diff --git a/_layouts/docs.liquid b/_layouts/docs.liquid
index 0196e77..383f9bf 100644
--- a/_layouts/docs.liquid
+++ b/_layouts/docs.liquid
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
               <li><a {% if page.data.route == "install"%}class="active"{%endif%} href="/docs/install">Install</a></li>
               <li><a {% if page.data.route == "usage"%}class="active"{%endif%} href="/docs/usage">Usage</a></li>
               <li><a {% if page.data.route == "directory"%}class="active"{%endif%} href="/docs/directory">Directory Structure</a></li>
+              <li><a {% if page.data.route == "site-gen"%}class="active"{%endif%} href="/docs/site-gen">Site generation</a></li>
               <li><a {% if page.data.route == "config"%}class="active"{%endif%} href="/docs/config">Configuration</a></li>
             </ul>
             <hr align="left">
diff --git a/docs/site-gen.md b/docs/site-gen.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8e997e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/site-gen.md
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+---
+title: "Docs::Site generation"
+layout: docs.liquid
+data:
+  route: site-gen
+---
+## Site generation
+
+[`cobalt serve`](/docs/usage) and `cobalt build` process your entire source directory the same
+way.  Both write asset files, transformed files, and generated pages to an output
+directory; `cobalt serve` writes to a temporary directory while `cobalt build`
+writes to a [`destination`](/docs/config) directory (default `./_site`).  `cobalt serve` also
+runs a web server to serve this static content, and then continues to watch the
+source directory for changes.
+
+### Generation process
+
+The generation process is, approximately,
+1. Cobalt considers every file in the [`source`](/docs/config)directory.
+2. It skips directories and file names beginning with dot `.` or underscore
+   `_`, and other files and directories. You can specify additional files and
+   directories to skip using the [`ignore`](/docs/config) configuration
+   variable.
+3. It treats all remaining files that aren't pages and posts (see later) as
+   [assets](/docs/assets) and copies them to the output directory. It may
+   preprocess Sass files to turn them into CSS.
+4. If a file has an extension in [`template_extensions`](/docs/config) (the
+   default extensions are `.html` and `.md`), then Cobalt treats it as a
+   [page](/docs/pages):
+   - Cobalt looks for a [frontmatter](/docs/front) section (lines between a pair
+     of `---`) in it, if any, and evaluates metadata settings in it.
+   - If the site [configuration](/docs/configuration) or the page's
+     frontmatter specifies a [layout](/docs/layout), Cobalt wraps the file in
+     that layout's Liquid template.
+   - Cobalt evaluates any [liquid template](https://shopify.github.io/liquid/)
+     expressions in the file (to simplify, directives inside curly braces `{...}`).
+   - Cobalt writes the transformed file to the output directory with, by
+     default, a `.html` extension. A file with no frontmatter or liquid
+     template expressions will be unchanged.
+5. If a file with a template extension is in the [`posts`](/docs/posts)
+   directory, Cobalt processes it further, such as draft handling. A page's
+   frontmatter can direct Cobalt to generate a list of pages, for example a
+   paginated list of blog posts.
+6. Cobalt may generates additional files, such as an `rss.xml` feed.
+
+### Generating from an existing static site
+
+You can run `cobalt serve` or `cobalt build` in your existing static site's
+directory.
+- They will create a lot of files in the output directory, but will not create
+  new files or modify existing files in your source directory. _Caution_,
+  `cobalt build` will overwrite files in an existing destination directory
+  (which defaults to `./_site`).
+- The commands will complain if you don't have a `_config.yml` file or specify
+  the path to one, nevertheless Cobalt will do default processing.
+- Even if your existing files have extensions that Cobalt treats as pages, as
+  explained in "Generation process" they will not be transformed if they don't
+  contain liquid templates and a frontmatter section, and you don't specify a
+  default [`layout`](/docs/config).
+- Some assets that you want to appear in the output directory, such as
+  `.htaccess` files and the `.well-known` directory, may not appear;
+  conversely, unintended files may appear.
+
+To start adjusting Cobalt's site generation you need to provide a
+[configuration](/docs/config) file. Running [`cobalt init`](docs/usage/) will
+create a `_config.yml` file and a few sample files and layout. If files
+already exist with the same names, `cobalt init` will not overwrite them but
+fail, so you could run it in your existing site directory, or you can run it
+in an empty directory and copy over files as needed. You can specify the path
+to your configuration file with the `--config` _\<FILE>_ command-line option.
diff --git a/getting-started.md b/getting-started.md
index 993ce17..d548111 100644
--- a/getting-started.md
+++ b/getting-started.md
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ or
 $ curl -LSfs https://raw.githubusercontent.com/crate-ci/gh-install/master/v1/install.sh | sh -s -- --git cobalt-org/cobalt.rs --crate cobalt
 ```
 
-### Usage
+### Basic usage
 
 #### Start
 
@@ -68,3 +68,6 @@ $ cobalt build
 ```
 
 The site is sitting in `_site` and ready to be uploaded!
+
+If you have an existing site, read [Site generation](/docs/site-gen) to better
+understand Cobalt's operation so you can run it in your site directory.