[HTML5 Boilerplate homepage](http://html5boilerplate.com) | [Documentation

table of contents](README.md)

# Usage

Once you have cloned or downloaded HTML5 Boilerplate, creating a site or app

usually involves the following:

1. Set up the basic structure of the site.

2. Add some content, style, and functionality.

3. Run your site locally to see how it looks.

4. (Optionally run a build script to automate the optimization of your site -

   e.g. [ant build script](https://github.com/h5bp/ant-build-script) or [node

   build script](https://github.com/h5bp/node-build-script)).

5. Deploy your site.

## Basic structure

A basic HTML5 Boilerplate site initially looks something like this:

```

.

├── css

│   ├── main.css

│   └── normalize.css

├── doc

├── img

├── js

│   ├── main.js

│   ├── plugins.js

│   └── vendor

│       ├── jquery.min.js

│       └── modernizr.min.js

├── .htaccess

├── 404.html

├── index.html

├── humans.txt

├── robots.txt

├── crossdomain.xml

├── favicon.ico

└── [apple-touch-icons]

```

What follows is a general overview of each major part and how to use them.

### css

This directory should contain all your project's CSS files. It includes some

initial CSS to help get you started from a solid foundation. [About the

CSS](css.md).

### doc

This directory contains all the HTML5 Boilerplate documentation. You can use it

as the location and basis for your own project's documentation.

### js

This directory should contain all your project's JS files. Libraries, plugins,

and custom code can all be included here. It includes some initial JS to help

get you started. [About the JavaScript](js.md).

### .htaccess

The default web server config is for Apache. [About the .htaccess](htaccess.md).

Host your site on a server other than Apache? You're likely to find the

corresponding configuration file in our [server configs

repo](https://github.com/h5bp/server-configs). If you cannot find a

configuration file for your setup, please consider contributing one so that

others can benefit too.

### 404.html

A helpful custom 404 to get you started.

### index.html

This is the default HTML skeleton that should form the basis of all pages on

your site. If you are using a server-side templating framework, then you will

need to integrate this starting HTML with your setup.

Make sure that you update the URLs for the referenced CSS and JavaScript if you

modify the directory structure at all.

If you are using Google Analytics, make sure that you edit the corresponding

snippet at the bottom to include your analytics ID.

### humans.txt

Edit this file to include the team that worked on your site/app, and the

technology powering it.

### robots.txt

Edit this file to include any pages you need hidden from search engines.

### crossdomain.xml

A template for working with cross-domain requests. [About

crossdomain.xml](crossdomain.md).

### icons

Replace the default `favicon.ico` and apple touch icons with your own. You

might want to check out Hans Christian's handy [HTML5 Boilerplate Favicon and

Apple Touch Icon

PSD-Template](http://drublic.de/blog/html5-boilerplate-favicons-psd-template/).