---
id: installation
title: Installation
---

Docusaurus is essentially a set of npm [packages](https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus/tree/master/packages) that can be installed over npm.

## Requirements

- [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/download/) version >= 10.9.0 or above (which can be checked by running `node -v`). You can use [nvm](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm) for managing multiple Node versions on a single machine installed
- [Yarn](https://yarnpkg.com/en/) version >= 1.5 (which can be checked by running `yarn version`). Yarn is a performant package manager for JavaScript and replaces the `npm` client. It is not strictly necessary but highly encouraged.

## Scaffold project website

The easiest way to install Docusaurus is to use the command line tool that helps you scaffold a skeleton Docusaurus website. You can run this command anywhere in a new empty repository or within an existing repository, it will create a new directory containing the scaffolded files.

```bash
npx @docusaurus/init@next init [name] [template]
```

Example:

```bash
npx @docusaurus/init@next init my-website classic
```

If you do not specify `name` or `template`, it will prompt you for them. We recommend the `classic` template so that you can get started quickly and it contains features found in Docusaurus 1. The `classic` template contains `@docusaurus/preset-classic` which includes standard documentation, a blog, custom pages, and a CSS framework (with dark mode support). You can get up and running extremely quickly with the classic template and customize things later on when you have gained more familiarity with Docusaurus.

**[FB-Only]:** If you are setting up a new Docusaurus website for a Facebook open source project, use the `facebook` template instead, which comes with some useful Facebook-specific defaults:

```bash
npx @docusaurus/init@next init my-website facebook
```

## Project structure

Assuming you chose the classic template and named your site `my-website`, you will see the following files generated under a new directory `my-website/`:

```sh
my-website
├── blog
│   ├── 2019-05-28-hola.md
│   ├── 2019-05-29-hello-world.md
│   └── 2020-05-30-welcome.md
├── docs
│   ├── doc1.md
│   ├── doc2.md
│   ├── doc3.md
│   └── mdx.md
├── src
│   ├── css
│   │   └── custom.css
│   └── pages
│       ├── styles.module.css
│       └── index.js
├── static
│   └── img
├── docusaurus.config.js
├── package.json
├── README.md
├── sidebars.js
└── yarn.lock
```

### Project structure rundown

- `/blog/` - Contains the blog markdown files. You can delete the directory if you do not want/need a blog. More details can be found in the [blog guide](blog.md).
- `/docs/` - Contains the markdown files for the docs. Customize the order of the docs sidebar in `sidebars.js`. More details can be found in the [docs guide](markdown-features.mdx).
- `/src/` - Non-documentation files like pages or custom React components. You don't have to strictly put your non-documentation files in here but putting them under a centralized directory makes it easier to specify in case you need to do some sort of linting/processing
  - `/src/pages` - Any files within this directory will be converted into a website page. More details can be found in the [pages guide](creating-pages.md).
- `/static/` - Static directory. Any contents inside here will be copied into the root of the final `build` directory.
- `/docusaurus.config.js` - A config file containing the site configuration. This is the equivalent of `siteConfig.js` in Docusaurus 1.
- `/package.json` - A Docusaurus website is a React app. You can install and use any npm packages you like in them.
- `/sidebar.js` - Used by the documentation to specify the order of documents in the sidebar.

## Running the development server

To preview your changes as you edit the files, you can run a local development server that will serve your website and it will reflect the latest changes.

```bash npm2yarn
cd my-website
npm run start
```

By default, a browser window will open at http://localhost:3000.

Congratulations! You have just created your first Docusaurus site! Browse around the site to see what's available.

## Build

Docusaurus is a modern static website generator so we need to build the website into a directory of static contents and put it on a web server so that it can be viewed. To build the website:

```bash npm2yarn
npm run build
```

and contents will be generated within the `/build` directory, which can be copied to any static file hosting service like [GitHub pages](https://pages.github.com/), [Now](https://zeit.co/now) or [Netlify](https://www.netlify.com/). Check out the docs on [deployment](deployment.md) for more details.

## Updating your Docusaurus version

There are many ways to update your Docusaurus version. One guaranteed way is to manually change the version number in `package.json` to the desired version. Note that all `@docusaurus/`-namespaced packages should be using the same version.

:::important

Please update to the latest Docusaurus 2 version shown at the top of the page, not what is shown below.

:::

```json title="package.json"
"dependencies": {
  "@docusaurus/core": "^2.0.0-alpha.49",
  "@docusaurus/preset-classic": "^2.0.0-alpha.49",
  // ...
}
```

Then, in the directory containing `package.json`, run your package manager's install command:

```bash npm2yarn
npm install
```

To check that that the update occurred successfully, run:

```bash npm2yarn
npm docusaurus --version
```

You should see the correct version as output.

Alternatively, if you are using Yarn, you can do:

```bash
yarn upgrade @docusaurus/core@2.0.0-alpha.49 @docusaurus/preset-classic@2.0.0-alpha.49
```

## Problems?

Ask for help on [Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/docusaurus), on our [GitHub repository](https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/docusaurus).
