README

A flat file, Markdown CMS in PHP, inspired by Pico, Redaxo and Craft CMS.

Reboot CMS is a minimal CMS without a database, but with the support of blocks 🚀.

Why another CMS?

I developed Reboot CMS because I couldn't find a CMS that works with flat markdown files but allows easy use of blocks.

Reboot CMS is very small and the pages are delivered extremely fast. My website shaack.com, built with Reboot CMS, has a PageSpeed Insights performance score of 100.

Websites using Reboot CMS

Minimum System Requirements

PHP 8.0 or higher
PHP Extensions: json, fileinfo, dom
Web Server: Apache with mod_rewrite (or compatible server)
Composer for PHP dependency management
No database required — all content is stored as flat files

Install

Download the Reboot CMS repository and install it in your web root.

Then install dependencies:

composer install

This should work out of the box.

Then (important), set the Admin password in /local/.htpasswd

Directory Structure

core/src/ — Core CMS classes (Reboot, Site, Page, Block, Request, AddOn)
site/ — Site content: pages/, blocks/, addons/, template.php, config.yml
web/ — Document root (index.php, .htaccess)
local/ — Local environment config (config.yml, .htpasswd) — not in git
core/admin/ — Admin interface (itself a Reboot CMS site)

Configuration

site/config.yml — Site-wide settings: addon registration, navbar with brand and structure
local/config.yml — Local settings: logLevel (0=debug, 1=info, 2=error)

Template

The file site/template.php is the main HTML template. It receives three variables:

$site — the Site object
$page — the Page object
$request — the Request object

Call $page->render($request) to render the page content and $page->getConfig() to access the YAML front matter.

Documentation

Page

Folder: /site/pages

A Page can be a flat Markdown file, can contain Blocks or also can be a PHP file.

Pages are auto-routed on web-requests:

index.md or index.php will be shown on requesting /
NAME.md or NAME.php will be shown on requesting /NAME
FOLDER/index.md (or .php) will be shown on requesting /FOLDER
FOLDER/NAME.md (or .php) will be shown on requesting /FOLDER/NAME
404.md (or .php) will be used as a custom 404 error page

Example for a Markdown Page with Blocks:

---
title: Reboot CMS 
description: Reboot CMS is a flat file CMS, with the support of blocks. 
author: Stefan Haack (shaack.com)

---

<!-- hero -->

# Reboot CMS

A flat file, markdown CMS with blocks

---
The main idea is, to have a **minimal CMS** without needing a database, but with the support of blocks.

---
[Learn more](documentation)

<!-- text-image -->

## The text-image block

The gray block above was a hero block. This one is a text-image block, it contains two parts. Parts are separated by
`---`.

---
![alt text](dummy.svg "Title Text")

<!-- 
text-image:
    image-position: left
-->

## Configure blocks in the block comment

The text-image block can also display the image to the left.

---
![alt text](dummy.svg "Title Text")>

<!-- three-columns -->

### the

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint
occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est.

---

### three-colums

Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequat. Quis aute
iure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.

---

### block

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna
aliqua.

This Page contains 3 Block types, "hero", "text-image" and "three-columns". It will render to this:

Blocks can be configured in the block comment. With this configuration, the text-image block allows to display the image to the left side in desktop view.

Markdown files without blocks will render to a flat Markdown page like in every other flat file CMS.

You can define metadata for the page on top of the file in YAML Front Matter syntax.

Block

Folder: /site/blocks

A Block describes how a block is rendered. Blocks are written in PHP.

The code for the "text-image" Block which was used in the page above, looks like this:

<?php
// read the configuration
$imagePosition = @$block->getConfig()["image-position"];
?>
<section class="block block-text-image">
    <div class="container-fluid">
        <div class="row">
            <div class="col-md-6 <?= $imagePosition === "left" ? "order-md-1" : "" ?>">
                <!-- all text from part 1 (xpath statement) -->
                <?= $block->nodeHtml($block->xpath("/*[part(1)]")) ?>
            </div>
            <div class="col-md-6">
                <!-- using attributes of the image in part 2 -->
                <img class="img-fluid" src="<?= $block->nodeHtml($block->xpath("//img[part(2)]/@src")) ?>"
                     alt="<?= $block->nodeHtml($block->xpath("//img[part(2)]/@alt")) ?>"
                     title="<?= $block->nodeHtml($block->xpath("//img[part(2)]/@title")) ?>"/>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</section>

Elements in the markdown are queried and used as values for the block. The query syntax is Xpath with the addition of the part(n) function.

Use $block->content() to get the full block content as rendered HTML (without XPath querying). This is useful for simple blocks like "text":

<section class="block block-text">
    <div class="container-fluid">
        <?= $block->content() ?>
    </div>
</section>

Another example, the "hero" Block:

<?php /* hero */ ?>
<section class="block block-hero">
    <div class="container-fluid">
        <div class="card border-0 bg-gradient">
            <div class="card-body">
                <div class="p-xl-5 p-md-4 p-3">
                    <!-- use the text of the <h1> in part 1 for the display-4 -->
                    <h1 class="display-4"><?= $block->nodeHtml($block->xpath("/h1[part(1)]/text()")) ?></h1>
                    <!-- the lead will be the text of the <p> in part 1 -->
                    <p class="lead"><?= $block->nodeHtml($block->xpath("/p[part(1)]/text()")) ?></p>
                    <hr class="my-4">
                    <!-- print everything from part 2 -->
                    <div class="mb-4">
                        <?= $block->nodeHtml($block->xpath("/*[part(2)]")) ?>
                    </div>
                    <p>
                        <!-- the link in part 3 will be used as the primary button -->
                        <a class="btn btn-primary btn-lg"
                           href="<?= $block->nodeHtml($block->xpath("//a[part(3)]/@href")) ?>"
                           role="button"><?= $block->nodeHtml($block->xpath("//a[part(3)]/text()")) ?></a>
                    </p>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</section>

Admin interface

You find the admin interface at /admin.

If no users exist yet (e.g. on a fresh installation), the admin interface will automatically show a setup page where you can create the first admin account. After that, you can log in with the credentials you created.

In the admin interface you can edit markdown pages, set the site configuration, manage users, and update the CMS.

Edit the startpage

Edit a flat markdown page

Edit the site configuration

In the site configuration, you can store global values of the site, like the navigation structure or the content of header elements. The site configuration is written in YAML.

User management

The "Users" page in the admin interface allows you to manage admin accounts directly from the browser. You can:

Add users — create new admin accounts with a username and password
Change passwords — update the password for any existing user
Delete users — remove admin accounts (you cannot delete your own account)

Usernames may contain letters, numbers, and underscores (max 64 characters). Passwords must be at least 8 characters. All credentials are stored as APR1-MD5 hashes in local/.htpasswd.

You can also manage users via the command line:

cd local
htpasswd .htpasswd admin

Update

The "Update" page in the admin interface shows the currently installed version and checks for available updates from the GitHub repository.

When an update is available, you can apply it directly from the admin interface. The updater downloads the latest release and replaces core/, web/admin/, and vendor/. Your site content (site/), local configuration (local/), and entry point (web/index.php) are not affected.

It is recommended to make a backup of the project folder before updating.

AddOns

In Reboot CMS you can extend the functionality of your site with AddOns. AddOns allow you to hook into the request lifecycle to add authentication, modify rendered content, inject headers, track analytics, or implement any custom logic.

Creating an AddOn

An AddOn is a PHP class that extends AddOn. Place your AddOn file in site/addons/ with the class name matching the file name.

<?php
// site/addons/MyAddOn.php

namespace Shaack\Reboot;

use Shaack\Logger;

class MyAddOn extends AddOn
{
    protected function init()
    {
        // Called once when the AddOn is loaded
        Logger::info("MyAddOn initialized");
    }

    public function preRender(Request $request): bool
    {
        // Called before page rendering
        // Return true to continue, false to stop (e.g. after a redirect)
        return true;
    }

    public function postRender(Request $request, string $content): string
    {
        // Called after page rendering, can modify the HTML output
        return $content;
    }
}

Registering AddOns

addons: [ MyAddOn, AnotherAddOn ]

Available Properties

Inside your AddOn, you have access to:

$this->reboot — the Reboot instance (base paths, config, redirects)
$this->site — the Site instance (site config, paths, other addons)

Lifecycle Hooks

`init(): void`

Called once after construction of the AddOn. Use this to initialize data, read configurations, or start sessions.

`preRender(Request $request): bool`

Called on every request before rendering the page. Use it to:

Control access — check authentication and redirect unauthorized users
Modify request handling — perform redirects based on request path or parameters

Return true to continue rendering the page, or false to stop (e.g. after calling $this->reboot->redirect()).

`postRender(Request $request, string $content): string`

Called after the page is rendered, before the output is sent to the browser. Use it to:

Modify HTML output — inject scripts, stylesheets, or meta tags
Add tracking — append analytics snippets
Transform content — search and replace patterns in the rendered HTML

Returns the (possibly modified) content string.

Accessing AddOns from Pages

You can access a registered AddOn from any page template using:

$myAddOn = $site->getAddOn("MyAddOn");

Examples

See the included ExampleAddOn.php for a basic implementation. The admin interface itself uses AddOns: Authentication for login session handling and Admin for admin-specific functionality.

shaack / reboot-cms

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