Installation - Nimbus

1. Add the theme

As a Git submodule (recommended for most sites):

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git submodule add https://github.com/your-org/hugo-theme-nimbus.git themes/nimbus

Or as a Hugo Module:

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hugo mod init github.com/you/your-site
hugo mod get github.com/your-org/hugo-theme-nimbus

2. Point your site config at it

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theme = "nimbus"

3. Copy the build tooling

Nimbus’s styling is compiled with Tailwind, ahead of time, into a plain CSS file — Hugo itself never runs Node or PostCSS. Copy these files from exampleSite/ into your site root:

package.json
postcss.config.js
tailwind.config.js
assets/css/tailwind.built.css (the pre-compiled output — your site works immediately with this even before you run npm install)

No Node.js required to just run the site

hugo server -D and hugo --minify work with zero npm install, because they only read the already-compiled tailwind.built.css. You only need Node.js when you actually want to change styles or Tailwind content globs.

4. When you do change styles

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npm install
npm run watch-css   # recompiles on save; run alongside `hugo server -D`
# or, for a one-off rebuild:
npm run build-css

Commit the updated assets/css/tailwind.built.css afterward — it’s the actual file Hugo serves.

5. Build

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hugo server -D      # local dev
hugo --minify        # production build, output in ./public

Optional: real “last updated” dates + edit links

Every page shows a file-based “last updated” date and an “Edit this page” link out of the box — no setup needed. Once your site is an actual git repository (not just unzipped), uncomment enableGitInfo = true in hugo.toml to switch the date to the real last-commit date and show the commit author too.