Quick install

Note

These instructions assume familiarity with virtual environments and the Django web framework. For more detailed instructions, see Your first Wagtail site. To add Wagtail to an existing Django project, see Integrating Wagtail into a Django project.

Dependencies needed for installation

Install Wagtail

Run the following commands in a virtual environment of your choice:

pip install wagtail

Once installed, Wagtail provides a wagtail start command to generate a new project:

wagtail start mysite

Running the command creates a new folder mysite, which is a template containing everything you need to get started. More information on this template is available in the project template reference.

Inside your mysite folder, run the setup steps necessary for any Django project:

pip install -r requirements.txt
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser
python manage.py runserver

Your site is now accessible at http://localhost:8000, with the admin backend available at http://localhost:8000/admin/.

This sets you up with a new stand-alone Wagtail project. If you want to add Wagtail to an existing Django project instead, see Integrating Wagtail into a Django project.

There are a few optional packages that are not installed by default. You can install them to improve performance or add features to Wagtail. These optional packages include:

Common quick install issues

Python is not available in path

python
> command not found: python

For detailed guidance, see this guide on how to add Python to your path.

python3 not available

python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
> command not found: python3

If this error occurs, the python3 can be replaced with py.