Kiln 1.2.0

Kiln

Kiln is a fast, extensible static site generator for .NET. It is distributed as a .NET global tool and focuses on a collection-based content model, Scriban templates, and CDN-friendly asset namespaces.

Status: Early development — see the roadmap and tests for current progress.

Quick Start

Install the global tool (once published) and create a site:

dotnet tool install -g Kiln
kiln new my-site

Build and serve locally:

kiln build
kiln serve

Features

• Collection-based content model with nested (recursive) content sections
• Taxonomies (tags, categories)
• Pagination helpers
• Plugin slots and extensible templates
• CDN-friendly /assets/ namespacing
• Atom/RSS feeds and sitemap generation
• Local dev server with auto-rebuild (dev server)
• Reference documentation generation from OpenAPI specs and .NET XML docs
• Built-in search indexing (Pagefind)

Project Layout

src/
├── Kiln.Core/    # Engine: content pipeline, templating, builders
└── Kiln.Cli/     # CLI: commands, dev server, tooling
tests/
├── Kiln.Core.Tests/
└── Kiln.Cli.Tests/

CLI Reference

Common commands (exact names):

• kiln new <site-name> — create a new site scaffold
• kiln build — build the static site (output directory: _site)
• kiln serve — start local dev server with live-reload
• kiln deploy <target> — initialize deployment workflows; supported targets: github-pages, azure-swa
• kiln gen docs --openapi <spec> --output <dir> — generate reference documentation from an OpenAPI spec
• kiln gen dotnet-xml --xml <path> --output <dir> — generate reference documentation from a .NET XML documentation file
• kiln search index [path] [--no-download] [--extended] [--output <dir>] — build a Pagefind search index over the build output

Examples:

kiln new blog
kiln build
kiln serve

# Initialize GitHub Pages deployment workflow in the current project
kiln deploy github-pages

# Initialize Azure Static Web Apps workflow and staticwebapp.config.json
kiln deploy azure-swa

# Generate API reference docs from an OpenAPI spec into content/api
kiln gen docs --openapi openapi.json --output content/api

# Generate API reference docs from a .NET XML documentation file
kiln gen dotnet-xml --xml bin/Release/net10.0/MyLib.xml --output content/api-dotnet

# Build a search index over the default output directory
kiln search index

Important: the deploy command expects a target argument, e.g. github-pages or azure-swa.

Plugins find & install

Kiln can discover and install content plugins from NuGet packages marked with the kiln-plugin tag.

Security warning: content plugins can inject arbitrary HTML and JavaScript into pages, so install only packages from trusted sources.

# Search public NuGet packages for Kiln plugins
kiln plugin search email-protect

# Install a plugin into the current project
kiln plugin add Kiln.Plugin.EmailProtect --version 1.0.0

# Update a plugin that was installed through kiln plugin add
kiln plugin update email-protect

# Update all plugins recorded in .kiln/plugins.lock.json
kiln plugin update --all

# Remove a plugin folder and its lock entry
kiln plugin remove email-protect --yes

# List local plugins and their installation source
kiln plugin list

Each installed plugin is recorded in .kiln/plugins.lock.json with the package ID, installed version, and source (nuget). This file is intentionally project-local and versioned so kiln plugin update can resolve the correct package without guessing names.

Theme & Template Development

Kiln uses Scriban templates for layouts, partials and helpers. Basic concepts:

• Layouts: top-level HTML layout files
• Partials: reusable template fragments
• Slots: named insertion points for plugins and themes

Refer to templates/default in the project for a minimal theme layout and examples.

Content Plugin Shortcodes

Content plugins can declare optional shortcodes: entries in plugin.yaml and provide matching partials under plugins/<name>/shortcodes/<shortcode-name>.html.

Example plugin manifest:

name: email-protect
version: "1.1.0"
slots:
  - body_end
shortcodes:
  - email

A shortcode partial for the email shortcode would live at:

plugins/email-protect/shortcodes/email.html

Content authors then write inline calls in Markdown body content using the {% ... %} syntax:

Contact {% email "hello@cscharf.de" %} today.

The shortcode partial receives its parsed arguments, a plugin_asset_url helper scoped to the active plugin, and the built-in string.base64_encode filter. The current v1 scope intentionally does not provide a full page/collection render context; the shortcode is resolved while content is read and before the main page-render pipeline starts.

Shortcodes are not resolved inside fenced code blocks (``` / ~~~), so example snippets remain literal text.

Template data available to layouts and partials includes:

• page.ancestors — the breadcrumb chain for the current page, ordered root → … → parent (the current page itself is not included). Each entry is {title, url}.
• page.no_index — true when the current page has noIndex: true in front matter; the engine injects the robots meta tag automatically and does not require theme logic to re-render it.
• navtree.<collection-name> — the hierarchical navigation tree for a given collection. Each node is {title, url, weight, is_active, is_ancestor, children}, where is_active/is_ancestor are computed relative to the page currently being rendered.

Front matter can also set noIndex: true on individual pages to keep them out of the generated sitemap.xml and force a <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"> tag in the rendered HTML. This is intentionally separate from robots.txt generation; the engine handles the page-level no-index signal without creating a route-specific Disallow entry.

Reference Documentation Generation

Kiln can generate reference documentation content from two sources:

• OpenAPI specs (kiln gen docs --openapi <spec> --output <dir>) — generates one content file per endpoint/operation.
• .NET XML documentation (kiln gen dotnet-xml --xml <path> --output <dir>) — generates one content file per documented type/member from a project built with <GenerateDocumentationFile>true</GenerateDocumentationFile>.

Both adapters share a three-tier ownership model for generated content files:

1. Generated files are written with generated: true and a source_hash in their frontmatter.
2. A file with generated: false is treated as adopted — it is never touched again by subsequent generation runs, even if the source spec/XML changes.
3. If a generated file was edited outside of Kiln (its content no longer matches source_hash) and the source changed again, Kiln does not overwrite it — it writes <file>.md.regenerated next to it instead, so no manual edits are lost.

kiln gen docs --openapi openapi.json --output content/api
kiln gen dotnet-xml --xml bin/Release/net10.0/MyLib.xml --output content/api-dotnet

The output directory must be registered as a collection in site.yaml to be included in the build; both commands print a warning if it is not.

Search

Kiln integrates Pagefind for static full-text search.

Enable it in site.yaml:

search:
  enabled: true      # default: false
  extended: false    # use the Pagefind extended binary (multilingual support)
  binaryPath: null   # optional explicit path to a pagefind binary

Build the index after kiln build:

kiln build
kiln search index

The Pagefind binary is resolved in this order:

1. KILN_PAGEFIND_PATH environment variable, if set and the file exists.
2. The system PATH.
3. The local cache at ~/.kiln/tools/pagefind/<version>/ (override the cache root with KILN_PAGEFIND_CACHE_DIR).
4. Automatic download from the Pagefind GitHub releases, with SHA256 verification (use --no-download to disable this and fail instead).

Search is disabled by default and kiln serve never triggers indexing or a download. The default theme ships with an opt-in search UI that is self-guarded and requires no extra setup once search is enabled and indexed.

Nested Content Sections

Content collections are read recursively. For a given directory:

• A directory containing an index.md is a leaf bundle and is not recursed into further.
• Any other directory is a section and is read recursively.

URLs of nested content mirror the directory path, e.g. guides/advanced/install.md becomes /guides/advanced/install/. Flat sites (no subdirectories) behave exactly as before.

CI / CD Deployment Recipes

The Kiln CLI generates example workflows for common hosting platforms. Workflows produced by kiln deploy use the following build pattern:

• Restore tools: dotnet tool restore
• Build site: kiln build
• Publish directory: _site

Below are platform-specific recipes. CI YAML snippets must keep the same build commands used by the generated workflows.

GitHub Pages (GitHub Actions)

Kiln creates a GitHub Actions workflow at .github/workflows/deploy.yml when you run kiln deploy github-pages. The generated workflow uses dotnet tool restore and kiln build and then uploads _site as the pages artifact.

Example (generated by the CLI):

name: Deploy to GitHub Pages

on:
	push:
		branches: [main]

permissions:
	contents: read
	pages: write
	id-token: write

jobs:
	build-and-deploy:
		runs-on: ubuntu-latest
		steps:
			- uses: actions/checkout@v4
			- name: Setup .NET
				uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
				with:
					dotnet-version: '10.0.x'
			- name: Restore tools
				run: dotnet tool restore
			- name: Build site
				run: kiln build --base-url ${{ vars.SITE_URL || 'https://username.github.io/repo' }}
			- name: Upload artifact
				uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
				with:
					path: _site
			- name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
				id: deployment
				uses: actions/deploy-pages@v4

Azure Static Web Apps (GitHub Actions)

Kiln generates .github/workflows/azure-swa.yml and a staticwebapp.config.json when you run kiln deploy azure-swa.

Key points:

• The generated job sets app_build_command: "dotnet tool restore && kiln build" to ensure tools are available during the build step.
• Output folder is _site.
• staticwebapp.config.json contains a routes/navigationFallback and cache headers for /assets/*.

Example (generated by the CLI):

name: Deploy to Azure Static Web Apps

on:
	push:
		branches: [main]
	pull_request:
		branches: [main]

jobs:
	build-and-deploy:
		runs-on: ubuntu-latest
		steps:
			- uses: actions/checkout@v4
			- name: Setup .NET
				uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
				with:
					dotnet-version: '10.0.x'
			- name: Build and Deploy
				uses: Azure/static-web-apps-deploy@v1
				with:
					azure_static_web_apps_api_token: ${{ secrets.AZURE_STATIC_WEB_APPS_API_TOKEN }}
					app_location: "/"
					output_location: "_site"
					app_build_command: "dotnet tool restore && kiln build"
					skip_api_build: true

staticwebapp.config.json example (generated):

{
	"navigationFallback": {
		"rewrite": "/index.html",
		"exclude": ["/assets/*"]
	},
	"routes": [
		{
			"route": "/assets/*",
			"headers": {
				"Cache-Control": "public, max-age=31536000, immutable"
			}
		}
	]
}

Azure DevOps (YAML)

Use the following snippet in an Azure Pipelines YAML to restore tools and build. Ensure the agent has .NET 10 SDK installed.

pool:
	vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

steps:
- script: |
		dotnet tool restore
		kiln build
	displayName: 'Restore tools and build'

Netlify

Set the build command to the following (Netlify UI or netlify.toml):

Build command:

dotnet tool restore && kiln build

Publish directory: _site

Cloudflare Pages

Use a build command equivalent to Netlify. Ensure the selected environment supports .NET 10 SDK.

Build command:

dotnet tool restore && kiln build

Publish directory: _site

Generic CI

Any CI system that can run dotnet tool restore && kiln build and publish _site as the artifact/website can be used.

NuGet Package Description

Kiln — A fast, extensible static site generator for .NET. Collection-based content model, Scriban templates, plugin slots, CDN-friendly asset namespacing, built-in Atom feeds and sitemaps.

Roadmap

• Markdown rendering, frontmatter, templates, theme system, sitemap, feeds, dev server, plugin API, image optimization.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for developer guidelines and tests. Keep commits focused and descriptive.

License

Apache-2.0

Copyright 2026 Marcel Kummerow