BareCMS

A lightweight, open-source headless CMS designed with bare minimalism in mind

📋 Table of Contents

• 🎬 Demo
• ✨ Features
• 🚀 Quick Start
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation
  • Development Commands
• 🐳 Deployment
  • Docker Compose (Recommended)
  • Docker Only
• 📖 Documentation
• 🧪 API Reference
• 🤝 Contributing
• 🗺️ Roadmap
• 💬 Community
• 📄 License
• 💖 Support

🎬 Demo

✨ Features

• 🎯 Minimalist Design: Clean, intuitive interface focused on content management
• ⚡ Fast & Lightweight: Built with performance in mind using Go and React
• 🔧 Headless Architecture: Use any frontend framework or static site generator
• 🐳 Docker Ready: Easy deployment with Docker and Docker Compose
• 🔐 Secure Authentication: JWT-based authentication system
• 🗃️ Flexible Content Management: Support for sites, collections, and entries
• 🚀 Production Ready: Built with scalability and reliability in mind

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

For Quick Deployment:

• Docker
• Docker Compose
• Make (optional, for simplified commands)

For Local Development:

• Node.js (v18+ recommended)
• Go (v1.21+ recommended)

Installation

1. Clone the repository

  git clone https://github.com/snowztech/barecms.git
  cd barecms

2. Set up environment variables

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env and update the JWT_SECRET with a strong, random string:

# Generate a secure JWT secret
openssl rand -base64 32

3. Start the application

  make up

4. Access BareCMS

Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080

Development Commands

make up       # Start development environment
make ui       # Build UI (frontend)
make clean    # Stop and cleanup containers
make logs     # View application logs
make help     # Show all available commands

🐳 Deployment

Docker Compose (Recommended)

Step 1: Create your project directory

mkdir barecms-app && cd barecms-app

Step 2: Create configuration files

Create .env file:

# Security (REQUIRED)
JWT_SECRET=your-super-secret-jwt-key-here

# Database Configuration
POSTGRES_USER=barecms_user
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your-secure-password
POSTGRES_DB=barecms_db
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://barecms_user:your-secure-password@postgres:5432/barecms_db

# Application
PORT=8080

Create a docker-compose.yml file with the following content:

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    env_file: .env
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U ${POSTGRES_USER} -d ${POSTGRES_DB}"]
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
    restart: unless-stopped

  barecms:
    image: ghcr.io/snowztech/barecms:latest
    ports:
      - "${PORT:-8080}:8080"
    env_file: .env
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  postgres_data:

Step 3: Launch BareCMS

docker-compose up -d

🎉 BareCMS is now running at http://localhost:8080

Management Commands

# View logs
docker compose logs -f barecms

# Stop BareCMS
docker compose down

# Update to latest version
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

# Backup database
docker compose exec postgres pg_dump -U barecms_user barecms_db > backup.sql

# Access database shell
docker compose exec postgres psql -U barecms_user -d barecms_db

Docker Only

For direct Docker usage without Compose:

# 1. Start PostgreSQL
docker run -d --name barecms-postgres \
  -e POSTGRES_USER=barecms_user \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your-secure-password \
  -e POSTGRES_DB=barecms_db \
  -v postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data \
  postgres:16-alpine

# 2. Start BareCMS (wait ~30 seconds for postgres to be ready)
docker run -d --name barecms-app \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -e JWT_SECRET=your-super-secret-jwt-key-here \
  -e DATABASE_URL=postgresql://barecms_user:your-secure-password@barecms-postgres:5432/barecms_db \
  --link barecms-postgres \
  ghcr.io/snowztech/barecms:latest

📖 Documentation

• Live Documentation - Complete documentation
• Contributing Guide - How to contribute to BareCMS
• API Documentation - Complete API reference
• Self Hosting Guide - Complete Self Hosting Guide

🧪 API Reference

🌐 Public Data Access

Retrieve all site content publicly without authentication. This is the primary endpoint for headless usage.

Endpoint: GET /api/:siteSlug/data

Description: Returns all collections and entries for a site using its slug. BareCMS keeps it simple by organizing all content under a data field, where each collection is accessible by its slug containing an array of entries with their field values directly accessible.

Parameters:

• siteSlug (path) - The unique slug of the site

Example Request:

curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/api/myblog/data

Example Response:

{
  "id": "44394f36-daa3-451c-970f-59238c46ce36",
  "name": "myblog",
  "slug": "myblog",
  "data": {
    "articles": [
      {
        "content": "this is my article post content",
        "draft": "false",
        "published": "2025-07-21",
        "title": "my sample article"
      }
    ],
    "products": [
      {
        "name": "Sample Product",
        "price": "29.99",
        "description": "A great product for everyone"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Response Structure:

• id - The unique identifier of the site
• name - The name of the site
• slug - The URL-friendly slug of the site
• data - Object containing all collections, where:
  • Each key is a collection slug (e.g., "articles", "products")
  • Each value is an array of entries for that collection
  • Entry objects contain field names as keys with their values directly accessible (no nested data object)

This simple structure makes it easy to consume in frontend applications - you can directly access response.data.articles to get all articles, or response.data.products for products, etc.

Quick Usage Example

const barecmsHost = "http://localhost:8080";

// Fetch all data for a site
async function fetchSiteData(siteSlug) {
  try {
    const response = await fetch(`${barecmsHost}/api/${siteSlug}/data`);
    const data = await response.json();
    return data;
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Error fetching site data:", error);
  }
}

// Usage
fetchSiteData("my-blog").then((data) => {
  console.log(data.data.articles); // Access your articles
  console.log(data.data.products); // Access your products
});

📚 Complete API Documentation

For detailed documentation of all authentication and content management endpoints, see API.md.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions from the community! Whether you're fixing bugs, adding features, or improving documentation, your help is appreciated.

How to Contribute

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature
3. Make your changes and test them thoroughly
4. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add amazing feature'
5. Push to your branch: git push origin feature/amazing-feature
6. Open a Pull Request

Development Guidelines

• Follow Go best practices and conventions
• Update documentation when needed
• Use conventional commit messages
• Ensure your code passes all CI checks

For detailed contributing guidelines, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

🗺️ Roadmap

🔄 Current Focus

• Enhanced documentation
• Improve auth flow
• Content import/export

Keep it simple. Suggest features that align with our minimal philosophy.

💬 Community

• 🐛 Report Issues: GitHub Issues
• 💬 Discussions: GitHub Discussions
• 🚀 Want to see a feature?: Open a issue

License

MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

💖 Support

BareCMS is free and open source, inspired by the need for a truly minimal yet powerful CMS solution.