Install Éclair step by step

You install Éclair in two stages: you upload a folder to your hosting, then a wizard asks you 4 questions and creates your site. This lesson follows each screen, shows what gets created for each site type and gives the fix for the most common errors.

Step 1: upload the contents of the eclair folder

1. Open your FTP client or your host's file manager, then the public folder (public_html, www…).
2. Turn on the display of hidden files.
3. On your computer, open the eclair folder and select all of its contents: index.php, .htaccess, eclair-config.exemple.php and the app, assets, cache, data and media folders.
4. Upload this selection to the public folder and wait for the transfer to finish.
5. Check that a .htaccess file is present at the root of the public folder.

A classic mistake: uploading the eclair folder itself. Your site would then end up at atelier-nova.fr/eclair/, because Éclair detects a subfolder on its own. If that happens, move its contents up one level before going any further.

Step 2: open your site's URL

Type your site's address into your browser, preferably with https://: the setup wizard starts on its own. It speaks 7 languages, which you choose at the top of the screen. This first visit also starts the 2-hour countdown explained below.

The wizard's 5 screens

The wizard has 5 screens: a check, three question screens (visibility and the admin URL share the same one) and a summary.

Screen 1: Welcome to Éclair

The wizard checks your hosting. Items to fix appear first; the others are grouped under a line such as “14 checks passed: your hosting is ready”. A red item blocks the installation (“Fix the items in red with your host, then reload this page”); an orange item is just a tip. When everything is fine, click Let's go.

Screen 2: Your site

• Site name: “Atelier Nova”.
• Tagline (optional): “Ceramics studio in Lyon”.
• Site language: English. It also sets the starting time zone (Europe/London for English, Europe/Paris for French), which you can change later.
• What kind of site?: Business website, Blog, Freelancer / portfolio or Landing page. Camille chooses Business website.

As the screen reminds you, you can change everything later. Click Continue.

Screen 3: Your account

Fill in Your name (Camille Martin), Your email and a Password of at least 10 characters. The Show button reveals what you type, and a meter measures its strength. The wizard's tip: a 4-word phrase, strong and easy to remember.

A password is refused if it's too common, not varied enough, or if it contains your name, the start of your email address or the site name. With the address camille@…, a password containing “camille” is therefore rejected. This first account is an administrator.

Screen 4: Visibility and admin URL

• Google and Bing can index my site: checked by default. Uncheck it to build your site quietly, and remember to turn it back on before launch (Essential settings before launch).
• AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini…): Welcome (recommended, they read and cite your site), Citations only (they cite you without training their models on your texts) or No thanks.
• Your admin URL: admin by default. Replace it with a custom address, which keeps hacker bots away: 3 to 40 characters (lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens), or click Generate a secret URL. A few reserved words such as blog or media are refused. Camille chooses atelier.

Write this address down right away, together with your password, somewhere safe.

Screen 5: Ready for takeoff?

The summary lists the site, its address, its type, your account, the visibility and the admin URL. A mistake? Back takes you back. Otherwise, click Create my site ⚡. If a field is refused, the wizard returns on its own to the screen concerned and shows the error below the field.

The confetti

“Your site is live!” appears under a shower of confetti, with your admin URL and a tip to bookmark it. View my site opens your site in a new tab, and Go to dashboard takes you into the admin: you're already logged in.

What the wizard creates for each site type

Except with the landing page, a sample post, “Getting started with Éclair: the 5-minute guide”, presents the available blocks: edit it or delete it. The legal notice and the privacy policy go in the footer menu, with an outline to complete.

The 2-hour security window

From the first visit, Éclair creates the data/install-window.php file. The installation must be completed within 2 hours, otherwise anyone could take over a site that was uploaded and then forgotten. After that, your address shows Installation locked.

To reopen the wizard, delete data/install-window.php via FTP or with the file manager, then reload the page. Only someone with access to the server can do this: that's the whole point.

How do you log in the first time?

Right after installation, you're already logged in. Next time, type your admin URL, for example atelier-nova.fr/atelier. The login page asks for your Email and Password, then Log in. Bookmark this address: your public site doesn't reveal it. The full tour awaits you in Get to know the Éclair admin.

Install Éclair without errors: common cases

Other cases are described on the Troubleshooting page.

Key points

• To install Éclair, upload the contents of the eclair folder, not the folder itself, hidden .htaccess files included.
• The wizard has 5 screens and 4 questions, and checks your hosting before anything else.
• Choose a custom admin URL and write it down with your password.
• The installation must be completed within 2 hours of the first visit.
• A 404 error on internal pages almost always comes from a missing .htaccess.

Going further

• Get to know the Éclair admin: the dashboard, the menu and your first habits.
• Troubleshooting: known errors and their solutions.
• Install Éclair on o2switch and the other hosting guides, screen by screen.
• Official source: the Installation section of the Éclair guide, on GitHub.

All the lessons of this path