A quick look at the top-level files and directories you'll see in a Gatsby project.
.
├── node_modules
├── src
├── .gitignore
├── gatsby-config.js
├── gatsby-node.js
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
└── README.md
-
/node_modules
: This directory contains all of the modules of code that the project depends on (npm packages) are automatically installed. -
/src
: This directory will contain all of the code related to what you will see on the front-end of the site (what you see in the browser) such as the site header or a page template.src
is a convention for “source code”. -
.gitignore
: This file tells git which files it should not track / not maintain a version history for. -
gatsby-config.js
: This is the main configuration file for a Gatsby site. This is where site information (metadata) like the site title and description, which Gatsby plugins are include, etc. can be specified (Check out the config docs for more detail). -
gatsby-node.js
: This file is where Gatsby expects to find any usage of the Gatsby Node APIs (if any). These allow customization/extension of default Gatsby settings affecting pieces of the site build process. This is where data from external sources (APIs) can be gathered for inclusion in the static build. -
package-lock.json
(Seepackage.json
below, first). This is an automatically generated file based on the exact versions of npm dependencies that were installed for the project. (Don’t change this file directly). -
package.json
: A manifest file for Node.js projects, which includes things like metadata (the project’s name, author, etc). This manifest is how npm knows which packages to install for the project. -
README.md
: A text file containing useful reference information about the project.
Full documentation for Gatsby lives on the website.