Getting Started — Preparation and Download

Before You Write a Single Line of Configuration

Dax Pro is a compiled static site generator. That means it does not run in a browser, it does not need a web server during development, and it does not depend on Node.js, Python, Ruby, or any other runtime. It depends on exactly one thing: the .NET SDK.

If you have ever worked with Next.js, Hugo, or Jekyll, forget what you know about toolchain setup. There is no npm install. There is no bundle install. There is no gem install. There is a single SDK installer, and then you are done.

This chapter walks you through preparation in precise order:

1. What you need on your machine — hardware, operating system, disk space

2. Installing the .NET SDK — separate instructions for Windows, Linux, and macOS

3. Verifying your installation — one command that proves the SDK works

4. Downloading Dax Pro — from your Gumroad purchase

5. Unpacking the project — where to put the files and why it matters

Follow this chapter exactly. Do not skip steps. The build will fail later if the SDK is installed incorrectly, and debugging that failure is much harder than reading this chapter once.

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What You Need

Before installing anything, confirm you have the following:

You do not need a database. You do not need a web server. You do not need Node.js, Python, Ruby, PHP, or Docker. If you have any of those installed, you can ignore them — they do not interfere with Dax Pro.

You do need a working internet connection the first time you build, because the .NET SDK needs to download its own dependencies from Microsoft. After that, builds work offline.

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Installing the .NET SDK

Dax Pro targets .NET 9. The SDK is free, provided by Microsoft, and available for every major operating system. Install the SDK, not just the runtime — the runtime cannot compile C# code, and Dax Pro is written in C#.

Microsoft maintains a download page at dotnet.microsoft.com/download. The instructions below walk through the recommended path for each operating system.

Windows

The Windows installer is the easiest path. It handles PATH variables, certificates, and uninstall registration automatically.

1. Open your browser and navigate to https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download

2. On the page, locate the .NET 9 section. If the page defaults to a newer version, click the version selector and choose .NET 9

3. Under .NET 9, choose SDK x64 — not the runtime, not the ASP.NET Core runtime, the SDK

4. Click the download button. The file will be named something like dotnet-sdk-9.0.x-win-x64.exe

5. When the download completes, run the installer

6. Accept the license terms and click Install

7. The installer will request administrator privileges. Allow it

8. Wait for the installer to complete — it takes about two minutes

9. Click Close

The installer automatically adds the .NET CLI to your system PATH. This means you can open a new Command Prompt or PowerShell window and immediately run dotnet commands.

If you already had a Command Prompt or PowerShell window open when you installed the SDK, close it and open a new one. Existing windows do not pick up the updated PATH variable, and you will get a confusing "dotnet is not recognized" error.

To verify the installation:

1. Press Win + R, type cmd, and press Enter

2. In the Command Prompt window, type the following and press Enter:

dotnet --version

3. You should see a version number like 9.0.100. If you see an error instead, the PATH was not updated — restart your computer and try again.

Alternative installation methods for Windows:

If you prefer package managers, you can install the SDK using winget or Chocolatey. These are optional and only recommended if you are already familiar with them.

Using winget:

winget install Microsoft.DotNet.SDK.9

Using Chocolatey:

choco install dotnet-9.0-sdk

Using Scoop:

scoop install dotnet-sdk

All three produce the same result. Use the one you already have installed.

Linux

Linux installation depends on your distribution. Dax Pro works on any distribution that .NET 9 supports, including Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, RHEL, openSUSE, Alpine, and Arch. The instructions below cover Ubuntu and Debian (the most common distributions for web work), Fedora, and the universal script.

#### Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04 and Debian 12

Microsoft maintains an official package repository for Ubuntu and Debian. Adding it gives you automatic updates alongside your other system packages.

Step 1 — Install prerequisites:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y wget apt-transport-https ca-certificates

Step 2 — Download Microsoft's signing key:

wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/22.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb

If you are on Ubuntu 24.04, replace 22.04 with 24.04 in the URL above. If you are on Debian 12, use the Debian URL:

wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/debian/12/packages-microsoft-prod.deb

Step 3 — Register the repository:

sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb
rm packages-microsoft-prod.deb

Step 4 — Install the SDK:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y dotnet-sdk-9.0

Step 5 — Verify:

dotnet --version

You should see something like 9.0.100.

#### Fedora 38 / 39

Fedora has the .NET SDK in its official repositories. No third-party repository is needed.

sudo dnf install -y dotnet-sdk-9.0

Then verify:

dotnet --version

#### Any Linux Distribution — The Install Script

Microsoft publishes an installation script that works on any Linux distribution. It downloads the SDK to $HOME/.dotnet, adds it to your PATH, and requires no root access.

curl -sSL https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh | bash /dev/stdin --channel 9.0

After the script completes, add .NET to your PATH. Open your shell's configuration file (~/.bashrc for bash, ~/.zshrc for zsh) and add:

export DOTNET_ROOT=$HOME/.dotnet
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.dotnet:$HOME/.dotnet/tools

Then reload your shell:

source ~/.bashrc

And verify:

dotnet --version

The install script is the right choice for Alpine, Arch, and any distribution where the Microsoft repository is not available. It is also the safest choice if you do not have root access on the machine.

#### Snap (Ubuntu only)

If you prefer Snap packages:

sudo snap install dotnet-sdk --classic --channel=9.0

The --classic flag is required because the SDK needs access to the whole filesystem.

macOS

macOS installation depends on whether you are on Intel or Apple Silicon. The .NET SDK supports both architectures and ships separate installers.

#### The macOS Installer (Recommended)

1. Open Safari, Chrome, or any browser

2. Navigate to https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download

3. Choose .NET 9 and click SDK

4. On the download page, choose the installer for your architecture:

- x64 for Intel Macs

- Arm64 for Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4)

5. Download the .pkg file

6. Double-click the .pkg file to run the installer

7. Follow the installer prompts — accept the license, choose the destination disk (usually "Macintosh HD"), and allow the installer to run

8. When the installer asks for your password, enter your macOS administrator password

9. Click Install and wait for completion

10. Click Close

To verify, open Terminal (you can find it via Spotlight, Cmd + Space, then type Terminal), and run:

dotnet --version

You should see a version like 9.0.100.

#### Homebrew (Alternative)

If you already use Homebrew, you can install the SDK through it:

brew install --cask dotnet-sdk

Or, for the preview channel:

brew install --cask dotnet-sdk-preview

Homebrew installs to /usr/local/share/dotnet (Intel) or /opt/homebrew/share/dotnet (Apple Silicon). The cask handles PATH automatically.

#### Verify the Architecture

If you are not sure whether your Mac is Intel or Apple Silicon, run:

uname -m

• x86_64 means Intel — download the x64 installer
• arm64 means Apple Silicon — download the Arm64 installer

Downloading the wrong architecture will produce a binary that cannot run, and the error message will not explain why. Confirm before installing.

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Verifying Your Installation

Whichever operating system you are on, verify the SDK works before downloading Dax Pro. Open a fresh terminal window (or Command Prompt on Windows) and run these three commands in order:

Command 1 — check the SDK version:

dotnet --version

Expected output: 9.0.x (for example, 9.0.100).

Command 2 — list installed SDKs:

dotnet --list-sdks

Expected output: one line showing the installed SDK version and its path. If you see multiple versions, that is fine — the SDK is designed to coexist.

Command 3 — create and build a test project:

cd /tmp
dotnet new console -o dax-test
cd dax-test
dotnet run

Expected output: Hello, World!

If you see Hello, World!, your SDK installation is correct, and you are ready to download Dax Pro. Delete the test project:

cd ..
rm -rf dax-test

On Windows, run the same commands from a Command Prompt. Replace /tmp with %TEMP%, and use rmdir /s /q dax-test instead of rm -rf dax-test.

If any of these commands fail, stop here and resolve the issue before continuing. Common causes:

• "dotnet is not recognized" — SDK not installed, or terminal needs to be restarted after installation
• "A compatible .NET SDK was not found" — installed runtime instead of SDK
• "Permission denied" — the SDK is installed but not on PATH; see your OS instructions above
• "dotnet new console" hangs — the SDK is downloading NuGet packages for the first time; wait for it to finish

The verification step is not optional. Every other failure in Dax Pro is easier to diagnose when you know the SDK itself works.

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Downloading Dax Pro

Dax Pro is a paid commercial product. You must have purchased it from the official Gumroad store before you can download it.

Purchase page: https://creativitaz.gumroad.com/l/dax-pro

If you have already purchased, your download link was emailed to the address you used at checkout. You can also access it at any time:

1. Go to https://gumroad.com/library

2. Log in with the email address you used at checkout

3. Locate Dax Pro in your library

4. Click Download

5. Gumroad delivers a ZIP file named something like dax-pro-v1.0.zip

The ZIP contains the complete project directory: _data/, content/, templates/, public/, README.md, LICENSE, and all deployment configuration files.

If you have not yet purchased Dax Pro and want to try the free DAX engine first, you can:

• Clone the free engine from github.com/mesinkasir/dax
• Or access the live demo at dax.axcora.com

The free engine gives you the DAX core. Dax Pro adds the enterprise theme layer, Decap CMS configuration, and deployment files. Both use the same build command.

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Unpacking the Project

Dax Pro includes files with folder names like _data and content that begin with an underscore or are case-sensitive. Some operating systems and archive tools handle these differently. The instructions below avoid the common pitfalls.

Unpacking on Windows

1. Locate the downloaded ZIP file in your Downloads folder

2. Do not double-click to open it — Windows will show a preview

3. Instead, right-click the ZIP file and choose Extract All

4. In the extraction dialog, choose a folder without spaces in its path. C:\Users\YourName\Projects\dax-pro is a good choice. Avoid C:\Users\YourName\Documents\My Web Sites\dax pro — spaces in the path cause problems with command-line tools

5. Click Extract

6. Open the extracted folder. You should see _data, content, templates, public, and the files Program.cs, Dax.csproj, README.md, netlify.toml, and LICENSE

Windows sometimes blocks files downloaded from the internet. If you see "This file came from another computer and might be blocked" when running dotnet build, right-click Dax.csproj, choose Properties, check Unblock, and click OK.

Unpacking on Linux

cd ~
mkdir -p projects
cd projects
unzip ~/Downloads/dax-pro-v1.0.zip -d dax-pro
cd dax-pro
ls -la

You should see _data, content, templates, public, Program.cs, Dax.csproj, README.md, and netlify.toml in the directory listing. If unzip is not installed:

sudo apt-get install unzip      # Ubuntu / Debian
sudo dnf install unzip          # Fedora
sudo pacman -S unzip            # Arch

Unpacking on macOS

macOS's Archive Utility handles the ZIP correctly, but do not extract into iCloud Drive or Dropbox — those services sometimes mangle folder names starting with underscores.

1. Open Finder

2. Navigate to your Downloads folder

3. Double-click the ZIP file

4. A folder named dax-pro appears next to the ZIP

5. Drag that folder to your home directory or to ~/Projects

6. Open Terminal and navigate to that folder:

cd ~/Projects/dax-pro
ls -la

You should see the same directory contents as on Linux.

After Unpacking

Open the project folder in your code editor:

• VS Code: code . from the project directory
• Sublime Text: subl .
• IntelliJ / Rider: File → Open → choose the project folder

You are now looking at the Dax Pro project. The next chapter walks through building it for the first time.

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Preparing Your Editor

Dax Pro files are plain text with specific extensions. Configuring your editor correctly saves hours of subtle bugs later.

Recommended: VS Code

Install VS Code from code.visualstudio.com. Then install these extensions:

Extension	Purpose
C# Dev Kit (Microsoft)	C# IntelliSense, debugging, project support
YAML (Red Hat)	YAML syntax highlighting and validation
Markdown All in One (Yu Zhang)	Markdown shortcuts, table of contents, preview
Prettier (Prettier)	Consistent formatting for CSS and Markdown

Open VS Code settings (Ctrl + , on Windows/Linux, Cmd + , on macOS) and configure:

• files.encoding → utf8
• files.eol → \n
• files.insertFinalNewline → true
• files.trimTrailingWhitespace → true

These four settings prevent the most common subtle bugs. Windows users in particular need files.eol: "\n" because YAML parsers and the DAX engine both expect Unix line endings. Files saved with Windows line endings (\r\n) cause frontmatter to render as body text, which is confusing to debug.

If you prefer to configure these as JSON, open the Command Palette (Ctrl + Shift + P), choose Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON), and add:

{
  "files.encoding": "utf8",
  "files.eol": "\n",
  "files.insertFinalNewline": true,
  "files.trimTrailingWhitespace": true
}

Optional: Install Git

You do not need Git to build or run Dax Pro. You do need Git if you plan to use Decap CMS, because Decap commits content changes to a repository. If you are not using Decap, you can skip this section.

Install Git:

• Windows: git-scm.com/download/win — the installer defaults are fine
• Ubuntu / Debian: sudo apt-get install -y git
• Fedora: sudo dnf install -y git
• macOS: brew install git, or xcode-select --install (this installs Git along with developer tools)

Verify:

git --version

Configure your identity once:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

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Common Setup Problems

Even with clear instructions, some setups hit snags. Here are the most common — and how to resolve them.

Problem: dotnet --version returns nothing or an error.

The SDK is either not installed or not on your PATH. On Windows, restart your computer. On Linux and macOS, source your shell configuration:

source ~/.bashrc      # or ~/.zshrc

Then try again. If the command still fails, re-install the SDK.

Problem: The build says "SDK not found" but dotnet --version works.

You have a runtime installed but not the SDK. Runtimes cannot compile C#. Install the SDK from dotnet.microsoft.com/download and try again.

Problem: The ZIP extracts with wrong folder names on Windows.

Windows' built-in extractor occasionally mangles folder names starting with underscores. Use 7-Zip (7-zip.org) to extract the ZIP instead of the built-in tool. Right-click the ZIP, choose 7-Zip → Extract Here.

Problem: The dotnet build command is very slow the first time.

The SDK downloads NuGet packages on the first build. This is normal and happens once. Subsequent builds are fast — typically under two seconds.

Problem: macOS warns "cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified."

Apple Gatekeeper blocks unsigned binaries. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom, and click Open Anyway next to the .NET warning. Then run the installer again.

Problem: The build fails with "permission denied" on Linux.

You may have extracted the ZIP as root. Change ownership of the project folder to your user:

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER ~/projects/dax-pro

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What You Have Now

At this point, you should have:

• ✅ The .NET 9 SDK installed and verified (dotnet --version prints 9.0.x)
• ✅ Dax Pro downloaded from your Gumroad purchase
• ✅ The project ZIP extracted to a folder without spaces in its path
• ✅ A code editor with the recommended extensions and settings
• ✅ (Optional) Git installed and configured

You have not built the site yet — that is the next chapter. But everything you need is on your machine.

Before moving on, confirm:

1. dotnet --version works in a fresh terminal

2. You can see _data, content, templates, public, and Program.cs inside your project folder

3. Your editor shows the project files correctly, with YAML syntax highlighting in _data/metadata.yaml

If all three are true, you are ready to continue.

→ Continue to Installation