A fast static site generator written in Rust 🦀 that transforms Markdown files into beautiful, responsive websites with internationalization support and modern theming ✨
- GitHub Flavored Markdown with tables, footnotes, code blocks
- YAML front matter with custom fields and layout override
- Draft support via
draft: truein front matter - Automatic asset copying and directory structure preservation
- Site configuration via
site.toml
- Light/dark mode with OS detection and manual toggle
- Language detection from
file.lang.mdpattern (e.g.,post.it.md→ Italian) - Supported languages (via an internal language map): 62 languages including en, it, es, fr, de, pt, ja, zh, ru, ar, and many more
- Index selection rule: for multiple language variants of the same post base
name, the index shows a single entry preferring the default language; if only
a non-default language exists (e.g., only
foo.it.md), it will be included - Tera-based templating with responsive design
- Development server with live reload and file watching
- RFC 4287 compliant Atom feeds with xml:base support
- XML sitemap generation with multilingual support (
<xhtml:link>alternate language declarations) - SEO-optimized robots.txt with sitemap reference and bot management
- Table of contents generation with
toc: true - Bidirectional footnote navigation with smooth scrolling
- Smart scroll-to-top button and theme-aware syntax highlighting
- PDF generation with pandoc and typst engines (
pdf: truein front matter) - Language-aware PDF links in HTML templates with responsive design
See Krik in action! My personal website is built with Krik and showcases real-world usage:
- Live Website: https://mirkocaserta.com - A complete blog built with Krik
- Feature Demo: https://krik.mirkocaserta.com/ - Comprehensive demo showcasing all Krik features including themes, i18n, TOC, footnotes, and more
- Themes Demo: https://themes.krik.mirkocaserta.com - Gallery showcasing all available Krik themes
The demo site includes example posts demonstrating markdown features, theme switching, internationalization, and all the advanced capabilities that make Krik a powerful static site generator.
Download the latest release for your platform:
# Linux x64
wget https://github.com/mcaserta/krik/releases/latest/download/kk-linux-x86_64
chmod +x kk-linux-x86_64
sudo mv kk-linux-x86_64 /usr/local/bin/kk
# macOS (Intel)
wget https://github.com/mcaserta/krik/releases/latest/download/kk-macos-x86_64
chmod +x kk-macos-x86_64
sudo mv kk-macos-x86_64 /usr/local/bin/kk
# macOS (Apple Silicon)
wget https://github.com/mcaserta/krik/releases/latest/download/kk-macos-aarch64
chmod +x kk-macos-aarch64
sudo mv kk-macos-aarch64 /usr/local/bin/kk
# Windows (download and add to PATH)
# https://github.com/mcaserta/krik/releases/latest/download/kk-windows-x86_64.exebrew install mcaserta/krik/krikcargo install krikgit clone https://github.com/mcaserta/krik.git
cd krik
cargo build --releaseThe executable will be available at target/release/kk.
Create a new Krik site with sample content and default theme:
kk init # Initialize in current directory
kk init my-blog # Initialize in new directory
kk init my-blog --force # Overwrite existing filesCreate new blog posts and pages quickly:
kk post "My Great Post" # Create new blog post
kk post # Create with default title "New post"
kk post "Custom Post" -f my-slug # Custom filename
kk page "About Us" # Create new page
kk page # Create with default title "New page"
kk page "Contact" -f contact # Custom filenameGenerate a site from the current directory:
kkkk server # Start on port 3000 with live reload
kk server --port 8080 # Custom port
kk server --no-live-reload # Disable live reload (useful for mobile devices)Features: Live reload, file watching, multi-interface binding, network discovery
kk lint # Lint default content directory
kk lint --input ./content # Lint a specific directory
kk lint --strict # Treat warnings as errors
kk lint --check-links # Check for broken HTTP(S) links
kk lint --create-report # Generate HTML report
kk lint --check-links --create-report --strict # Full validation with reportThe linter validates:
- Title: required and non-empty
- Language codes: must match filename suffix (e.g., hello.it.md → it)
- Slugs: filename stem must be slug-like (lowercase, numbers, hyphens)
- Layout: warns on unrecognized values and directory/layout mismatches
- Date: warns if missing for posts; warns if > 1 year in the future
- Tags: array of non-empty strings; warns when tags are not slug-like
- TOC: warns if
tocis not a boolean - Duplicate slugs: within the same directory and language
- Duplicate titles: warns within the same directory and language
Link Rot Scanning (--check-links):
- Parallel HTTP(S) link validation (up to 10 concurrent requests)
- Smart browser header simulation to avoid bot detection
- Real-time progress tracking with comprehensive logging
- Supports redirects and provides detailed error reporting
HTML Report Generation (--create-report):
- Professional HTML reports with responsive design
- ISO 8601 timestamp filenames (
krik-report-YYYY-MM-DDTHH-MM-SSZ.html) - Summary dashboard with visual status indicators
- Detailed sections for errors, warnings, and broken links
Exits non-zero on errors. In --strict mode, warnings are also treated as
errors.
kk --input /path/to/content --output /path/to/site --theme /path/to/theme-i, --input <DIR>: Input directory (default:content)-o, --output <DIR>: Output directory (default:_site)-t, --theme <DIR>: Theme directory (default:themes/default)-p, --port <PORT>: Server port (default:3000)--no-live-reload: Disable live reload functionality (server subcommand only)
content/
├── site.toml # Site configuration (not copied to output)
├── posts/ # Blog posts (uses 'post' template)
│ ├── sample.md
│ ├── sample.it.md # Italian translation
│ └── time-series.md
├── pages/ # Static pages (uses 'page' template)
│ └── about.md
├── images/ # Static files (copied as-is)
│ └── logo.png
└── any-file.md # Root level files (uses 'page' template)
title = "My Blog"
base_url = "https://example.com" # Optional, for feedsAdd metadata to your markdown files using YAML front matter:
---
title: "My Blog Post"
date: 2024-01-15T10:30:00Z
layout: post
tags: ["rust", "static-site", "web"]
toc: true
draft: false # Set to true to skip processing
---
# Your content hereFields: title, date, draft, layout, tags, toc
Tera-based templates with light/dark mode auto-detection and manual toggle.
Templates automatically chosen based on directory (posts/ → post template,
pages/ → page template). Override with layout field in front matter.
Krik uses typed errors for clear diagnostics and proper exit codes:
- Central error type:
KrikError(configuration, I/O, markdown, template, theme, server, content, generation) - Template render errors include the template name and context
- CLI exits with appropriate codes (e.g., config: 2, I/O: 3, markdown: 4, template: 5, theme: 6, server: 7, content: 8, generation: 9)
Tips:
- Run with
-v/--verbosefor detailed logs - Check paths and theme directories; messages include file/template names for faster debugging
Krik sites can be automatically deployed to GitHub Pages using GitHub Actions. Create .github/workflows/build-and-deploy.yml.
Setup Steps:
- Add the workflow file to your repository
- Ensure your site content is in the
content/directory - Enable GitHub Pages in repository settings, selecting "Deploy from a branch"
and choosing
gh-pages - Push to main branch to trigger deployment
The workflow automatically:
- Installs Rust and Krik
- Generates your site with
kk - Deploys to the
gh-pagesbranch - Adds
.nojekyllto prevent Jekyll processing
cargo build
cargo test
cargo run -- --input ./content --output ./_siteMIT License