Getting Started with Astro

astroweb-developmentjavascript

Astro is a modern static site generator that delivers lightning-fast performance by shipping zero JavaScript by default. It’s the perfect choice for content-focused websites like blogs, documentation sites, and portfolios.

Why Astro?

Astro’s island architecture allows you to use your favorite UI frameworks while keeping your site blazingly fast. Here’s what makes it special:

Key Features

  • Zero JS by default - Ship only what you need
  • Content Collections - Type-safe content management with Zod validation
  • Framework Agnostic - Use React, Vue, Svelte, or none at all
  • File-based routing - Intuitive page structure
  • Built-in optimizations - Automatic image optimization and lazy loading

Getting Started

Creating a new Astro project is straightforward:

npm create astro@latest my-blog
cd my-blog
npm run dev

This command walks you through project setup with helpful prompts.

Content Collections

One of Astro’s best features is Content Collections. They provide type-safe content management:

import { defineCollection, z } from 'astro:content';

const blog = defineCollection({
  schema: z.object({
    title: z.string(),
    description: z.string(),
    pubDate: z.coerce.date(),
    tags: z.array(z.string()).default([]),
  }),
});

What’s Next?

In future posts, I’ll cover:

  • Building a custom theme system with CSS custom properties
  • Implementing dark mode that respects user preferences
  • Optimizing for 95+ Lighthouse scores
  • Deploying to Vercel with automatic previews

Stay tuned for more Astro content!