# Welcome to Stardrive - the Astro Boilerplate > Stardrive is a boilerplate and template for Astro.js. It is build to be a alsmost all batteries included starting point for all kinds of content driven websites, like blogs, documentation sites, knowledge bases, or even marketing sites. It is also optimized for being used by and with LLMs and coding assistants to create bullet proofed websites automatically. Last updated on: 2026-09-07T22:32:01.020Z ## Languages - [English](/): default - [Deutsch](/de) - [Français](/fr) - [Español](/es) ## Pages - [Welcome to Stardrive - the Astro Boilerplate](/): Stardrive is a complete Astro boilerplate and template to get your website up and running in no time with all the features you need to win. - [About](/about): The story behind Astro Stardrive - built by Jens, who has been crafting websites since the year 2000. - [Contact us](/contact): Get in touch with nobody - this is for demo purposes only - use GitHub for inquiries. - [How to Install](/docs): Learn how to install Astro Stardrive and get your project up and running quickly. - [Configuration](/docs/configuration): Configure Astro Stardrive to suit your project's needs. Learn more about it step by step. - [Guide](/docs/guide): Follow the guide to understand how to effectively use Astro Stardrive and its features. - [title-header](/docs/header): description-header - [Real-World Examples](/examples): Discover real-world examples of websites built with Astro Stardrive to inspire your next project. - [Features](/features): Explore the powerful features of Astro Stardrive that make it the ultimate boilerplate for your next project. - [Get Listed](/get-listed): Learn how to get your website listed as a real world example with backlink on our website. - [Our Pricing](/pricing): Choose the plan that suits your needs. No worries! Stardrive is free - this is for demo purposes only. - [Sign Up](/signup): Add a signup! As a respective form, or redirect to another page. This is for demo purposes only, since there is no real signup form here. ## FAQ - [Can I build a dynamic app with it](/faq#can-i-build-a-dynamic-app-with-it): **Yes and no - it depends on what you mean by "dynamic".** Astro is a frontend framework. It runs on the client side and, optionally, with on-demand server-side rendering and middleware on top. That covers a lot of dynamic use cases: forms, search, filtering, interactive UI components, personalized pages, and so on. You can even include components written in React, Vue, or Svelte with their so called ["Dynamic Islands"](https://docs.astro.build/en/concepts/islands/). What it is **not** is a backend. Anything that involves sensitive data, authenticated business logic, or a database needs to live in a proper backend service that Stardrive talks to over an API. **So: dynamic UI, dynamic content, dynamic rendering - yes. Full-stack app with database and auth in the same project - not standalone, and that is by design.** - [Can I build SaaS with it](/faq#can-i-build-saas-with-it): **Yes - Stardrive is a great starting point for the public-facing side of a SaaS product.** Marketing site, pricing page, blog, docs, FAQ, integration directory, and signup flow are already scaffolded and ready to be customized. For the actual product - authentication, billing, the app itself, the database - you will want a dedicated backend service. Stardrive talks to it via APIs, while keeping the marketing layer fast, stable, and SEO-friendly. For the app, it could be easier to build it with another framework, that is focusing more on pure single page applications. Astro leans towards the traditional way of building websites. This might not fit any need. But even then, it would be a good choice for your marketing page. **Think of it as the front door of your SaaS: optimized for conversion, content, and search, while your real backend handles the heavy lifting.** - [Do I need to be a developer](/faq#do-i-need-to-be-a-developer): **Not necessarily - but a basic understanding of how websites work definitely helps.** Stardrive is built so that an AI coding assistant can do most of the heavy lifting. If you can describe what you want and review the changes an agent makes, you can get very far without writing code yourself. That said, things like deploying to Cloudflare, editing configuration files, or debugging an unexpected build error will be much smoother if you (or someone on your team) are comfortable with the basics of Git, Node.js, and the command line. **In short: it is a developer-grade boilerplate that is friendly enough for non-developers working alongside an AI assistant. But it is no no-code tool!** - [Do I need to host on Cloudflare](/faq#do-i-need-to-host-on-cloudflare): **No, you are free to host Stardrive wherever you want.** We recommend Cloudflare because Astro and Stardrive are optimized for their Workers platform, and our included `wrangler.jsonc` plus cache-purge script make that setup particularly smooth. Since Astro is a frontend framework that compiles to static assets (with optional on-demand server-side rendering), you can deploy to Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, GitHub Pages, your own server, or any other static host. **If you switch hosts, just remove the Cloudflare-specific bits - the rest of the boilerplate will keep working as-is.** - [Do you take sponsors](/faq#do-you-take-sponsors): **Yes, absolutely - and we would love your support.** Sponsorships keep the project alive and let us push out updates, fixes, and new features for everyone using Stardrive. You can support the project via the GitHub Sponsors button on the [repository](https://github.com/peltmonger/stardrive?sponsor=1). **Every star, share, and sponsor makes a real difference - thank you for keeping open source healthy.** - [How do I get started](/faq#how-do-i-get-started): **Run `npm create stardrive@latest`and follow the guidance.** **Alternatively, fork the [repository](https://github.com/peltmonger/stardrive) and clone your fork, clone the repository directly, or download its source. Then run `npm install`.** Start the dev server with `npm run dev`. From there, adjust `theme.config.ts` to match your brand, replace the favicons and social images in `/public`, and edit the content collections under `/src/content` to fit your project. If you are using an AI coding assistant, point it at the repo and the `AGENTS.md` file - Stardrive is designed to be picked up and extended by LLMs out of the box. **Have a look at the docs section for more detailed guidance on configuration, structure, and deployment.** - [How do I upgrade](/faq#how-do-i-upgrade): Do due its boilerplate character, upgrading a Stardrive project to the latest Stardrive version can be a challenge. You can update by pulling in the latest version from its GitHub repository. However, mind that based on how much you have changed, you can easily run into conflicts, which can block this process completely. In this case, you would need to do it manually, by comparing any [changes](https://github.com/peltmonger/stardrive/CHANGELOG.md) with your version and update things one by one. You might want to give this as a task to an AI coding agent, who would do it for you. In most cases, you do not necessarily need to upgrade the Stardrive version, but simply need to upgrade the underlying Astro package. Run `npx @astrojs/upgrade` to do so. Mind that this also can come with some manual tasks. Mind the [official Astro docs](https://docs.astro.build/en/upgrade-astro/) for changelogs and migration guides. > **Note:** The local Stardrive version is pinned in the `package.json` under the `stardriveVersion` key. When checking for changes, compare the [release notes in the GitHub repository](https://github.com/peltmonger/stardrive/releases) against the state of your local version to see what has changed since. - [I found an issue](/faq#i-found-an-issue): **Thanks for catching it - please report it so we can fix it.** The fastest way is to open a bug report on our [GitHub issue tracker](https://github.com/peltmonger/stardrive/issues). Include the steps to reproduce, what you expected, and what actually happened. A minimal code snippet or screenshot helps a lot. If you are not sure whether something is a bug or intended behavior, the [discussions board](https://github.com/peltmonger/stardrive/discussions) is a good place to ask first. **Pull requests with a fix are always welcome - check the contributing guidelines before you start.** - [I have a feature request](/faq#i-have-a-feature-request): **Great - we love hearing what would make Stardrive more useful.** Open a feature request on our [GitHub issue tracker](https://github.com/peltmonger/stardrive/issues) and describe the use case, the problem it solves, and ideally a rough idea of how it could work. For broader ideas or open-ended discussions, the [discussions board](https://github.com/peltmonger/stardrive/discussions) is the better place. **If you want to contribute the feature yourself, even better - have a look at the contributing guidelines and open a pull request.** - [Is it really free](/faq#is-it-really-free): **Yes**, this boilerplate is completely free to use. It is an open source project under the MIT license. **To support us, making sure we keep on pushing, you can donate or sponsor the project, leave a good review somewhere, and/or have a look at our existing sponsors.** - [Should I abandon React](/faq#should-i-abandon-react): **No - and you do not have to.** Astro is not a replacement for React. It is the layer around it. You can keep using React components inside Astro pages whenever you need rich interactivity, and Astro will only ship the JavaScript that is actually needed. The same goes for Vue, Svelte, and Solid - you can mix and match them in the same project. **Use Astro for the structure, content, and performance baseline. Use React (or whichever framework you prefer) for the genuinely interactive parts. Best of both worlds.** - [Why Astro](/faq#why-astro): **Astro is currently one of the most performant and stable, yet flexible frontend frameworks out there.** It ships zero JavaScript by default, which means your site stays blazing fast, accessible, and SEO-friendly without extra effort. On top of that, Astro lets you mix and match components from React, Vue, Svelte, or Solid - so you are never locked in and can use the right tool for each job. **For a content-driven site that needs to be fast, stable, and easy to extend, Astro is hard to beat.** - [Why LLM-friendly](/faq#why-llm-friendly): **LLMs and coding assistants are now part of almost every developer workflow** - and they work best on top of code and content that follows clear, predictable conventions. Stardrive is structured exactly that way. Strong defaults for SEO, accessibility, security, and meta data are already in place, so an AI agent can focus on building features instead of re-inventing the basics. We also already prepared all the guiding markdown files for easy access. Coding agents usually pick this up automatically. It also auto-generates `llms.txt` and `llms-full.txt` files, so external assistants get a clean, machine-readable view of your site. **The result: faster iteration with AI agents, fewer regressions, and websites that stay solid even when most of the code is written by a model.** ## Articles - [Build kicking websites with Astro and AI](/blog/building-kicking-websites-with-astro-and-ai): We made thise boilerplate in an AI friendly way, so your Agent immediately knows how to work with it. Security included. - [Make your content accessible for AI Agents - with WebMCP](/blog/webmcp-introduction): WebMCP (Web Model Context Protocol) is an experimental browser standard proposed by Google and Microsoft that turns websites into programmable tools for AI agents. - [Welcome to Astro Stardrive](/blog/welcome): We built a boilerplate on top of Astro to give you super powers when creating website. Completely free. Open Source. LLM friendly. ## Events - [Going big now!](/events/detail/2026-08-13_going-big-now): We are celebrating the launch of our latest rocket, going to where no penguin has been before! 🚀 - [Penguin Tech Summit 2026](/events/detail/2026-10-15_penguin-tech-summit): The biggest tech gathering of penguins in the southern hemisphere. Talks, workshops, and networking at the edge of the world. - [Ice Hackathon 2026](/events/detail/2026-11-20_ice-hackathon): 48 hours of coding, building, and innovating on the ice. Teams compete to solve real Antarctic challenges. - [Happy Holidays](/events/detail/2026-12-24_time-of-the-season): We are pausing things here for some days - you know why. - [Antarctic Innovation Week 2027](/events/detail/2027-03-08_antarctic-innovation-week): A week-long celebration of innovation, research, and breakthroughs in Antarctic science and penguin technology. - [Penguin Community Day 2027](/events/detail/2027-06-15_penguin-community-day): A day of celebration, connection, and community building for penguins across Antarctica.