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Quick start

Get a Haft reader running locally in under two minutes.

1. Create a vault​

A vault is just a folder of Markdown files. Haft treats your files as the source of truth — nothing is moved or rewritten.

mkdir -p ~/my-vault/content
echo "# Hello Haft" > ~/my-vault/content/index.md

2. Start the server​

haft serve ~/my-vault

Haft imports your files into a local SQLite catalog and starts a server at http://localhost:9001. Open that URL in your browser and you'll see the reader interface.

3. Navigate your content​

The reader shows your vault as a browsable tree. Click any page to read it. Haft renders Markdown to styled HTML with support for:

  • Internal links between pages
  • Images and media
  • Code blocks with syntax highlighting
  • Tables, blockquotes, and standard Markdown

4. Make changes​

Edit your Markdown files directly. Haft watches the vault directory and picks up changes automatically. No build step, no export — your editor is the authoring tool.

Next steps​