title: "Installation - wwwhat"

Step 1: Install Rust

wwwhat is built with Rust. If you don't have Rust installed, follow the instructions for your operating system:

macOS / Linux

Open Terminal and run:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Follow the prompts to complete installation. Then restart your terminal or run source $HOME/.cargo/env

Windows

Download and run the installer from rustup.rs

The installer will download and set up everything you need. You may need to install the Visual Studio C++ Build Tools if prompted.

After installation, verify Rust is working by running cargo --version in a new terminal window.

Step 2: Install wwwhat

Once Rust is installed, install wwwhat with Cargo:

cargo install run-what

This will download, compile, and install the run-what command globally.

Step 3: Create Your First Project

Create a new project

run-what new myproject
cd myproject

The wizard offers Example and Minimum templates. Skip the prompt with run-what new myproject --template minimum.

Start development server

run-what dev

Open http://127.0.0.1:8085 in your browser. Live reload is enabled -- changes auto-refresh.

Build for production

run-what build --output dist

Pre-renders all pages and minifies the output for deployment.

Project Structure

myproject/
  site/               # HTML templates (routes)
    index.html        # Home page (/)
    application.what  # Directory-level config
    tutorial/         # Included in the Example template
  components/         # Included in the Example template
  static/             # CSS, JS, images
  data/               # JSON data & SQLite databases
  wwwhat.toml         # Server configuration

The Minimum template keeps just site/, static/, data/, and wwwhat.toml.

Online Docs

This installable demo keeps the progressive examples local and links the full reference online.

Open Full Docs

Source Code

wwwhat is and will always be free to use. The source code is available on GitHub.