─────────┘
                             │
                ┌────────────▼───────────────┐
                │  Parallel Page Queue       │
                │(Concurrency: min(CPUs, 24))│
                └────────────┬───────────────┘
                             │
        ┌────────────────────┼────────────────────┐
        │                    │                    │
        ▼                    ▼                    ▼
┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐
│  MD Page Task   │    │ HTML Page Task  │    │  JS Page Task   │
├─────────────────┤    ├─────────────────┤    ├─────────────────┤
│ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │
│ │1. Read .md  │ │    │ │1. Read .html│ │    │ │1. Import .js│ │
│ │   file      │ │    │ │   file      │ │    │ │   module    │ │
│ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │
│        ▼        │    │        ▼        │    │        ▼        │
│ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │
│ │2. Extract   │ │    │ │2. Variable  │ │    │ │2. Variable  │ │
│ │ frontmatter │ │    │ │  Resolution │ │    │ │  Resolution │ │
│ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │
│        ▼        │    │        ▼        │    │        ▼        │
│ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │
│ │ Frontmatter │ │    │ │page.vars.js │ │    │ │  Exported   │ │
│ │    vars     │ │    │ │             │ │    │ │    vars     │ │
│ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │
│        ▼        │    │        ▼        │    │        ▼        │
│ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │
│ │page.vars.js │ │    │ │  postVars   │ │    │ │page.vars.js │ │
│ │             │ │    │ │             │ │    │ │             │ │
│ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │
│        ▼        │    │        ▼        │    │        ▼        │
│ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │
│ │  postVars   │ │    │ │3. Handlebars│ │    │ │  postVars   │ │
│ │             │ │    │ │ (if enabled)│ │    │ │             │ │
│ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │
│        ▼        │    │        ▼        │    │        ▼        │
│ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │
│ │3. Render MD │ │    │ │4. Render    │ │    │ │3. Execute   │ │
│ │   to HTML   │ │    │ │  with layout│ │    │ │  page func  │ │
│ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │
│        ▼        │    │        ▼        │    │        ▼        │
│ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │
│ │4. Extract   │ │    │ │5. Write HTML│ │    │ │4. Render    │ │
│ │  title (h1) │ │    │ │             │ │    │ │  with layout│ │
│ └──────┬──────┘ │    │ └─────────────┘ │    │ └──────┬──────┘ │
│        ▼        │    │                 │    │        ▼        │
│ ┌─────────────┐ │    │                 │    │ ┌─────────────┐ │
│ │5. Render    │ │    │                 │    │ │5. Write HTML│ │
│ │  with layout│ │    │                 │    │ │             │ │
│ └──────┬──────┘ │    │                 │    │ └─────────────┘ │
│        ▼        │    │                 │    │                 │
│ ┌─────────────┐ │    │                 │    │                 │
│ │6. Write HTML│ │    │                 │    │                 │
│ └─────────────┘ │    │                 │    │                 │
└─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘
         │                      │                      │
         └──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┘
                                │
                                ▼
                       ┌──────────────────┐
                       │  Complete when   │
                       │  all pages done  │
                       └──────────────────┘

Variable Resolution Layers:

Global vars - Site-wide variables from global.vars.js (resolved once)
Layout vars - Layout-specific variables from layout functions (resolved once)
Page-specific vars vary by type:
- MD pages: frontmatter → page.vars.js → postVars
- HTML pages: page.vars.js → postVars
- JS pages: exported vars → page.vars.js → postVars
postVars - Post-processing function that can modify variables based on all resolved data

Roadmap

domstack works and has a rudimentary watch command, but hasn't been battle tested yet. If you end up trying it out, please open any issues or ideas that you have, and feel free to share what you build.

Some notable features are included below, see the roadmap for a more in depth view of whats planned.

History

DOMStack started its life as top-bun in 2023, named after the bakery from Wallace and Gromit. The project was created to provide a simple, fast, and flexible static site generator that could handle modern web development needs while staying true to web standards.

The project was renamed to DOMStack in version 11 to better reflect its purpose and avoid confusion with the Bun JavaScript runtime. The name DOMStack represents the layering of web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). It is also an homage to subtack as well as a play on the productname that stole his name.

Links

License

MIT

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 490 Commits
.github		.github
.vscode		.vscode
examples		examples
lib		lib
test-cases		test-cases
.gitignore		.gitignore
.npmignore		.npmignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
bin.js		bin.js
declaration.tsconfig.json		declaration.tsconfig.json
dependencygraph.svg		dependencygraph.svg
eslint.config.js		eslint.config.js
index.js		index.js
package.json		package.json
page.vars.ts		page.vars.ts
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json

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License

bcomnes/domstack

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation

🪢 DOMStack

Table of Contents

Usage

Core Concepts

Examples

Additional examples

Pages

md pages

html pages

ts/js pages

Page Styles

Page JS Bundles

.tsx/.jsx

Page variable files

Draft pages

Web Workers

Layouts

The default root.layout.js

Nested layouts

Layout styles

Layout TS/JS Bundles

Nested layout TS/JS bundles and styles

Static assets

--eject flag

--copy directories

Templates

Simple string template

Object template

Object array template

AsyncIterator template

RSS Feed Template Example

Global Assets

global.vars.ts

browser variable

global.client.ts

global.css

esbuild.settings.ts

markdown-it.settings.ts

Variables

postVars post processing variables (Advanced) {#postVars}

TypeScript Support

Supported File Types

Recommended tsconfig.json

Using TypeScript with domstack Types

Design Goals

FAQ

Examples

Implementation

Build Process Flow

buildPages() Detail

Roadmap

History

Links

License

About

Topics

Resources

License

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Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases 97

Sponsor this project

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Packages 0

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Contributors 4

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Languages

`md` pages

`html` pages

`ts`/`js` pages

The default `root.layout.js`

`--eject` flag

`--copy` directories

`global.vars.ts`

`browser` variable

`global.client.ts`

`global.css`

`esbuild.settings.ts`

`markdown-it.settings.ts`

`postVars` post processing variables (Advanced) {#postVars}

Recommended `tsconfig.json`

Packages