Create

Once Marque is installed, creating a site is mostly about two things:

  1. Creating the starter project
  2. Understanding the template's core files and folders

Create a new site

To create and serve a new Marque site, run:

sh
marque new my-site
cd my-site
marque serve .

You can also choose a layout and theme up front:

sh
marque new my-site --layout topnav --theme rustique

What you get

txt
my-site/
├── pages/        # source content: each `.mq` file becomes an HTML page
├── layouts/      # shared shell plus layout css for nav and page chrome
├── themes/       # theme css files that control visual styling
├── static/       # put assets like images and documents here
├── marque.toml   # default configuration for all pages
├── summary.mq    # controls navigation labels and order
├── 404.mq        # fallback page when a route does not exist yet
└── dist/         # generated website

The starter is meant to be edited directly. Themes, layouts, directives, and pages all live in the project.

The core files

Marque projects require 3 core files to function: the default configuration (marque.toml), the navigation structure (summary.mq), and the fallback page (404.mq). These files are generated for you when you create a new site, and you can edit them to change your site's defaults, navigation, and 404 page.

marque.toml

Site-wide defaults live here: title, description, layout, theme, and width.

summary.mq

Controls navigation labels, ordering, grouping, and nesting.

404.mq

The fallback page when a route does not exist yet.

The working folders

pages/

This is your source content. Each .mq file becomes an HTML page.

mq
+++
title = "My Page"
nav = "my-page"
+++

# My Page

themes/ and layouts/

Themes control visual styling. Layouts control the shared HTML shell, runtime behavior, and automatic page chrome such as navigation placement.

static/ and dist/

Put assets in static/. Marque copies them as-is. dist/ is generated output from marque build.

What to edit first

Open marque.toml and set the site title, layout, and theme.

Edit summary.mq to define your real navigation.

Replace the starter pages in pages/ with your content.

Adjust themes/ and layouts/ only when the starter setup is not enough.

Notes

Navigation comes from summary.mq

A page can exist in pages/ without appearing in nav if it is not listed in summary.mq.

Frontmatter is optional

A page can rely entirely on the defaults in marque.toml, then override only what it needs.

Build output is disposable

dist/ is generated. Edit source files, not generated HTML.

If you already finished Quickstart, this page is the next step: use it to understand the scaffold you are now editing.