Runtime Setup

Runtime Setup

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By 廿四3 min Read

This tutorial guides you through setting up a VitePress runtime environment.

Editor ​

You need an editor to edit your project. We recommend using VS Code to write and run your VitePress projects.

Take macOS as an example. The steps to install VS Code are as follows:

  1. Download Visual Studio Code File.
  2. Open the downloaded .dmg file.
  3. Drag Visual Studio Code.app into the Applications folder.
  4. Open VS Code from the Applications folder by double‑clicking the icon.

Node.js ​

Introduction

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine.

You need to download and install the latest long-term support (LTS) release.

bash
# Download and install nvm:
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.4/install.sh | bash

# in lieu of restarting the shell
\. "$HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh"

# Download and install Node.js:
nvm install 24

# Verify the Node.js version:
node -v # Should print "v24.14.1".

pnpm ​

Tips

We recommend using pnpm as your package manager, because VitePress and VitePress Theme Niansi both use pnpm to manage dependencies.

Some features of pnpm ensure that you have the correct dependencies, and it can also speed up your installation.

Changelog

2026-04-14 14:20
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