Installation

VaraPress is a Zola theme. You install it inside an existing Zola site, enable it in zola.toml, and then let the theme provide the templates, assets, and shortcodes.

Requirements

• Zola >= 0.22.1
• Git, if you install the theme as a submodule

Add the Theme

From the root of your Zola project, add VaraPress under themes/varapress:

git submodule add https://github.com/varavelio/varapress.git themes/varapress

If you do not use Git submodules, copy or vendor the theme into the same themes/varapress directory. The directory name matters because it is the value Zola reads from theme = "varapress".

Enable the Theme

Set the theme in your site's zola.toml:

theme = "varapress"

Keep your own site content in the root project's content/ directory. The theme files in themes/varapress/ should be treated as upstream theme code.

Bundled Assets

VaraPress includes its frontend assets already bundled in static/. A project consuming the theme does not need a frontend package manager, an asset build step, or additional dependencies. Zola can serve and build the site directly after the theme is enabled.

If you are contributing to the theme itself, use the repository development workflow. That is separate from consuming VaraPress in a normal Zola project.

Verify the Site

Run Zola from your project root:

zola serve

For production checks, use:

zola check

Next Steps

After installation, configure your metadata, logos, highlighting, and content strategy in Configuration.