How to use nanodjango as a static site generator¶

Nanodjango’s integrations make it perfect for use as a static site generator.

Using pip¶

Add the relevant packages to your Python environment:

pip install nanodjango django-nanopages django-browser-reload django-distill

Then put this minimal script in a Python file, eg website.py:

from nanodjango import Django

app = Django()
app.pages("/", path="pages", context={"site_title": "nanopages example"})

You can now put markdown files in a pages/ dir next to your script, and they’ll get picked up and rendered in views, with automatic reloads in your browser. You can then use distill to build them into a static site:

nanodjango manage website.py distill generate \
  --output-directory=output/ --collectstatic

Using uv¶

Alternatively you can wrap those lines up with an inline dependencies comment:

# /// script
# dependencies = [
#   "nanodjango",
#   "django-style",
#   "django-nanopages",
#   "django-browser-reload",
#   "django-distill",
# ]
# ///
from nanodjango import Django

app = Django(EXTRA_APPS=["django_style"])
app.pages("/", path="pages", context={"site_title": "nanopages example"})


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.invoke(default="run")

and then use uv run to generate a virtual environment on the fly:

uv run website.py manage distill generate \
  --output-directory=output/ --collectstatic

Add models and more¶

Because this is all just sitting on top of Django, you can create models and manage them through the admin site of a local runserver, then add views to render model data for distill to pick up and turn into static content.

How to use nanodjango as a static site generator¶

Using pip¶

Using uv¶

Add models and more¶

Further reading¶