About Hugo
Hugo is a static site generator written in Go. It reads Markdown and templates and writes HTML and other files. The published site has no application server and no database.
Why it exists
Documentation and marketing sites were slow to build and easy to break when they depended on a CMS runtime. A single binary that emits files removes that process.
Who uses it
Documentation writers, marketing teams and developers who are comfortable editing content in a repository.
What it is used for
Docs, blogs and brochure sites. Comments, accounts and search, if you need them, are separate systems.
Open source behind the product
Hugo is the Apache-2.0 generator. Static hosts serve the files it writes. They are not a special edition of Hugo.
How to run it on a server
- Install the Hugo release binary. It does not stay running as a service.
- Build on your machine or in CI. Publish the output folder to object storage, a static host, or a web server such as Caddy.
- There is no database. Keep the source repository as the backup.
Follow the project's own guide for the version you install. Commands and file names change between releases.
How to contribute
Docs, templates and bug reports help. Start from the Hugo repository's contributing notes and a small change.
- Read the project's guidelines. Open the repository and look for CONTRIBUTING, the code of conduct and the README.
- Find something to work on. Browse good first issues or all open issues. Documentation and bug reports count.
- Make a small change. Fork the repository, work on a branch, and keep the change focused.
- Open a pull request. Say what changed and why, and link the issue. See open pull requests.
Contributions are accepted under the project's own licence (Apache-2.0). Some projects also ask you to sign a contributor agreement. A doc fix or a reproduced bug is a real contribution.
Licence: Apache-2.0
Permissive. You can use, modify and distribute it, including commercially, keeping the licence and notices. It includes an express patent grant.
This is a plain-English guide, not legal advice. Read the licence in the repository before you ship it or sell a service on top of it.