Watery screenshot

Watery

Author Avatar Theme by Brennanbrown
Updated: 2 Nov 2025
15 Stars

A minimalist, bare-bones theme for Jekyll only using the Water.css framework while still following the best practices for accessibility and search-engine optimization.

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Overview

Watery is a minimalist theme for the JAMstack file-based CMS Jekyll. It is built using the <80kb Water.css framework and follows best practices for accessibility and search engine optimization. The theme is designed for those new to Jekyll and provides a hassle-free way to create informational websites or blogs.

Features

  • Fully customizable and empty _config.yml for easy setup.
  • _pages collection for better organization.
  • Auto-generated navigation links to all pages in _pages.
  • Auto-generated tags page that lists all tags used by posts in chronological order.
  • Author bio at the end of each post.
  • Full Rouge support for syntax code highlighting.
  • Auto-generated RSS feed, sitemap, accessibility features, and search engine optimization.

Installation

  1. Prerequisites:

    • Ruby version 2.5.0 or higher
    • RubyGems
    • GCC and Make (See “Requirements” for detailed guides)
  2. Instructions:

    • Install all prerequisites.
    • Install the jekyll and bundler gems.
    • Clone the Watery repository.
    • Change into the cloned directory.
    • Install gems from the Gemfile.
    • Build the site and make it available on a local server.
    • Browse to http://localhost:4000
  3. Troubleshooting:

    • If you encounter any errors, check that you have installed all the prerequisites.
    • Refer to the troubleshooting guide for assistance.

Summary

Watery is a minimalistic Jekyll theme that uses the Water.css framework. It offers several features such as customizable configuration, organized page collections, auto-generated navigation links and tags page, author bio, syntax code highlighting, and various optimizations. The theme installation is straightforward, and it provides a hassle-free way to create informational websites or blogs.