Installation#

There are two ways to use Kiln, and most projects use both:

The kiln command-line tool — to scaffold, build, and preview sites.
The Kiln Swift library — the dependency your docs project builds against.

Install the CLI#

With Homebrew (macOS, Apple Silicon):

brew install brokenhandsio/tap/kiln

Or build it from source (any platform with a Swift toolchain, including Intel Macs and Linux):

git clone https://github.com/brokenhandsio/kiln.git
cd kiln
swift build -c release
cp .build/release/kiln /usr/local/bin/   # or anywhere on your PATH

Check it works:

kiln --version

Tip

The fastest way to start a new project is kiln new, which scaffolds the SwiftPM package, content directory, and a starter configuration for you.

Add the library#

A Kiln site is a small SwiftPM executable that depends on the Kiln library. Add it to your Package.swift:

dependencies: [
    .package(url: "https://github.com/brokenhandsio/kiln.git", from: "0.1.0"),
],
targets: [
    .executableTarget(
        name: "Docs",
        dependencies: [
            .product(name: "Kiln", package: "kiln"),
        ]
    ),
]

Requirements#

Requirement	Version
Swift	6.2+
macOS	13+ (Ventura)
Linux	✅ (any distribution Swift supports)

Note

Kiln uses swift-markdown for parsing and Leaf for templating. The bundled default theme ships as a package resource, so there’s nothing extra to install.

Next: build your first site in the Quick Start.