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Nue runs on Bun, a fast JavaScript runtime and package manager. Installing Nue is a two-step process: install Bun if you don’t have it, then install nuekit globally. The entire Nue ecosystem — build tool, Markdown renderer, component runtime, syntax highlighter, and state manager — arrives in under 1MB with zero nested node_modules.

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System requirements

RequirementMinimum version
Bun>= 1.2.2
Operating systemmacOS, Linux, or Windows (WSL recommended)
Nue does not support Node.js as a runtime. The CLI shebang is #!/usr/bin/env bun and several features depend on Bun-specific APIs such as Bun.file, Bun.write, and Bun.spawn. Running nue under node will fail.

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Install Bun

1

Install Bun

curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash
After installation, restart your terminal or source your shell configuration file so that the bun command is available on your PATH.
2

Verify Bun version

bun --version
The output should show 1.2.2 or higher. If it shows an older version, upgrade with:
bun upgrade

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Install Nue

1

Install nuekit globally

bun install -g nuekit
Bun downloads and links the nue binary to your global PATH. No node_modules directory is created in your projects — nuekit and all its sub-packages live in Bun’s global cache.
The nuekit package includes nuemark, nuedom, nuestate, nue-glow, and nueyaml as dependencies. You install one package and get the full ecosystem.
2

Verify the installation

nue --version
You should see output like:
Nue 2.0.0-beta.2 • Bun 1.2.2
Both the Nue version and the active Bun version are printed. If the command is not found, check that Bun’s global bin directory is on your PATH (typically ~/.bun/bin).

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Confirm the install works

Run nue --help to see all available commands and options: 
nue --help

Usage
  nue [command] [options] [file_matches]

Commands
  serve     Start development server (default command)
  build     Build a production site
  preview   Preview the production site
  create    Use a project starter template

Options
  -p or --port          Serve/preview the site on this port
  -n or --dry-run       Show what would be built
  -s or --silent        Suppress output messages
      --verbose         Show detailed output
      --clean           Clean output directory before building

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Upgrading Nue

To upgrade to the latest version of nuekit: 
bun install -g nuekit@latest

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The 1MB footprint

A typical React or Next.js project installs 500MB or more of node_modules before you write a single line of code. Nue’s entire dependency tree — including the Markdown renderer, syntax highlighter, reactive component runtime, and state manager — is under 1MB as a global install. This has practical consequences:
  • No per-project installs. You don’t run bun install or npm install when creating a new Nue project. The global install is shared across every project on your machine.
  • Instant cold starts. The CLI starts in milliseconds because there is no module resolution graph to traverse at startup.
  • No lockfile drift. There is no package-lock.json or bun.lockb to keep in sync across team members for the framework itself.
Some templates (such as full) include their own package.json for project-specific server dependencies. These are separate from the Nue framework and only needed for those specific features.

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Troubleshooting

Bun installs global binaries to ~/.bun/bin. Make sure this directory is on your PATH:
export PATH="$HOME/.bun/bin:$PATH"
Add this line to your ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or equivalent shell configuration file, then restart your terminal.
Run bun upgrade to update to the latest stable release. If you installed Bun through a package manager (Homebrew, APT, etc.), upgrade through that package manager instead to avoid version conflicts.
Nue’s serve and build commands require either a site.yaml file or an index.html / index.md in the current directory. If neither is present, Nue exits with this message. Create one of those files or navigate to your project directory before running nue.

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Next steps

Quickstart

Create your first project and start the dev server in under a minute.

Introduction

Learn what Nue is, how it compares to React, and which packages it includes.

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