# Frequently Asked Questions Answers to the questions people ask most often about sitemd --- ## About sitemd **What is sitemd?**\n sitemd is a website building toolkit for AI coding agents. It's a static site generator and complete framework — pages, settings, navigation, theme, auth, forms, deploy — all driven from human-readable markdown files. You use it alongside your AI coding agent ([Claude](/for/claude-code), [Codex](/for/codex), [Cursor](/for/cursor), [Gemini](/for/gemini), [OpenClaw](/for/openclaw), etc.) to ship sites end-to-end via [MCP tools](/docs/mcp-server) and [agent skills](/docs/skills). **Who is sitemd for?**\n Anyone looking for a system to ship sites fast with AI — vibe coders, content creators, product builders, business owners, [programmatic SEO operators](/for/programmatic-seo), [AI agencies](/for/ai-agencies), and many more. [Agencies](/for/ai-agencies) and [SEO operators](/for/programmatic-seo) in particular get a ton of value from sitemd's [one-time purchase per site pricing model](/pricing) and 50+ site bulk discount. **How many sites can I build?**\n As many as you need. sitemd is free to try/build locally forever, $79 one-time purchase for your first 3 deployed sites, then $19 for each additional site you need. As a [bulk website builder for AI coding agents](/for/bulk-sites), sitemd offers a 15% discount on packs of 50+ site slots. **Where are sites hosted?**\n Wherever you want. sitemd ships with [deploy integrations](/docs/deploy#deploy-targets) for Cloudflare, Vercel, Netlify, and GitHub Pages, or you can simply take your exported HTML files and manually host them anywhere. **Where/what does sitemd run on?**\n Your computer. You install sitemd on your machine, then run it alongside your AI coding agent. The sitemd dev server is a compiled binary that runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows. [Install via npm (recommended), GitHub clone, or download a release](/install) — all methods produce the same project structure. The npm method auto-fetches the binary via a postinstall hook, so `npx @sitemd-cc/sitemd init my-site` is one command from zero to a working install. **Can I use sitemd for client sites?**\n Absolutely. 15% bulk discount when purchasing 50+ site slots at one time. --- ## Pricing / Licensing **How much does sitemd cost?**\n $79 one-time purchase for your first 3 deployed sites, then $19 for each additional site you need. [Bulk buy](/for/bulk-sites) 50+ sites for a 15% discount. No subscription, no lock-in, no per-site monthly fee. [View our full pricing page](/pricing). **Is there a bulk discount?**\n Yes. 15% bulk discount on packs of 50+ sites purchased at one time. ($16.15 one-time purchase per site) **Is there a free version?**\n Yes. sitemd is free to install and run in [trial mode](/docs/build-modes#trial-mode) forever. You can preview all features, build complete sites on localhost, and validate everything — for free, forever. You only pay when you're ready to activate and deploy a site. **What counts as 1 "site"?**\n Any set of pages (could be 1, could be 100+) that share the same site title, brand name, and deploy URL. Subdomains count as their own site (`mydomain.com` and `sub.mydomain.com` use 2 slots). See [Pricing](/pricing) for full details. **Can site slots be reassigned?**\n No. Activating a site is permanent — it cannot be undone, refunded, or credited. **Do you offer refunds?**\n No. You can fully preview all sitemd functionality for free for as long as you need before making a purchase decision. **Are future updates included?**\n Yes. All sitemd [updates ship to you automatically](/docs/updates). --- ## sitemd Alternatives **How is sitemd different/better than building a site from scratch with my AI agent?**\n sitemd is a site-building superpower for your coding agent. It helps your agent build a consistent working site quickly by skipping all the scaffolding that's already baked-in to sitemd. sitemd is still very flexible and customizable, so you can build a site however you want. sitemd also ships with one-line integrations for essentials like SEO, analytics, content generation, doc writing, user login, content gating, dynamic data + detail pages, and more that would take considerable time to build from scratch with your agent. **How is sitemd different/better than building my own custom site-building framework?**\n You certainly *can* build your own AI-driven website building framework, but if you're busy running a business, building product, or serving clients, your time is probably better spent on those things, not framework building. And with sitemd's unit economics ($16.15 per site when buying 50+ sites at once), the time vs. cost savings is hard to beat. sitemd is designed to *become* your custom framework — yes, it includes guardrails and scaffolding to speed things up, but you can customize nearly every feature of your sites and site building workflow. **How does sitemd compare to AI website builders like Durable, 10Web, or Framer AI?**\n Those tools are "enter prompt, get site" builders. These lack direct/deep control of your site's structure, content, theme, etc, and the flexibility to work with any AI coding agent (and you get to avoid unexpected token expenses). sitemd is built for vibe coders / agentic coders who build through their own AI agent, not someone else's. **How does sitemd compare to programmatic SEO tools like SEOmatic, AirOps, or Webflow + Airtable + Whalesync?**\n Those tools pipe content into someone else's CMS and cost hundreds (or thousands) of dollars every month. They're built for a human clicking through a UI with an AI helping at the edges. sitemd is the whole system — no CMS lock-in, no monthly fee, and only $16.15 one-time purchase per site when buying 50+ sites at once — and your agent drives the entire workflow end-to-end without ever leaving the terminal. See our [programmatic SEO use case page](/for/programmatic-seo) for more detail. **How does sitemd compare to Webflow / WordPress / Squarespace / Wix?**\n Those tools are visual website builders for no/low-code users building through a web app interface. sitemd is an agent-driven framework for operators whose primary tool is an AI coding agent — your agent *is* the interface. **How does sitemd compare to Astro / Next.js / Remix / SvelteKit starter kits?**\n Most starter kits are only marginally better than starting from scratch (and some are actually worse). Most don't include an MCP server, CLI tools, or built-in one-line integrations for SEO, analytics, content generation, doc writing, user login, content gating, dynamic data + detail pages, and more. --- ## AI Agents + Integrations **Does sitemd work with Claude Code?**\n Yes. The recommended path is `npx @sitemd-cc/sitemd init my-site` — that scaffolds a project and downloads the sitemd binary automatically via the npm postinstall hook, with the `.mcp.json` and `CLAUDE.md` already wired for Claude Code. You can also `/plugin install sitemd` from inside an existing sitemd project for the marketplace integration. See [our Claude Code page](/for/claude-code). **Does sitemd work with Codex?**\n Yes. Run `npx @sitemd-cc/sitemd init my-site` and the project ships with the Codex skill (`SKILL.md`) and pre-configured `.mcp.json` so Codex picks up the MCP server automatically. The binary downloads as part of `npx init`. See [our Codex page](/for/codex). **Does sitemd work with Cursor?**\n Yes. The recommended path is `npx @sitemd-cc/sitemd init my-site` — that scaffolds a project with `.cursor-plugin/`, `.cursor/rules/`, `.cursor/skills/`, and `.cursor/mcp.json` already wired, and the binary downloads automatically via the npm postinstall hook. You can also install from the [Cursor Marketplace](https://cursor.com/marketplace) or `/add-plugin sitemd` inside an existing sitemd project. See [our Cursor page](/for/cursor). **Does sitemd work with Gemini CLI?**\n Yes. Run `npx @sitemd-cc/sitemd init my-site` and the project ships with `gemini-extension.json` and `GEMINI.md` at the root. Gemini detects the extension on launch, registers the MCP server, and loads the sitemd context automatically. The binary downloads as part of `npx init`. See [our Gemini page](/for/gemini). **Does sitemd work with OpenClaw?**\n Yes. The recommended path is `npx @sitemd-cc/sitemd init my-site` on the machine where your agent runs — that scaffolds a project and downloads the binary automatically. You can also `openclaw plugins install sitemd-plugin` for the ClawHub marketplace integration once you have a sitemd project on disk. Your agent can build, update, and deploy sites from any messaging channel (WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Signal). See [our OpenClaw page](/for/openclaw). **Does sitemd work with VS Code?**\n Yes, with any MCP-capable extension or copilot can use the sitemd MCP server. The same full suite of MCP tools and skills works across every MCP-capable agent. **What MCP tools does sitemd ship?**\n A full suite of tools covering page CRUD, content generation, SEO audit, deploy, auth, dynamic data, batch operations, content validation, and project status. See the [MCP server docs](/docs/mcp-server) for the full reference. **What skills does sitemd ship?**\n A full suite of cross-agent skills including `/write`, `/launch`, `/deploy`, `/seo`, `/kickstart`, `/clone`, `/og-image`, `/import`, `/site`, `/feedback`, `/reload`, `/shutdown`, and more. Each is a `SKILL.md` file in a format that works across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini, and OpenClaw. --- ## Customization **How customizable is sitemd?**\n Deeply. sitemd is themeable end-to-end — colors, typography, layouts, custom CSS. It supports custom build steps, custom deploy targets, custom MCP tools, and custom skills. The conventions are smart defaults, not walls. Read the [theme docs](/docs/colors) and [layout docs](/docs/headings) for the surface area. **Can I write custom layouts?**\n Yes. Layouts are HTML templates in the `theme/` directory. Edit them directly or add new ones for specific page types. **Can I add custom CSS?**\n Yes. Drop your CSS into the theme and it ships with the site. See [Colors](/docs/colors) for theming and [Buttons and Link](/docs/buttons-and-links) for component-level customization. **Can I add custom MCP tools?**\n Yes. The MCP server is extensible. Drop a custom tool into the engine and it'll be exposed to your agent like any built-in tool. **Can I theme each client site differently?**\n Yes. Each project has its own `theme/` directory and `settings/` files. Every client site is themeable independently — full custom branding, no shared design constraint. --- ## Hosting & deployment **Do I have to host my site on sitemd's servers?**\n No, and you couldn't even if you wanted to. sitemd isn't a hosting service — it's a website building toolkit you install on your machine. You build locally, then [deploy to wherever you want](/docs/deploy#deploy-targets). **Where can I deploy a sitemd site?**\n Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, Vercel, and GitHub Pages — all with one command. You can also deploy the built `site/` directory to any static host, S3 bucket, or your own server. **Do I need a database?**\n No. sitemd is a static site generator. If you need [dynamic data](/docs/dynamic-data), sitemd has built-in adapters for Supabase, Firebase, Airtable, and any REST API — but the site itself ships as static HTML. **Does sitemd support user login or content gating?**\n Yes. Built-in adapters for Supabase, Firebase, Clerk, Auth0, and custom APIs. Gated content sections render based on the user's auth state. See [User Auth & Gating](/docs/user-auth). **Does sitemd have forms?**\n Yes. Multi-page forms with conditional logic, webhook integration, and spam protection — all configured in markdown frontmatter. See [Forms](/docs/forms). **Does sitemd handle images & videos?**\n Yes. Resizing, cropping, filtering, galleries, lazy loading, responsive variants, optional CDN sync to Cloudflare R2 or AWS S3, and auto-generated OG images. See [Images](/docs/images). --- ## Workflow **What's the typical workflow for building a site with sitemd?**\n 1. `npx @sitemd-cc/sitemd init my-site` — scaffold a project. 2. Run `/launch` to launch the scratch site template on localhost. 3. Run `/kickstart` with a one-sentence brief, or describe what you want in chat. 4. Watch the dev server hot reload as your agent CRUD's pages. 5. Run `/seo` for a full SEO audit. 6. Run `/deploy` to push to your host. The whole loop, for a real site, is minutes — not hours. **Can I `/clone` an existing site?**\n Yes. Run `/clone https://example.com` and sitemd scrapes navigation, content, images, forms, and embeds into editable markdown. It's the fastest way to bootstrap a new site from a known reference. **Can I import an existing markdown file?**\n Yes. `/import file-path/file.md` brings a raw markdown file into your sitemd project as a properly-formatted page with the right frontmatter and conventions. **How do I update an existing site with sitemd?**\n Prompt your agent. >Add a blog post about our v2 release >Update the team page — we hired 3 new people last month >Run an SEO audit and fix the issues The agent calls the right MCP tools and writes the markdown while you watch. **How does the dev server work?**\n `sitemd launch` (or `/launch`) starts a long-lived dev server with live build sync. Edit any markdown file and the preview reloads instantly. The dev panel in your browser shows you what's happening under the hood. --- ## Still have questions? Email us at support@sitemd.cc --- # Get Started card: Try it in your browser card-icon: panel-top card-link: Demo sandbox: https://demo.sitemd.cc+newtab card: Read all about it card-icon: book-open card-link: Docs: /docs card: Try it on your machine card-icon: download card-link: Install: /install card: Buy it card-icon: shopping-cart card-link: Purchase: /upgrade