Astro Weekly #81

Hey there, Astronauts!

This week, we’re keeping things practical with two standout resources from the Astro community: a completely free, nine-part Astro crash course, and a deep dive into using Keystatic as a simple, self-hosted CMS.

Plus, we’re celebrating a major milestone as Astro’s reach continues to grow.

Let’s get into it. 🚀

What’s new with Astro 🗞️

Fresh features, updates, and announcements. The latest from Astro HQ!

Astro hits major milestone 📈

Astro just hit a new milestone: over 2 million monthly downloads on npm!

Whether you're building blogs, docs, or full-on apps, it's clear Astro’s approach is resonating with developers everywhere.

Congrats to all for being part of the mission thus far. Onward and upward! 🚀

Astro Boosters 🚀

Fueling the mission — brought to you by this week’s sponsor.

Launch faster with LaunchFast 🔥

LaunchFast starter kits helps you focus on your business with pre-built functionality and features, like:

• 🛢️ Postgres, SQLite, and Redis support

• ✍️ Blogs with in-built search and code syntax highlighting

• 🔐 Sign In & Sign Up flow with Socials, Magic Link, and Credentials Login

   (powered by Auth.js)

• 📧 Forgot Password and Email Verification flow

• 💳 Checkout Sessions and Webhook processing for Stripe & Lemon Squeezy

• 🗂️ File Storage (pre-signed URLs) with R2, S3, Firebase, and Supabase

Available in Astro, Next.js, and SvelteKit, each kit is customizable and extendable.

LaunchFast also includes integrations for analytics, storage, email, and more, saving you over 50+ hours of work on every new project.

Astro Community 🧑‍🚀

Spotlight on what’s shining in the Astroverse.

Get up to speed with Astro 🚀

Perfect for beginners, this nine-part crash course from Chris Pennington walks through the core concepts of Astro at a steady pace, from components to content collections.

If you’re new to Astro or just want to brush up on the fundamentals, this is a great place to start before diving into more advanced topics such as Astro DB.

Keystatic + Astro: A match made in Markdown 🔑

Curious about Keystatic? In this hands-on guide, Maciek Palmowski shows how to pair the lightweight, file-based CMS with Astro for a clean, minimal editing experience.

From custom fields to optimized image handling, it’s a smooth setup for anyone looking to manage content without leaving their Markdown workflow behind.

Spotted in the Astroverse 🪐

A few standout posts from the community that grabbed my attention!

• 🎉 How to import SVG files as components in Astro

• 💄 Dying for Beauty

• 🌟 How to make your Starlight sidebar items look better

If you have something awesome you’d like to share with the Astro community, you can reach me at [email protected] or via DM on X

Blazing-fast Astro themes ⚡

Meet Feather—an elegant, minimalist blog theme for Astro. 🪶

Feather provides a clean, typography-focused design that puts your writing first while achieving perfect Lighthouse scores across all metrics.

Early access pricing available for a limited time.

Astro on X 🛰️

Tuning in to the Astro frequency on X!

Direct link for web version:
https://x.com/lucashfrsantos/status/1918182035820253665

Astro Boosters 🚀

Fueling the mission — brought to you by this week’s sponsor.

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Astro Showcase 🤩

Fresh from the launchpad: Astro sites worth a look!

That’s a wrap for this week!

Got something cool cooking with Astro? I’d love to see it. Drop me a line at [email protected] or slide into my DMs on X.

I’ll be back next Sunday with more tips, tools, and insights from the Astroverse.

Until then, Astronauts!

– Nathan 👨‍🚀