Choosing a template

You don't install Keystone directly — you start from a template. A template is a ready-made project skeleton: the directory layout, a Makefile, the Docker wiring, and the config files you fill in. It's what turns the Keystone engine into something you can write a book in.

Two templates ship today. Both produce identical output from the same manuscript — the difference is whether the engine is a sealed black box or sitting in your project for you to read and change.

	core-slim	core
Engine	Prebuilt image, out of sight	Shipped in your project (.pandoc/)
First build	Fast — pulls the image	Slower — builds the image locally
Customize the engine	No	Yes
Verify image signature	make verify	(you build it yourself)
Best for	Writing your book	Understanding or customizing the engine

How to choose

Start with core-slim. It's the everyday template: you write Markdown, edit pandoc.yaml, and run make publish. The engine stays out of your way, builds are fast, and you can verify the signed image you're pulling.

Reach for core only when you need to see inside the engine or change it — add a handler, adjust a filter, study how a build actually runs. It ships the entire runtime in your project and builds the image locally, so nothing is hidden and there's nothing to reverse-engineer. Its engine guide documents what you now have in front of you.

Either way the authoring experience is the same: the Writing and Configuration sections of this manual apply unchanged to both.

Getting a template

The quickest start is GitHub's Use this template button on a template's repository, which gives you your own copy as a new repository. You don't need GitHub, though: download the repository's source (Code → Download ZIP, or any clone) and start from those files under whatever version control you prefer — or none. Git and a hosted repository are conventions Keystone leans on, not requirements.

The Keystone CLI will make this smoother still, scaffolding a new project without tying you to git or GitHub. Until it ships, using the template or downloading its source is how you begin.