Khalid Start a blog

Start a Khalid blog

Four ways to start a Khalid blog, from a one-line install to a free blog on Cloudflare, and where to read more.

Pick the way that suits you. Each one gives you the same Khalid. You can move between them later, because your blog is a folder of text files.

Install it on your computer

On Linux or a Mac, this one line downloads the newest release, checks it and puts khalid on your path:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thebigasif/khalid/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

On Windows, download the .exe file from the releases page. Then make a blog and open it:

khalid init blog --address https://blog.example.com --yes
khalid --site blog serve

The blog is now at http://127.0.0.1:8080/ on your computer. To sign in to the admin, run khalid --site blog staff owner with your email and name, and open the link it shows.

Run it in Docker

Docker runs programs in a sealed box, the same on every machine. Each release publishes an image for x86_64 and ARM computers:

mkdir site
docker run --rm -u "$(id -u):$(id -g)" -v "$PWD/site:/site" ghcr.io/thebigasif/khalid:latest init /site --address https://blog.example.com --yes
docker run -d -u "$(id -u):$(id -g)" -p 8080:8080 -v "$PWD/site:/site" ghcr.io/thebigasif/khalid:latest

The blog is then at http://localhost:8080/, and its files stay in the site folder beside you.

The repository also has a Compose file and ready files for Fly.io, Railway, Coolify and a Hetzner Cloud server.

Put a free blog on Cloudflare

Cloudflare can host a Khalid blog of plain files on its free plan. Select the button below. Cloudflare copies a small ready blog into your GitHub account and puts it online. Every change you push builds it again.

Deploy to Cloudflare

A blog of plain files has no admin, comments, forms, sign-ups, search or scheduling. For those, run Khalid as a server.

Build it from source

You need git, Rust, a C compiler and Node.js. Node.js builds the admin; without it you get a working blog with no admin.

git clone https://github.com/thebigasif/khalid.git
cd khalid/admin
npm ci
npm run build
cd ..
cargo install --path crates/khalid --locked

Read more

  • Getting started: a site, a first post, the admin, checks, imports and backups.
  • Deploy: a server, Docker, hosting platforms and HTTPS.
  • Cloudflare: the button and the Cloudflare Pages steps.
  • Newsletters: sending posts to subscribers.
  • Templates: picking a layout and its options.

Not sure yet? Read what Khalid does or see the demo blog.