Install

LiveTemplate is a Go framework. The minimum to get a reactive page running is one go get.

Add the framework

go get github.com/livetemplate/livetemplate

That's it for the server side. The TypeScript client wires up the browser side automatically — you add two tags to your template's <head>/<body>; no npm step needed for getting started.

Loading the browser client

Add these to your template. The lvtClientScriptURL / lvtClientStyleURL functions are provided by the framework on every template:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{lvtClientStyleURL}}">
<script defer src="{{lvtClientScriptURL}}"></script>

They render the CDN URL for the client bundle this server release is wire-compatible with — pinned, not @latest. This matters: there is no runtime handshake between server and client, so an unpinned client can ship a wire-protocol change to browsers still talking to an older server. The pinned version moves only when you upgrade the framework (go get -u github.com/livetemplate/livetemplate), keeping the two in lockstep. Every example in these docs uses this pattern.

The URLs are also exported as constants — livetemplate.ClientVersion, livetemplate.ClientScriptURL, livetemplate.ClientStyleURL — if you need them outside a template.

Self-hosting (offline, air-gapped, or CSP-strict)

If your deployment can't reach a public CDN — or a Content-Security-Policy forbids third-party script origins — vendor the bundle at the pinned version and serve it from your own origin:

npm install @livetemplate/client@<version>   # match livetemplate.ClientVersion

Serve the vendored files same-origin, then either write your own tags pointing at them or repoint the framework functions with a Funcs override (they merge by name, so yours wins) — no need to edit every template:

tmpl.Funcs(template.FuncMap{
    "lvtClientScriptURL": func() string { return "/assets/livetemplate-client.browser.js" },
    "lvtClientStyleURL":  func() string { return "/assets/livetemplate.css" },
})

Optional: install the lvt CLI

The lvt CLI generates LiveTemplate apps with database scaffolding, auth, and a router pre-wired. Optional — you can write apps directly in Go without it.

go install github.com/livetemplate/lvt/cmd/lvt@latest
lvt new myapp
cd myapp && lvt serve

See the CLI guide for the full command reference.

What next?

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