guide

Getting started

What SheetMill is, how to build it and how to write, check and publish your first sheet.

SheetMill turns Markdown reference sheets with YAML frontmatter into a checked, structured representation and a fast, self-contained reference website. The command-line tool is smill. Nothing in a sheet is executed or fetched.

See what it produces in the demo library, built from the example sheets in the repository.

Install

Build from source #

Release archives for linux amd64/arm64 and macOS arm64 (with SHA256SUMS, unsigned) are published on the releases page once the owner tags a version; until then, or for other platforms, build with Go 1.27.2:

git clone https://github.com/wstein/sheetmill
cd sheetmill
go build -o ./smill ./cmd/smill
./smill version

Optional tools #

Building a website and the live preview need Hugo 0.167.0 (exact version). Checking and inspecting sheets need nothing else.

Your first sheet

Write it #

Create sheets/editor.md:

---
title: Tiny Editor
category: editor
tags: [editor, keyboard]
---
## Editing {#editing}
### Select a line {#select-line}
| Key | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `x` | Select line |

## starts a section and ### starts a card. The source format lists every rule, including layout hints such as {.col-span-2}.

Check it #

./smill check sheets
./smill inspect sheets/editor.md

check is silent when the sheet is valid. Otherwise every message names the file, line, column and a stable diagnostic code.

Publish

Build a website #

./smill build hugo sheets --out ./site
hugo --source ./site --destination public

The export goes into a new directory and is never overwritten. See Hugo website export for hosting under a path such as /docs/.

Preview while editing #

./smill serve sheets --open

A read-only live preview rebuilds when you save.

Going further

Import and automation #

Convert existing Reference sheets with recorded provenance using the controlled importer. AI agents can follow the agent guide, and smill --help points them to it.