Directory Structure

The default Middleman installation consists of a directory structure which looks like this:

mymiddlemansite/
+-- .gitignore
+-- Gemfile
+-- Gemfile.lock
+-- config.rb
+-- source
    +-- images
    ¦   +-- background.png
    ¦   +-- middleman.png
    +-- index.html.erb
    +-- javascripts
    ¦   +-- all.js
    +-- layouts
    ¦   +-- layout.erb
    +-- stylesheets
        +-- all.css
        +-- normalize.css

Main Directories

Middleman makes use of the source, build, data and lib directories for specific purposes. Each of these directories are children of the main Middleman directory.

source Directory

The source directory contains your main website source files to be built, including your templates JavaScript, CSS and images.

build Directory

The build directory is where your static website files will be compiled and exported to.

data Directory

Local Data allows you to create YAML or JSON files in a folder called data and makes this information available in your templates. The data folder should be placed in the root of your project (i.e. in the same folder as your project's source folder). See the Data Files docs for more information.

lib Directory

The lib directory enables you to include external Ruby modules which contain helpers for building your application. If you use Rails then you will be familiar with this layout.