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Quick Start

Deploy your first static site to the Veilid DHT in under 5 minutes.

What you'll build

In this quick start, you'll:

  1. Bundle a simple HTML site
  2. Publish it to the Veilid DHT
  3. Start a local gateway
  4. Access your site in a web browser

Before you start

Make sure you have installed Roselite and have a basic static site ready (even a single HTML file works).

Step 1: Prepare your site

Create a simple site or use an existing one:

# Create a simple test site
mkdir my-test-site
cd my-test-site

# Create index.html
cat > index.html << 'EOF'
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>My Roselite Site</title>
    <style>
        body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; margin: 40px; }
        .container { max-width: 600px; margin: 0 auto; }
        .hero { background: linear-gradient(135deg, #667eea 0%, #764ba2 100%); 
                color: white; padding: 2rem; border-radius: 8px; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="container">
        <div class="hero">
            <h1>🚀 Welcome to Roselite!</h1>
            <p>This site is hosted on the Veilid DHT with zero censorship.</p>
        </div>
        <h2>Censorship-Resistant Hosting</h2>
        <p>Your content is now distributed across the Veilid network.</p>
    </div>
</body>
</html>
EOF

# Navigate to your existing static site directory
cd path/to/your/static/site

# Make sure it has an index.html file
ls -la

Step 2: Bundle your site

Package your site into a Veilid package:

# Bundle the current directory
roselite bundle . --name "My Test Site" --version "1.0.0"

# This creates: my-test-site.veilidpkg

Package created

The .veilidpkg file contains your entire site optimized for DHT storage.

Step 3: Publish to DHT

Deploy your package to the Veilid network:

# Publish the package
roselite publish my-test-site.veilidpkg

# Output will show:
# 📤 Publishing package: my-test-site.veilidpkg
# ✅ Published successfully!
# 🔗 Slug: my-test-site

Published!

Your site is now distributed across the Veilid DHT. Note the slug - you'll need it for access.

Step 4: Start the gateway

Launch a local gateway server:

# Start gateway on port 3000
roselite-gateway --port 3000 --domain localhost:3000

# You should see:
# 🌐 Gateway server starting on localhost:3000
# 🚀 Ready to serve Veilid content

Keep this terminal open - the gateway needs to run to serve your content.

Step 5: Access your site

Open a new terminal and access your site:

# Access via HTTP header
curl -H "Host: my-test-site.localhost:3000" http://localhost:3000/

# You should see your HTML content

Open your web browser and visit:

http://my-test-site.localhost:3000

Browser setup

Some browsers may need manual host configuration. If this doesn't work, use the curl method to verify the gateway is working.

Step 6: Make changes

Update your site and redeploy:

# Edit your content
echo '<p>Updated content!</p>' >> index.html

# Re-bundle and publish
roselite bundle . --name "My Test Site" --version "1.0.1"
roselite publish my-test-site.veilidpkg

# Content is updated in the DHT

What just happened?

  1. Bundled: Your static files were packaged into a DHT-optimized format
  2. Published: The package was distributed across Veilid nodes worldwide
  3. Served: The gateway retrieved your content from the DHT and served it via HTTP
  4. Accessed: Your site is now accessible through any Roselite gateway

Next steps

🎉 Congratulations! You've successfully deployed a censorship-resistant static site.

Learn more

Production deployment

Advanced features

  • Multiple Gateways: Deploy on multiple servers for redundancy
  • Custom Domains: Use your own domain names
  • SSL/TLS: Production HTTPS setup
  • CI/CD Integration: Automated deployments

Share your site

Your site URL can be shared with anyone. As long as they have access to a Roselite gateway, they can view your content - even if the original gateway goes down.

Troubleshooting

Common issues

Gateway connection failed

Issue: Can't connect to gateway

Solution: 

# Check if gateway is running
ps aux | grep roselite-gateway

# Check port availability
netstat -an | grep 3000

# Try different port
roselite-gateway --port 8080 --domain localhost:8080

Publish failed

Issue: Package publishing fails

Solution: 

# Check network connectivity
roselite status

# Try with debug logging
RUST_LOG=debug roselite publish my-test-site.veilidpkg

# Check package file exists
ls -la *.veilidpkg

Site not loading

Issue: Browser shows error or empty page

Solution: 

# Test with curl first
curl -H "Host: my-test-site.localhost:3000" http://localhost:3000/

# Check gateway logs
# Look at terminal where gateway is running

# Verify slug is correct
roselite list

Need more help? Check the troubleshooting guide or open an issue.