#Install

Every way to get a branded StoryLark site running, from "just try it" to "one command to a live URL."

#The two starting points

Clone the engine repo — you get everything: the packages, the base brand, the docs, and both platforms' deploy tooling in platforms/.

git clone https://github.com/StoryLark/storylark.git
cd storylark
npm install

npm create storylark — a thin, standalone site is generated for you in a new folder: an entry file, config, a brand seeded from the base theme, and platforms/ copied in. No engine source, no monorepo — just your site.

npm create storylark my-site

Both starting points end up with the same platforms/ tooling available, so everything below works from either one.

#Installing to a platform

Every platform folder (platforms/cloudflare/, platforms/azure/) is driven by an env file — fill it in, run that platform's installer. --verify checks everything (login state, config validity, that the infrastructure template compiles) and creates nothing; --deploy --yes provisions real resources.

cd platforms/cloudflare        # or platforms/azure
cp install.env.example install.env
$EDITOR install.env
node install.mjs --verify
node install.mjs --deploy --yes

See deploy-your-own.md (Cloudflare) or deploy-azure.md (Azure) for what each env value means and what gets created.

#The setup wizard

Don't want to fill out two files by hand (the env file plus your brand)? The wizard asks which platform, collects the values, writes the env file, and runs that platform's installer for you:

node platforms/wizard.mjs

Non-interactive (scriptable) form:

node platforms/wizard.mjs --platform=cloudflare BRAND_ID=my-site APP_ORIGIN=https://app.example.com ...

Works identically whether you cloned the repo or ran npm create storylark — it's the same script either way.

#The one-command path

npm create storylark my-site -- --deploy chains straight from scaffolding into the wizard — one command, a few prompts, done. This is the "seamless" path: you never see the copy step and the wizard as separate actions, just one continuous flow ending at a live site.

#What every path has in common

Regardless of how you got here, you end up with:

• A brand folder (brands/<id>/) — yours to edit, never touched by an engine update. See build-your-own-theme.md.
• A CI setup (.github/workflows/) with publish.yml, sync.yml, and narrate.yml already wired up — see publishing-stories.md and admin-guide.md. Platform updates don't run through CI at all — see updating.md for the command (and optional one-click button) that handles those instead.
• An empty shelf until you publish. See publishing-stories.md.

Found a gap? StoryLark is open source — improve these docs on GitHub.