Generate Command

The generate command is the primary workhorse of Kiln. It reads your Markdown files from the source directory and compiles them into a fully functional, static HTML website ready for deployment.

You will run this command every time you want to update your site with new content.

Usage

./kiln generate [flags]

Flags

There are some flags that you can use to customize the output:

Flag	Short	Default	Description
`--theme`	`-t`	`default`	Sets the visual color scheme. See Themes for options.
`--font`	`-f`	`inter`	Sets the typography family. See Fonts for options.
`--url`	`-u`	`""`	The final public URL of your site (e.g., `https://example.com`). Required for generating the Sitemap xml and Robots txt.
`--name`	`-n`	`My Notes`	The global name of your site. This appears in the browser tab and Meta Tags.
`--input`	`-i`	`vault`	The path to your source folder containing the Markdown notes.
`--output`	`-o`	`public`	The path where the generated HTML files will be saved.
`--flat-urls`		`false`	Generate flat HTML files (`note.html`) instead of pretty directories (`note/index.html`)

Examples

Basic Test

For a quick local test, you can run the command without arguments (uses default settings):

./kiln generate

Production Build

When deploying your site to the web, you should always include the url and name flags to ensure SEO features work correctly.

./kiln generate \
  --name "My Digital Garden" \
  --url "https://notes.mysite.com" \
  --theme "nord" \
  --font "inter"