Installation

This guide walks you through installing PaperHouse on your computer and running it locally. No prior Astro experience is required.

By the end, you’ll have PaperHouse running at http://localhost:4321.

Before you start

You need three things installed:

Node.js 18 or newer — download from nodejs.org
A code editor — VS Code is recommended
A terminal — Terminal on macOS, PowerShell on Windows, or any Linux terminal

Check your Node.js version:

node --version

If you see v18.0.0 or higher, you’re ready.

Step 1 — Download the source

After purchase, you’ll receive a download link by email. Download the .zip file and unzip it anywhere on your computer.

You’ll end up with a folder like paperhouse-theme/.

Step 2 — Open the folder in your terminal

cd path/to/paperhouse-theme

For example:

cd ~/Desktop/paperhouse-theme

Step 3 — Install dependencies

npm install

This downloads everything listed in package.json into node_modules/. Takes about 30 seconds the first time. You only run this once.

Step 4 — Start the development server

npm run dev

You’ll see:

🚀  astro  v7.3.8 started in 342ms

┃ Local    http://localhost:4321/

Open http://localhost:4321 in your browser. Your site is live. Any file change reloads the browser automatically.

Step 5 — Stop the server

Press Ctrl + C in your terminal.

Restart anytime with npm run dev.

Step 6 — Build for production

npm run build

This creates a dist/ folder with your optimized, production-ready site. Upload this to your hosting provider.

Step 7 — Preview the production build

npm run preview

Open the URL shown in the terminal. This previews the built site locally.

All commands

Command	What it does
`npm install`	Install dependencies (once)
`npm run dev`	Start dev server at `localhost:4321`
`npm run build`	Build production site into `dist/`
`npm run preview`	Preview the production build locally

Common problems

“Port 4321 is already in use.”
Run on a different port:

npm run dev -- --port 3000

“Cannot find module ‘astro’.”
You forgot to run npm install. Run it now.

Tailwind styles not appearing.
Make sure src/styles/globals.css is imported at the top of src/layouts/Base.astro. This is already set up by default.

Changes not appearing in the browser.
Hard refresh with Ctrl + Shift + R (Windows/Linux) or Cmd + Shift + R (Mac).

Head to the next doc to understand the project structure.