Files are the interface

A Norna site is defined primarily through files rather than through a CMS, database, visual editor or application-specific component tree.

The files are both the source of the website and the interface through which the site is maintained.

They can be:

• edited with ordinary tools
• versioned with Git
• reviewed as changes
• kept beside the project they document or present

Norna reads those files and turns them into a static website.

Norna deliberately defines how the major parts of a site are represented.

Instead of asking each project to invent its own relationship between content, templates, layouts, components and rendering logic, Norna provides a fixed site model.

This is what makes Norna opinionated.

It reduces flexibility, but also reduces the amount of website architecture each project has to create and maintain.

Content - what the site says

content.md and route content files contain headings, text, sections, image references, alt text and captions.

Theme - how the site looks

theme.md contains site-wide visual choices such as layout, image sizing, typography and colors.

Configuration - how the site behaves

config.mjs contains technical settings such as URLs, base paths, locale settings and GitHub publishing configuration.

Sections organise content within a page.

Routes create additional pages with their own URLs.

The homepage is defined by content.md. Additional pages live under routes/ and use their own route content.

Routes use the broader Norna site model rather than defining an independent website implementation.

site/  ->  Norna  ->  dist/
source               generated static website

Do not edit generated output to change the website. Change the source files and build again.

A traditional static site generator usually exposes lower-level website-building primitives: templates, layouts, components, data sources or rendering logic.

That gives developers substantial control over how the website itself is implemented.

Norna deliberately exposes a higher-level interface.

The user describes:

• content
• presentation
• configuration
• routes
• assets

Norna provides more of the implementation.

The distinction is therefore not simply:

dynamic website vs static website

Both can produce static websites.

The distinction is primarily the level at which the user works.

A useful summary is:

With a traditional SSG, you build the website. With Norna, you describe the website within a defined model.

This is a conceptual explanation of Norna’s intended workflow, not an absolute technical claim about every other static site generator.

A build creates static output in dist/.

Publishing is a separate step.

Norna currently integrates that step with GitHub Pages only.

Because the output is static, support for other static hosting providers could be added in the future.

That architectural possibility is not current provider support.