Viewing Your Site

Astrolock provides two ways to view your site locally: Write mode for active development, and Preview mode to test the final build.

Write Mode (Development)

Use this when actively creating or editing content:

astrolock write

Then open http://localhost:4321 in your browser.

Key features:

• Live reload - Changes appear instantly when you save a file
• Fast startup - Starts in seconds
• Error messages - Helpful debugging info in the terminal

Stopping Write Mode

Press Ctrl + C in the terminal to stop the server.

Preview Mode (Production Test)

Use this to test how your site will look when published:

astrolock preview

This builds your entire site first, then serves it locally.

When to use Preview mode:

• Before publishing to catch any build errors
• To test features that only work in production (like search)
• To verify images and links work correctly

Comparing the Two Modes

Feature	Write Mode	Preview Mode
Command	astrolock write	astrolock preview
Speed	Instant updates	Requires rebuild
Purpose	Active development	Final testing
Use when	Writing content	Before publishing

Common Issues

Site won't load

1. Check Docker is running - Look for the Docker whale icon
2. Check the port - Make sure nothing else is using port 4321
3. Restart - Press Ctrl + C and run the command again

Changes not appearing

In Write mode:

• Save the file (Cmd/Ctrl + S)
• Check for errors in the terminal

In Preview mode:

• You need to stop and restart to see changes

Seeing errors in the terminal

The terminal shows helpful error messages. Common ones:

• “Frontmatter error” - Check your YAML formatting at the top of the file
• “File not found” - An image or link path is wrong
• “Port in use” - Another process is using port 4321

Next Steps

• Start adding content
• Learn about content collections