Make a Website

Install Congo

Go to the download page and grab the file for your computer. Then in your terminal:

# Mac / Linux — unpack and move it to your PATH
tar -xzf congo-*.tar.gz
sudo mv congo /usr/local/bin/

# Windows — unzip the file and move congo.exe
# somewhere in your PATH, or run it from the folder

Check it works:

congo version

If you see a version number, you're ready.

Create Your Project

Pick a name for your website. We'll use mysite here, but use whatever you want. Type this:

congo init mysite

This creates a folder called mysite with everything you need inside it. Now go into that folder:

cd mysite

Run It

congo dev

Open your browser and go to:

localhost:5000

You should see a welcome page. That's your website, running on your computer right now. Leave this terminal open — it's running your site.

Change the Page

Open the project folder in any text editor. If you don't have one, download VS Code — it's free.

Open the file web/views/index.html. You'll see HTML that looks something like this:

{{template "main.html" .}}

{{define "content"}}
<div class="container mx-auto p-8">
    <h1 class="text-3xl font-bold">Welcome</h1>
    <p>Your app is running.</p>
</div>
{{end}}

Change the text inside the <h1> tag to whatever you want. For example:

<h1 class="text-3xl font-bold">Hello World</h1>
<p>This is my first website!</p>

Save the file. Go back to your browser and refresh the page. You'll see your changes.

Make It Look Good

Congo comes with DaisyUI, a library of ready-made components. You just add class names to your HTML and things look nice automatically.

Try replacing your page content with this:

{{template "main.html" .}}

{{define "content"}}
<div class="container mx-auto px-8 py-16 max-w-2xl">
    <h1 class="text-4xl font-bold mb-4">My Website</h1>
    <p class="text-lg mb-8">Welcome to my corner of the internet.</p>

    <div class="card bg-base-100 shadow-lg p-6 mb-4">
        <h2 class="text-xl font-bold mb-2">About Me</h2>
        <p>Write anything you want here.</p>
    </div>

    <div class="card bg-base-100 shadow-lg p-6">
        <h2 class="text-xl font-bold mb-2">My Interests</h2>
        <ul class="list-disc ml-4 space-y-1">
            <li>Making websites</li>
            <li>Learning new things</li>
            <li>Whatever you like</li>
        </ul>
    </div>
</div>
{{end}}

Save and refresh. You've got a nice-looking page with cards and spacing — no CSS needed. Browse the DaisyUI docs for buttons, forms, navbars, and more.

Add a Second Page

Create a new file at web/views/about.html with this content:

{{template "main.html" .}}

{{define "content"}}
<div class="container mx-auto px-8 py-16 max-w-2xl">
    <h1 class="text-4xl font-bold mb-4">About</h1>
    <p class="text-lg">This page is about me.</p>
    <a href="/" class="btn btn-primary mt-4">Back Home</a>
</div>
{{end}}

Now tell your app about this page. Open web/controllers/home.go and add one line in the Setup function:

func (c *HomeController) Setup(app *application.App) {
    c.BaseController.Setup(app)
    http.Handle("GET /{$}", app.Serve("index.html", nil))
    http.Handle("GET /about", app.Serve("about.html", nil))  // new!
}

Restart the dev server (press Ctrl+C in the terminal, then run congo dev again). Now go to localhost:5000/about in your browser.

Add a link on your homepage to connect the pages:

<a href="/about" class="btn btn-primary">About Me</a>

Let AI Help You Build

Don't know how to do something? Congo can launch an AI assistant that understands your project:

congo claude

This opens Claude Code with your entire project loaded in. You can ask it things like:

• "Add a contact form to my about page"
• "Make a page that shows a list of blog posts"
• "Add a dark mode toggle"
• "Change the colors to purple and gold"

It will write the code for you and explain what it did.

Put It on the Internet

Right now your website only works on your computer. To put it on the internet so anyone can see it, you need a server. Congo handles this for you.

First, you need an account with a cloud provider. DigitalOcean is simple and cheap (about $6/month for a small server).

Once you have an API key from your cloud provider, run:

congo launch

Congo will ask you a few questions (which provider, what region, etc.), then it will:

1. Create a server for you
2. Build your website into a single file
3. Upload it to the server
4. Start it up and make sure it's working

When it's done, you'll get an IP address. Type it into any browser and you'll see your website — live on the internet.

Keep Going

You just built and launched a website. Here's where to go from here: