Setup

This guide will help you set up the ACM CRE template on your computer.

Before you begin

You will need:

• GitHub account - Create one here if you don’t have one
• Text editor - VS Code works well

Setting up a GitHub organisation (recommended)

We recommend creating a GitHub organisation for your event. This gives you a cleaner URL:

To create an organisation:

1. Click the + icon at the top-right of any GitHub page
2. Select New organization
3. Choose GitHub Free (organisations are free)
4. Name it something like acm-cre-youruni
5. Complete the setup

See GitHub’s guide on creating organisations for more details.

Step 1: Open your terminal

macOS

Press Cmd + Space, type “Terminal”, and press Enter.

If you have not used Git before, macOS will prompt you to install developer tools when you first run a Git command. Follow the prompts to install them.

Windows

1. Install Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store
2. Install Git from git-scm.com/download/win
3. Restart Windows Terminal after installation

Verify Git is installed:

git --version

Linux

Open your terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T on most distributions) and install required packages:

Ubuntu / Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install git curl build-essential

Fedora:

sudo dnf install git curl gcc make

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S git curl base-devel

Step 2: Install mise

mise manages programming language versions. Run this command:

curl https://mise.run | sh

Activate mise in your shell

After installation, add mise to your shell configuration.

macOS (zsh):

echo 'eval "$(~/.local/bin/mise activate zsh)"' >> ~/.zshrc

Close Terminal completely (Cmd + Q) and reopen it.

Windows PowerShell:

Add-Content -Path $PROFILE -Value 'eval "$(~/.local/bin/mise activate pwsh)"'

Windows Git Bash:

echo 'eval "$(~/.local/bin/mise activate bash)"' >> ~/.bashrc

Close and reopen Windows Terminal.

Linux (Bash):

echo 'eval "$(~/.local/bin/mise activate bash)"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Linux (Zsh):

echo 'eval "$(~/.local/bin/mise activate zsh)"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Verify mise is installed

mise doctor

You should see “No problems found”. If you see errors, check the mise installation docs.

Step 3: Create your repository

1. Go to github.com/ACM-CRE/website-template
2. Click Use this template > Create a new repository
3. Under Owner, select your organisation (or personal account)
4. Name your repository:
   • For organisations: acm-cre-university.github.io
   • For personal accounts: acm-cre-university
5. Click Create repository

See GitHub’s guide on creating from a template for more details.

Clone your repository

git clone https://github.com/YOUR-ORG/acm-cre-university.github.io.git
cd acm-cre-university.github.io

Replace YOUR-ORG and acm-cre-university with your actual organisation and repository names.

Step 4: Install Ruby and dependencies

Tell mise to trust this project and install Ruby:

mise trust
mise install

This downloads and installs Ruby 3.4.

Install the project dependencies:

bundle install

Step 5: Run the website locally

bundle exec jekyll serve

Open http://localhost:4000 in your browser.

You should see the example event website.

To stop the server, press Ctrl + C.

Next steps

• Deploy your site
• Customise your event details

Having issues?

See the Troubleshooting guide for solutions to common problems.