📝 RullstPress: The Native Static Site Generator

RullstPress is a lightning-fast, zero-dependency Static Site Generator (SSG) built directly into the Rullst CLI (cargo-rullst). It compiles standard Markdown files (.md) into highly-optimized, premium, SEO-friendly HTML files.

🌟 What can I build with it?

A common misconception is that RullstPress is only for writing framework documentation. In reality, RullstPress is a general-purpose high-fidelity publishing engine.

You can use it to build:

1. Technical Documentation & Wikis: Leverage the automatically generated, responsive sidebar navigation.
2. SaaS & Product Landing Pages: Use the special index.md template to render beautiful hero headers and gorgeous interactive grids without writing CSS.
3. Personal Portfolios & Content Sites: Fast, lightweight personal pages showcasing your projects with premium typography and glassmorphic elements.
4. Blogs & News Platforms: Organize articles into folders and generate clean, readable content sheets.

🛠️ Step 1: Installation

RullstPress is bundled inside the Rullst CLI. If you haven't installed the CLI yet, run:

cargo install cargo-rullst

(You must have Rust and Cargo installed on your system. If not, visit rustup.rs)

📂 Step 2: Project Structure

To start building a static website or documentation hub, create a new directory for your project and add a docs/ folder inside it.

mkdir my-awesome-site
cd my-awesome-site
mkdir docs

Inside the docs/ folder, create your markdown files:

my-awesome-site/
└── docs/
    ├── index.md             # The Home Page (special Hero & Feature layout)
    ├── 1-getting-started.md # A guide (number prefix determines sidebar order)
    ├── 2-architecture.md    # Another guide
    └── logo.png             # Your custom logo

[!TIP] Sidebar Ordering: By default, RullstPress sorts pages alphabetically. Use numeric prefixes like 1-getting-started.md to force a specific reading order in the sidebar. The prefixes are automatically hidden from the rendered titles!

The Magic index.md

RullstPress has a Landing Page Mode. If you name a file index.md, instead of rendering a classic reading layout with a sidebar, it generates a SaaS-style Hero page. It automatically structures:

• A centered visual logo (looks for an image link in the markdown).
• A large glowing headline title with smooth gradient text.
• A prominent call-to-action button pulsing with elegant animations.

💻 Step 3: Local Development Server

To preview your website in real-time as you write, run the development server at the root of your project (my-awesome-site/):

cargo rullst docs dev

What happens under the hood?

1. RullstPress scans your docs/ directory.
2. It compiles all .md files into optimized HTML.
3. It copies your images and static assets to a temporary output folder.
4. It boots a high-performance local server at http://localhost:4000.

Open your browser to http://localhost:4000 to see your site. The URLs match your file structure:

• docs/1-getting-started.md → http://localhost:4000/1-getting-started.html

📦 Step 4: Production Build

When you are ready to deploy your site, stop the development server (Ctrl+C) and run:

cargo rullst docs build

This command compiles your entire static site with maximum production optimizations and deposits all final, minified HTML/CSS assets into the docs/dist/ directory.

You can upload the contents of the docs/dist/ folder to any static hosting provider (Vercel, Netlify, Apache, Nginx).

🌍 Step 5: Hosting on GitHub Pages (Free)

Hosting your RullstPress site on GitHub Pages is incredibly easy and completely free.

1. Push your code to GitHub

Initialize a git repository, commit your docs/ folder, and push it to a GitHub repository.

[!IMPORTANT] Don't forget to push the docs/dist/ folder! Run cargo rullst docs build before pushing so the dist/ folder has your latest changes.

2. Configure GitHub Pages

1. Open your repository on GitHub.
2. Go to the Settings tab.
3. On the left sidebar, click on Pages.
4. Under Build and deployment, set the Source to Deploy from a branch.
5. Under Branch, select your main (or master) branch, and change the folder dropdown from /(root) to /docs/dist.
6. Click Save.

3. Wait a minute

GitHub will start a background action to deploy your site. In about a minute, your website will be live at: https://<your-username>.github.io/<your-repo-name>/

Congratulations! Your premium, high-speed website is now live!