Kestrel docs
Publishing with Kestrel
These pages get you publishing in the dashboard, and cover the decisions to make before they matter. Deploying and running Kestrel itself is covered in Self-hosting.
Set up your publication
The steps to set up a new publication, in the order the dashboard’s setup checklist lists them.
- 01 Name your publication Give your newsletter a name and a look before your first post. Set the name, tagline, and logo under Settings → Publication identity.
- 02 Check your setup Before your readers get anything, see it arrive yourself, and make sure a problem will reach you without your watching for it.
- 03 Bring your existing list Moving to Kestrel from another newsletter service means bringing your subscribers with you, along with the consent they gave there.
- 04 Write and send a post You write a post in Markdown, test it, and schedule it. Scheduling locks the post and makes the exact email that will go out.
- 05 Share your subscribe link Your publication's subscribe page is at /subscribe on your Kestrel's address, such as https://newsletter.example.com/subscribe.
Go further
Things you choose to do once you’re running.
- Edit your email template You write each post in Markdown, and the template is the HTML frame it's sent in, like a layout in a static site generator. {{ .Post.Body }} marks where your…
- Working with Claude Ask Claude in plain words, the way you'd ask a colleague. It works through the same API as the dashboard, so it can do what you can do there, and nothing more.
Rules and troubleshooting
What the law asks of every send, and what to do when something goes wrong.