eleventy-base-forestry — Eleventy Blog Template

SHA-256: 44dfe6137dd808cfdb53279d0e7f53295cc11bff6bc3deae53b9ee675ee180f4

2026-10-12T21:04:57.393Z

# eleventy-base-blog for Forestry

A starter repository showing how to build a blog with the [Eleventy](https://github.com/11ty/eleventy) static site generator.

Pre-configured for Forestry CMS, import it in a single click

[![Import this project into Forestry](https://assets.forestry.io/import-to-forestryK.svg)](https://app.forestry.io/quick-start?repo=dirtyf/eleventy-base-forestry&engine=other&branch=forestry)

## Demos

* [Netlify](https://eleventy-base-blog.netlify.com/)
* [GitHub Pages](https://11ty.github.io/eleventy-base-blog/)
* [Remix on Glitch](https://glitch.com/~11ty-eleventy-base-blog)

## Deploy this to your own site

These builders are amazing—try them out to get your own Eleventy site in a few clicks!

* [Get your own Eleventy web site on Netlify](https://app.netlify.com/start/deploy?repository=https://github.com/11ty/eleventy-base-blog)
* [Get your own Eleventy web site on Vercel](https://vercel.com/import/project?template=11ty%2Feleventy-base-blog)

## Getting Started

### 1. Clone this Repository

```
git clone https://github.com/11ty/eleventy-base-blog.git my-blog-name
```


### 2. Navigate to the directory

```
cd my-blog-name
```

Specifically have a look at `.eleventy.js` to see if you want to configure any Eleventy options differently.

### 3. Install dependencies

```
npm install
```

### 4. Edit _data/metadata.json

### 5. Run Eleventy

```
npx eleventy
```

Or build and host locally for local development
```
npx eleventy --serve
```

Or build automatically when a template changes:
```
npx eleventy --watch
```

Or in debug mode:
```
DEBUG=* npx eleventy
```

### Implementation Notes

* `about/index.md` shows how to add a content page.
* `posts/` has the blog posts but really they can live in any directory. They need only the `post` tag to be added to this collection.
* Add the `nav` tag to add a template to the top level site navigation. For example, this is in use on `index.njk` and `about/index.md`.
* Content can be any template format (blog posts needn’t be markdown, for example). Configure your supported templates in `.eleventy.js` -> `templateFormats`.
	* Because `css` and `png` are listed in `templateFormats` but are not supported template types, any files with these extensions will be copied without modification to the output (while keeping the same directory structure).
* The blog post feed template is in `feed/feed.njk`. This is also a good example of using a global data files in that it uses `_data/metadata.json`.
* This example uses three layouts:
  * `_includes/layouts/base.njk`: the top level HTML structure
  * `_includes/layouts/home.njk`: the home page template (wrapped into `base.njk`)
  * `_includes/layouts/post.njk`: the blog post template (wrapped into `base.njk`)
* `_includes/postlist.njk` is a Nunjucks include and is a reusable component used to display a list of all the posts. `index.njk` has an example of how to use it.