Getting started

5-minute tutorial: from zero to live

Five steps to a site you can put in production: generate it, install it locally, make it yours, add a plugin, deploy to Cloudflare. Each takes about a minute (the first dependency install depends on your connection).

You need Node.js 22+ and pnpm 10; a Cloudflare account (the free plan works) to deploy there. The framework is delivered under a source license, see pricing.

Step 1: generate the site (about 1 minute)

npx -y https://insightme.top/create-nuxtcms.tgz my-site

Pick a template when asked (company site, blog / news and docs are free; --template corporate picks one directly, --list shows them all). The project comes with its dependencies, styles, Chinese and English UI text, a .env with random secrets and the Cloudflare deploy config.

Step 2: install locally (about 1 minute)

cd my-site
pnpm install
pnpm dev

Open http://localhost:3000/us/setup:

enter the site name and the admin e-mail and password;
keep "Import demo content" for bilingual sample posts, products and pages;
install: you are signed in and land in the admin at /us/admin.

Development uses a SQLite file (.data/), no database server needed.

Step 3: make it yours (about 1 minute)

In the admin:

Settings: site name, logo, contact details;
SEO: title, description, keywords per language; sitemaps, hreflang and llms.txt are generated for you;
Posts / Pages: write the first post, or give it a future date to publish it later; every earlier version is kept and can be restored;
top-right menu → Account security: turn on two-factor sign-in (see Admin account security).

Public pages live in app/pages/: put a file at the same path in your site to change a page; every other page keeps coming from the framework.

Step 4: add a plugin (about 1 minute)

Online plugins: Admin → Plugins → Marketplace; free plugins install with a click, no rebuild.

Official feature plugins (shop, SaaS kit, AI assistant, page builder, marketing tools, blog toolkit) ship with the framework and are added with one command, e.g. the marketing tools (waitlist, changelog, feedback board, legal pages):

pnpm plugin add marketing
pnpm dev

After the restart, enable "Marketing tools" in Admin → Plugins: a Marketing menu appears and /us/waitlist, /us/changelog and /us/feedback are live. Every plugin: Plugins.

Step 5: deploy to Cloudflare (about 1 minute)

cp .cloudflare.env.example .cloudflare.env   # CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN and CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID
pnpm deploy:init                             # creates the D1 database, R2 bucket, Pages project, secrets
pnpm deploy:migrate                          # migrations + build + publish

The API token needs edit rights on D1, R2 and Pages (Cloudflare dashboard → My Profile → API Tokens). Then open https://my-site.pages.dev/us/setup and create the production admin the same way. No server to look after: the database is D1, uploads go to R2.

On a public site, set an install token first (pnpm exec wrangler pages secret put NUXT_SETUP_TOKEN --project-name my-site, then pnpm deploy:migrate once more): the setup wizard asks for it, so nobody can install before you.

Your own domain: Cloudflare dashboard → the Pages project → Custom domains. With several domains, send the others to the primary one in Admin → Redirects → Domains, see Redirects.

Not on Cloudflare? The same code runs on Nginx / Baota, Docker, Vercel, Netlify, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud and more, see Deployment.

Scheduled tasks (publishing backstop, plugin tasks, clean-up): deploy deploy/cron-worker, see Operations;
coming from WordPress: import the WXR export, see Migrating from WordPress;
building a SaaS: SaaS kit (accounts, subscriptions, credits, API keys, teams);
upgrading: change one version number and run npx nuxtcms doctor on the files you overrode, see Getting started;
how InsightSite compares with ShipFast, WordPress and others: https://insightme.top/us/compare.