# Install

> One command sets up a project, with its configuration and a first page — and asks you what it should contain.

<Skill name="Module progress" level={33}>
  Lesson 1 of 3.
</Skill>

## Before you start

You need <Tooltip text="The JavaScript runtime DocPensieve runs on — version 22 or later.">Node.js</Tooltip> and a terminal. Nothing else: the theme ships with the tool.

## Your turn

```bash
npx docpensieve init my-course
```

The command asks a few questions, then writes the project.

| It asks           | Why it matters                                                        |
| ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| A name            | Shown in the header and in the tab                                    |
| A public address  | Fills the sitemap and the share previews; can be left for later       |
| A first version   | Names the folder your pages live in — `docs/v1.0`                     |
| A theme           | `tailwind` to write utilities in pages, `custom` for classes of yours |
| The documentation | Installs this tool's own documentation inside your site, or not       |

<Admonition type="note" title="No questions?">
  Without a real terminal — a script, a pipeline, a piped command — `init` asks nothing and takes
  the defaults. It says so before starting, unless you passed `--yes`, which is the way to mean it
  on purpose.
</Admonition>

## What it writes

<Tree>
  <TreeItem label="my-course" open>
    <TreeItem label="docpensieve.config.mjs — every setting of the site" />
    <TreeItem label="docs" open>
      <TreeItem label="v1.0" open>
        <TreeItem label="index.md — the home page" />
        <TreeItem label="01-guide — a first section, with an example page" />
        <TreeItem label="99-docpensieve — this tool's own documentation, to delete when done" />
      </TreeItem>
    </TreeItem>
    <TreeItem label=".gitignore — keeps dist/ and node_modules/ out of the repository" />
  </TreeItem>
</Tree>

<Columns>
  <Column>
    <Card style={{ height: '100%' }}>
      <CardHeader>What you get</CardHeader>
      <CardBody>
        A configuration file, a documentation folder and a first page — ready to build.
      </CardBody>
    </Card>
  </Column>
  <Column>
    <Card style={{ height: '100%' }}>
      <CardHeader>What you do not need</CardHeader>
      <CardBody>
        No framework to add, no build tool to configure, no server to run in production.
      </CardBody>
    </Card>
  </Column>
</Columns>

## Open the configuration

It is the file you will come back to in every module of this course. Every
setting is written in it, most of them commented out — it is a menu as much as
a configuration:

```js
/** @type {import('@docpensieve/core').DocPensieveConfig} */
export default {
  // Name shown in the header, in the page titles and in the structured data.
  projectName: 'My documentation',

  // Public address of the site. It feeds the canonical links and the
  // structured data, and its path gives the deployment prefix.
  // siteUrl: 'https://example.com/my-project',

  versions: [
    {
      slug: 'v1.0', // URL segment, and name of the version's branch
      name: '1.0', // label in the version switcher
      folder: 'docs/v1.0',
      current: true,
    },
  ],
};
```

The comment above the file is not decoration: it is what gives your editor the
name and the shape of every field, so a typo shows up while you type rather
than at the next build.

<Admonition type="tip" title="Why .mjs">
  The extension is what tells Node to read the file as a module. A `.js` file works only if a
  `package.json` nearby says so — and the one `npm init` writes says the opposite. The tool accepts
  both and refuses to guess when it finds two.
</Admonition>

## Check yourself

<details>
<summary>Which file holds the settings of the project?</summary>

`docpensieve.config.mjs`, at the root of the project.

</details>

<details>
<summary>You ran `init` in a pipeline and it created a site you did not choose. Why?</summary>

There was no terminal to answer the questions, so it took the defaults. Pass
the options on the command line — or `--yes` — when you want that on purpose.

</details>

<Card href="/versions/beta/guide/installation/">
  <CardBody>
    This lesson uses **Skill**, **Tooltip**, **Tree**, **Admonition**, **Columns** and **Card** —
    the installation guide covers the options one by one.
  </CardBody>
</Card>