Getting started with Everlock

This page gives the shortest realistic path from a fresh checkout to publishing content through Everlock itself. It stays close to the current docs and code layout.

sequenceDiagram
participant You
participant SSH as Admin SSH
participant Git as Git backend
participant Site as Site backend
You->>SSH: everlock serve + ssh -p 2222 admin@localhost
You->>SSH: /backends enable site-http git-ssh
You->>SSH: /site create everlock-docs vhost=localhost mode=markdown
You->>Git: git clone ssh://admin@localhost:2222/everlock-docs
You->>Git: git push content
Git-->>Site: updated store visible immediately
Site-->>You: rendered Markdown pages over HTTP

1. Install and start the binary

At the moment, Everlock is installed from source. You need a working Rust toolchain with Cargo on the machine where you want to run it.

If you want a globally installed binary today, install it directly from the public repository:

cargo install --git https://codeberg.org/JensWalter/everlock.git everlock
everlock serve

If you are already working from an existing local checkout instead, install the binary from that checkout and run it directly:

cargo install --path .
everlock serve

serve starts the actual Everlock instance: it loads the system store, starts the enabled frontends and backends, and exposes the admin SSH interface. server is accepted as an alias, but serve is the canonical form. The same CLI shape also leaves room for local-only actions such as everlock site preview and everlock site build.

On first start, Everlock creates or opens its data directory, loads user state, and brings up the SSH admin surface even if you have not enabled any content backends yet. If no admin password exists yet, Everlock bootstraps the default admin account and prints the generated password in the startup output unless you provided --admin-password yourself.

2. Connect to the admin console

ssh -p 2222 admin@localhost

From there, you can enable backends, create sites, create repositories, and inspect system state.

3. Enable the pieces you need

For a documentation-style public site, the minimum useful pair is the site backend plus the Git backend:

/backends enable site-http git-ssh

Reconnect after restart if the admin console tells you to.

4. Create a Markdown site

/site create everlock-docs vhost=localhost mode=markdown

That gives you a git-backed content repository which backend-site-http can render directly.

5. Clone the site repository and publish content

git clone ssh://admin@localhost:2222/everlock-docs
cd everlock-docs

Create index.md, commit, and push:

git add .
git commit -m "initial site"
git push

Everlock serves the new content immediately after the push.

6. Know the important URLs

For Markdown mode:

• / serves index.md
• /some-page serves some-page.md
• /docs/ serves docs/index.md or a generated section listing
• /search is a generated search endpoint with a template
• /index.xml and /sitemap.xml are generated automatically

7. Read the right docs next

• Architecture for the system model
• This site on Everlock for the high-level hosting model
• Docs for backend-family and transport explanations
• Configuration reference for the config surface