eleventy-garden — Eleventy Starter Template

SHA-256: a9ae64d93b96a773fcafa48965ea3912e53ce2f58a5d75f7c47e5a7acb34d0fa

2026-10-01T14:22:24.321Z

# Eleventy-Garden

A starter site for building a [mind garden](https://www.mentalnodes.com/a-gardening-guide-for-your-mind), using [11ty](https://github.com/11ty/eleventy) ([demo](https://eleventy-garden.netlify.app/))

[![Netlify Status](https://api.netlify.com/api/v1/badges/4ce845a6-b009-4fcf-9ad4-a560d01a0073/deploy-status)](https://app.netlify.com/sites/eleventy-garden/deploys)

> Note: I'm not building this project for myself, so y'all gotta tell me what you think. Issues are the way to go here.

## :seedling: Introduction

#### What is a digital garden?

A digital garden is a website where the primary organization of content emerges from contextual hyperlinks moreso than a chronological method of organization. It's a mix of a notebook and a blog, and often uses the ethos of "working in public."

#### Why use a mind garden?

Good way of presenting your own personal knowledge and understanding of things, as well as connecting them back and to each other, etc. A digital garden is a fun way to non-linearly represent all the things you care about on the web. Check out these great examples of mind gardens:

- https://maggieappleton.com/
- https://wiki.nikiv.dev/
- https://joelhooks.com/

#### Why use eleventy-garden?

Eleventy-garden allows you to quickly take advantage of [eleventy's](https://github.com/11ty/eleventy) static site generation and makes a starter template for hosting your own personal mindgarden website. Everything is free, easy and fun! Read ahead to get started :)

## :house: About

- Double-bracket links (the ones roam uses)
- Displays backlinks
- hovercards for backlinks

### Related

- [maximevaillancourt/digital-garden-jekyll-template](https://github.com/maximevaillancourt/digital-garden-jekyll-template)
- [mathieudutour/gatsby-digital-garden](https://github.com/mathieudutour/gatsby-digital-garden/)
- Find more at [maggieappleton/digital-gardeners](https://github.com/maggieappleton/digital-gardeners)

## :rocket: Usage

Check out [the wiki](https://github.com/binyamin/eleventy-garden/wiki) for more information, including FAQs and wiki guides (coming soon).

### Getting started

[![deploy to netlify](https://www.netlify.com/img/deploy/button.svg)](https://app.netlify.com/start/deploy?repository=https://github.com/b3u/eleventy-garden)

**First Steps**

- [Generate a repository from this template](https://github.com/binyamin/eleventy-garden/generate)
- Clone the repository locally ([how to clone a git repository](https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/creating-cloning-and-archiving-repositories/cloning-a-repository))
- Run `npm install` in a terminal.

**Make your changes**

- Styling: The css file is in `/assets/style.css`
- Branding: Add your logo or avatar in `/assets/avatar.png`
- Content: `/_data/site.json` contains vital information to make the site your own
  - Drop your notes in the `/notes` folder
- Testing: To view it locally, open a terminal and type `npm start`

**Publish it**

- You can use Netlify, Vercel, or whatever else works.

## :heart: Contribute

Feel free to dive in!

Here's what this project needs...

- Feedback! I didn't make this repo is for myself, so y'all gotta tell me what you want.
- Stars on GitHub
- Contributors - check out the [contributing guide](https://github.com/binyamin/eleventy-garden/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)

### Maintainers

[@binyamin](https://github.com/binyamin)

## :scroll: License

This project is under the [MIT](https://github.com/binyamin/eleventy-garden/blob/main/LICENSE) license.
Please adhere to the [code of conduct](https://github.com/binyamin/eleventy-garden/blob/main/.github/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md).