---
title: Quickstart Guide
description: Get up and running with a production-ready VertiWiki instance in under five minutes.
tags: [vertiwiki, quickstart, tutorial, setup, getting-started]
---

# 5-Minute Quickstart

> For the complete documentation index and agent navigation, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt).

This walkthrough guides you through creating, configuring, and previewing a fully functional VertiWiki knowledge base from scratch.

---

## 🛠️ Step 1: Create the Project Directory

Open your terminal and initialize a clean workspace:

```bash
mkdir my-knowledge-base
cd my-knowledge-base
```

---

## 📦 Step 2: Download the VertiWiki Engine

Fetch the standalone, single-file HTML engine and save it as `index.html`:

```bash
curl -fsSL https://github.com/Octadira/vertiwiki/releases/latest/download/vertiwiki.html -o index.html
```

Verify that `index.html` is present in your directory. This single file contains the entire application runtime, router, theme engine, and plugins.

---

## ⚙️ Step 3: Create Runtime Configuration (`config.json`)

Create `config.json` in the root of your directory to define your portal metadata and features:

```json
{
  "title": "Engineering Handbook",
  "brandDisplay": "title",
  "useSideMenu": true,
  "useTableOfContents": true,
  "enableSearch": true,
  "enableMath": true,
  "enableMermaid": true,
  "enableCodeCopy": true,
  "enableThemeChooser": true,
  "defaultTheme": "dark",
  "themePreset": "default",
  "navigationFile": "navigation.md",
  "homePage": "index.md"
}
```

---

## 🌲 Step 4: Create Sidebar Navigation (`navigation.md`)

VertiWiki uses a clean Markdown file with `# Category` headers and `* [Title](path.md)` lists for the sidebar:

```markdown
# Getting Started
* [Home](index.md)
* [Architecture Guidelines](guidelines.md)

# Team Runbooks
* [On-Call Incident Playbook](playbook.md)
```

---

## 📝 Step 5: Write Content Pages

Create your initial documentation pages:

### `index.md`
```markdown
---
title: Engineering Handbook Home
description: Central hub for internal engineering standards and playbooks.
tags: [handbook, internal, engineering]
---

# Welcome to the Engineering Handbook

This wiki contains our team's operational runbooks, architecture standards, and onboarding guides.

## Features
- **Instant Client Search**: Press <kbd>⌘K</kbd> or <kbd>/</kbd> to search across all pages.
- **Dark/Light Mode**: Toggle the theme preset in the navigation header.
- **Wikilinks Support**: Link easily to [[guidelines|Architecture Guidelines]] or [[playbook|Incident Playbook]].
```

### `guidelines.md`
```markdown
---
title: Architecture Guidelines
description: System design standards and coding conventions.
tags: [architecture, design, standards]
---

# Architecture Guidelines

> [!NOTE]
> All new services must adhere to our zero-trust network policy.

```typescript
export interface ServiceHealth {
  status: 'healthy' | 'degraded' | 'failing';
  uptimeSeconds: number;
}
```
```

---

## 🚀 Step 6: Launch Local Preview

Because VertiWiki uses modern JavaScript `fetch()` APIs to load Markdown files, you must serve the files over HTTP rather than opening them via `file://`:

```bash
# Using Python 3
python3 -m http.server 8000

# OR using Node.js
npx serve .
```

Navigate to `http://localhost:8000` in your web browser. You will see your new wiki fully rendered, interactive, and searchable!

---

## 🔍 Next Steps

- Explore distribution flavors and deployment recipes in [Installation & Setup](installation.md).
- Learn about configuration flags, custom themes, and branding in [Configuration Overview](configuration/overview.md).
- Review the [System Architecture](concepts/architecture.md) to understand the underlying engine.