Website Core Template

Minimal Astro 5 template for multilingual static sites. Zero config to start — just add content.

Built by Affiliate.FM — independent media and open-source tools for affiliate marketing.

Quick Start

npm create astro@latest -- --template affiliatefm/website-core-template
cd my-site
make dev

Open http://localhost:4321

Project Structure

src/
├── components/global/ # Shared components (head/body)
├── content/pages/     # ✏️ Your content (MDX files)
│   ├── index.mdx      #    Homepage
│   ├── docs.mdx       #    Documentation
│   ├── _collections/  #    Collection items (product pages)
│   │   ├── software/
│   │   │   └── ai-translator.mdx
│   │   └── websites/
│   │       └── ssg-directory.mdx
│   ├── software/      #    Collection landing page
│   │   └── index.mdx
│   └── websites/      #    Collection landing page
│       └── index.mdx
│   └── ru/            #    Russian content
│       └── index.mdx
├── data/              # ✏️ Your configuration
│   ├── site.ts        #    Site URL, locales, template selection
│   └── ui.ts          #    UI translations
├── config/            #    Runtime config (auto-generated)
├── i18n/              #    URL helpers
├── integrations/      #    Build checks
├── templates/affiliate/ # Core template
└── pages/             #    Astro router

Your files (✏️) — edit freely, preserved by updates
Core files — updated via make update

Setup

1. Configure site

Edit src/data/site.ts:

export const siteUrl = "https://your-domain.com";
export const locales = ["en", "ru"] as const;
export const defaultLocale = "en";

export const template = "affiliate" as const;

2. Add UI strings

Edit src/data/ui.ts:

export const uiStrings = {
  en: { siteName: "My Site", homeLabel: "Home" },
  ru: { siteName: "Мой сайт", homeLabel: "Главная" },
} as const;

3. Create content

Add MDX files to src/content/pages/:

• Default language → pages/about.mdx → /about/
• Other languages → pages/ru/about.mdx → /ru/about/

Commands

Command	Description
make dev	Start dev server
make build	Build for production
make preview	Preview build
make update	Update core from upstream

Templates

Templates are convention-based folders in src/templates/:

• Core templates: src/templates/<id>/ (updated by make update)

• User templates: src/templates/_<id>/ (preserved by make update)

• layout.astro — site layout (imports styles.css if needed)

• pages/home.astro, pages/article.astro, pages/product.astro

• styles.css — optional template stylesheet

• i18n.ts — optional template strings

• components/ — optional template components

Template id is the folder name (use lowercase). User templates keep the leading underscore in src/data/site.ts.

Page selection logic:

• Homepage (index.mdx) → Home
• _collections items → Product (or override via collections[].page)
• Everything else → Article
• Per-page override: page in frontmatter

Multilingual

Same slugs (automatic linking)

pages/about.mdx      → /about/
pages/ru/about.mdx   → /ru/about/

Hreflang links generated automatically.

Frontmatter

Field	Type	Description
title	string	Page title (required)
description	string	Meta description
updatedAt	date	For sitemap
draft	boolean	Exclude from build
link	string	External URL (product pages)
pros	string[]	Pros list (product pages)
cons	string[]	Cons list (product pages)
page	string	Page template override ("home", "article", "product")

Updating

# Check what would change
make update-check

# Apply update
make update

Preserved: src/content/, src/data/, src/templates/_*, public/
Updated: everything else

Build Checks

Automatic validation:

• ✓ Hreflang links are bidirectional
• ✓ All languages have UI strings
• ✓ No duplicate URLs

Adding Integrations

npx astro add tailwind
npx astro add react

Related

• astro-content-ai-translator — AI-powered translation for Astro. Auto-generates localized content from your content/ directory.
• astro-content-ai-enhancer — AI assistant that turns raw Markdown into structured, well-formatted pages while keeping the original voice.

Author

Affiliate.FM — independent media and open-source tools for affiliate, performance, and digital marketing.

License

MIT