---
layout: step
title: Setup
menu_name: Step by Step Tutorial
position: 1
---
Welcome to Jekyll's step-by-step tutorial. The goal of this tutorial is to take
you from having some front end web development experience to building your
first Jekyll site from scratch — not relying on the default gem-based theme.
Let's get into it!
## Installation
Jekyll is a Ruby program so you need to install Ruby on your machine to begin
with. Head over to the [install guide](/docs/installation/) and follow the
instructions for your operating system.
With Ruby setup you can install Jekyll by running the following in your
terminal:
```
gem install jekyll bundler
```
## Create a site
It's time to create a site! Create a new directory for your site, you can name
it whatever you'd like. Through the rest of this tutorial we'll refer to this
directory as “root”.
If you're feeling adventurous, you can also initialize a Git repository here.
One of the great things about Jekyll is there's no database. All content and
site structure are files which a Git repository can version. Using a repository
is completely optional but it's a great habit to get into. You can learn more
about using Git by reading through the
[Git Handbook](https://guides.github.com/introduction/git-handbook/).
Let's add your first file. Create `index.html` in the root with the following
content:
```html
Home
Hello World!
```
## Build
Jekyll is a static site generator so we need Jekyll to build the site
before we can view it. There are two commands you can run in the root of your site
to build it:
* `jekyll build` - Builds the site and outputs a static site to a directory
called `_site`.
* `jekyll serve` - Does the same thing except it rebuilds any time you make
a change and runs a local web server at `http://localhost:4000`.
When you're developing a site you'll use `jekyll serve` as it updates with any
changes you make.
Run `jekyll serve` and go to
http://localhost:4000 in
your browser. You should see "Hello World!".
Well, you might be thinking what's the point in this? Jekyll just copied an
HTML file from one place to another. Well patience young grasshopper, there's
still much to learn!