Getting Started

Installation

Get Bolt CMS running on any PHP server in under five minutes. No database, no package manager, no build tools.

Prerequisites

Bolt CMS has minimal requirements:

PHP 7.4+ (any hosting with PHP works)
Apache with mod_rewrite enabled
No database needed
No Composer or Node.js

If you have MAMP, XAMPP, Laravel Valet, or any standard PHP hosting environment, you are ready to go.

Directory Structure

Create a new directory for your Bolt site and add the following folder structure:

bolt/
├── .htaccess
├── index.php
├── pages/
│   └── index.php
├── headers/
│   └── default.php
├── footers/
│   └── default.php
├── layouts/
│   └── default.php
├── includes/
└── api/

Each directory has a clear purpose:

Directory	Purpose
`pages/`	Content files. Each file or directory becomes a URL route.
`headers/`	Header partials (navigation, branding).
`footers/`	Footer partials (links, copyright).
`layouts/`	Layout templates that wrap page content.
`includes/`	Shared PHP utilities and helpers.
`api/`	Server-side API endpoints (search, chat, etc.).

Configure .htaccess

Create a .htaccess file in your site root. This sends all requests to index.php for routing:

RewriteEngine On

# If the request is for an existing file or directory, serve it directly
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

# Otherwise, route everything through index.php
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]

This is the only server configuration needed. All routing logic lives in PHP.

Configure index.php

The entry point file defines constants, resolves the requested page, and renders the HTML shell:

<?php

define('ROOT_DIR', __DIR__);

// Build the site URL dynamically
$protocol = (!empty($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && $_SERVER['HTTPS'] !== 'off') ? 'https://' : 'http://';
$host = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] ?? 'localhost';
$scriptName = $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] ?? '';
$basePath = rtrim(str_replace('/index.php', '', $scriptName), '/');

define('SITEURL', $protocol . $host . $basePath);
define('BASE_PATH', $basePath);

// Parse the request URI
$request_URI = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] ?? '/';
if ($basePath !== '' && strpos($request_URI, $basePath) === 0) {
    $request_URI = substr($request_URI, strlen($basePath));
}
if (empty($request_URI)) $request_URI = '/';

// Default page configuration
$page = [
    'config' => [
        'title'           => 'My Bolt Site',
        'description'     => '',
        'keywords'        => '',
        'header'          => 'default',
        'layout'          => 'default',
        'footer'          => 'default',
        'pageTitle'       => '',
        'pageDescription' => '',
    ],
    'content' => ''
];

// Route the request to a page file
if ($request_URI !== '/') {
    $path = explode('?', $request_URI)[0];
    $path = explode('#', $path)[0];
    $path = rtrim(ltrim($path, '/'), '/');
    $path = preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9\-\/]/', '', $path);

    if (file_exists(__DIR__ . '/pages/' . $path . '.php')) {
        require(__DIR__ . '/pages/' . $path . '.php');
    } elseif (file_exists(__DIR__ . '/pages/' . $path . '/index.php')) {
        require(__DIR__ . '/pages/' . $path . '/index.php');
    } else {
        header('HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found');
        exit;
    }
} else {
    require(__DIR__ . '/pages/index.php');
}

?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title><?php echo $page['config']['title']; ?></title>
    <script src="includes/paradigm.css.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <?php
        require_once(__DIR__ . '/headers/' . $page['config']['header'] . '.php');
        require_once(__DIR__ . '/layouts/' . $page['config']['layout'] . '.php');
        require_once(__DIR__ . '/footers/' . $page['config']['footer'] . '.php');
    ?>
</body>
</html>

Create Your First Page

Create pages/index.php — this is your home page:

<?php

$page['config']['title'] = 'Welcome to My Site';
$page['config']['pageTitle'] = 'Hello, World';
$page['config']['pageDescription'] = 'This is my first Bolt CMS page.';

ob_start();
?>

<h2>It works!</h2>
<p>If you can see this, Bolt CMS is running correctly.</p>

<?php
$page['content'] = ob_get_clean();
?>

Key points about the page pattern:

Set $page['config'] values before the output buffer starts.
Use ob_start() to begin capturing HTML content.
Write your page content as plain HTML between the buffer calls.
Assign the buffer to $page['content'] with ob_get_clean().

Create a Default Layout

Create layouts/default.php. At minimum it just echoes the page content:

<?php echo $page['content']; ?>

Create empty headers/default.php and footers/default.php files as well. You can add navigation and footer content to these later.

Verify It Works

Start your PHP server and visit the site root:

# If using PHP's built-in server:
php -S localhost:8000

# Or visit your MAMP/XAMPP URL:
# http://localhost/bolt/

You should see your "Hello, World" page rendered with the title set in the browser tab. If you see a 404 or blank page:

Verify mod_rewrite is enabled (a2enmod rewrite on Linux).
Check that AllowOverride All is set in your Apache config for the directory.
Confirm the .htaccess file is in the same directory as index.php.

Next Steps

With the base installed, you can now:

Add more pages by creating files in pages/ (see Routing).
Build custom layouts with sidebars, navs, and footers (see Layouts & Templates).
Style your site with Paradigm CSS (see Design System).

Overview Routing