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April 18, 2026

Start a new site with dotnet new

By Phil Scott

Starting a new site used to be a short checklist: create a project, add the package references, wire up Program.cs, drop in a layout. Now it's one command.

Three templates, installed once

Pennington.Templates is a dotnet new template package. Install it once:

bash 
dotnet new install Pennington.Templates

Then create a project from any of the three templates:

bash 
dotnet new pennington-docs -o my-docs
  • pennington — the bare content engine, for when you want to assemble the site yourself.
  • pennington-docs — a full DocSite: sidebar navigation, a table of contents, and a starter page tree.
  • pennington-blog — a full BlogSite: home page, archive, tag pages, and an RSS feed.

Each one produces a project that runs immediately. cd my-docs, dotnet run, and the site is in your browser with live reload.

Why a template, not a checklist

A setup checklist is a place to make small mistakes: a missing package reference, a Program.cs line in the wrong order, a layout file that doesn't quite match. Starting from a template that already works means your first commit is content rather than project setup — dotnet new is the fastest way to the same place the tutorials build by hand.

project-templatestooling