decaporg/decap-cms

A Git-based CMS for Static Site Generators

Summary

Decap CMS is an open-source, Git-based content management system designed for static site generators. It runs as a single-page React application that loads into the /admin directory of a site, providing a visual editor for content stored in a Git repository. The project was previously known as Netlify CMS, renamed in February 2023.

What it is useful for

Decap CMS is useful when you have a static site and need to give non-technical editors a way to create and update content without touching the underlying source files. Instead of writing Markdown directly in a Git repository, users authenticate, open /admin/, and use a form-based UI that commits changes back to Git. The content model is defined in a YAML configuration, so engineers can shape what fields and structures editors see. This makes it a fit for team blogs, documentation sites, marketing pages, and other JAMstack projects where the source of truth is a Git repository. Centralized user management, advanced roles, a database proxy, and premium support are not part of the open-source project itself—the README points to a separate commercial offering called Decap Turbo for those needs.

How engineers can use it

The README describes two installation paths. The first is a quick install requiring only a single HTML file and a YAML config file, with the CMS's JavaScript and CSS loaded from a CDN—suitable when you want to add an editor quickly to an existing site. The second is a more advanced install that integrates the decap-cms npm package into a static site builder with a build system that supports npm packages, offering more flexibility.

The general workflow is: create a config.yml describing content collections (for example, blog posts with title, body, and date fields), add the admin entry point to your site, and editors reach it at /admin/. Authentication is handled by a Git backend. The README does not include the exact backend configuration or widget syntax, so engineers should follow the Quick Start Guide and Core Concepts documentation at decapcms.org for those details. The project is released under the MIT License and follows Semantic Versioning, with each release documented on the GitHub Releases page.