BUILT IN
C#
NOT WASM.

Requirements: .NET SDK 8.0 or 9.0 only. Windows: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download → SDK 9.0 .exe → dotnet --version macOS: brew install dotnet@9 or .pkg from site Linux: sudo apt install dotnet-sdk-9.0 Then Open terminal:

git clone https://github.com/mesinkasir.dax.git
cd dax
dotnet run -- build  → builds to site/
dotnet run -- start  → dev server http://localhost:8080/

│   Dax.csproj, Program.cs, README.md, vercel.json, netlify.toml
├───.github/workflows/deploy.yml → GitHub Pages deploy
├───_data/ → metadata.json, config.yaml, nav.json → auto DAX .NET Static Site Generator, 
├───content/ → index.md → /, about.md → /about/, posts.md (collection controller) + posts/hello.md → /posts/hello-dax/
├───templates/layouts/ → base.dax, home.dax, posts-list.dax, post.dax, tag.dax, tags-list.dax
├───templates/partials/ → header.dax, footer.dax, seo.dax
├───public/ → css/style.css, img/ → copied verbatim to site/
└───site/ → generated output (gitignored)

.gitignore must include: bin/, obj/, site/, *.exe, *.

Any .md in content/ with frontmatter:

---
title: Hello DAX
date: 2026-08-03
tags: [csharp, dax]
layout: minimal/post.dax
hero:
  title: Welcome
  list:
    - name: GitHub
      url: https://github.com
      meta: { icon: github, deep: { level: 3 } }
image: /img/hero.jpg
---

# Markdown here → { { content }}

In template: { { hero.title }}, { % for item in hero.list %}{ { item.name }} - { { item.meta.deep.level }}{ % endfor %}

Unlimited nesting, no fixed schema like Blazor.

Base template: templates/layouts/base.dax contains placeholder.

Includes: { % include header.dax %}

Loops: 
{% for post in collections.posts limit:3 %}
  { { post.title }} - { { post.date }}
{ % endfor %}

{ % for n in config.list %}
  { { n.title }} → { { n.url }}
{ % endfor %}

Condition: { % if image %}< img src="{ { image }}" >{ % endif %}

Variables: { { title }}, { { metadata.site_url }}, { { pagination.items }}, { { all_tags }}

Collections: Any folder in content/ e.g. content/services/ → collections.services auto sorted by date desc. Controller file: content/posts.md

---
title: Blog
layout: posts-list.dax
collection: posts
pagination: 6
---

→ Generates /posts/ + /posts/page/2/ + pagination.items, pagination.total_pages, pagination.prev_url, next_url Tags: any post with tags: [csharp] → /tags/ (all_tags) + /tags/csharp/ auto pages using tag.dax layout. SEO: sitemap.xml, robots.txt, rss.xml auto generated from collections.posts. Search watch excludes site/, bin/, obj/ to avoid infinite loop.

Blazor = SPA framework for interactive apps. Needs 512KB WASM download, _framework/blazor.web.js, boot time 2s, hydration mismatch risk, heavy for SEO. DAX = static output, 0KB JS, 50ms load, HTML only, Lighthouse 100. Benchmark: same blog Blazor: dotnet publish 8s, payload 512KB, first paint 2.1s DAX: dotnet run -- build 0.12s, payload 0KB JS, first paint 0.05s Use Blazor for dashboard. Use DAX for content that must be fast.

GitHub Pages: .github/workflows/deploy.yml → dotnet build → upload site/ artifact → deploy-pages. Vercel: vercel.json

{
  "buildCommand": "dotnet publish -c Release -o bin && ./bin/DAX build",
  "outputDirectory": "site"
}

Netlify: netlify.toml

[build]
  command = "dotnet publish -c Release -o bin && ./bin/DAX build"
  publish = "site"

Cloudflare Pages: same, output site/. No GCC needed unlike CAX.