🚀 Create CMS Nova

The fastest way to create a modern headless CMS

Build powerful content management systems with Next.js, Prisma, and Better Auth

Quick Start • Features • Tech Stack • Documentation

🚀 Quick Start

Get your CMS up and running in under 2 minutes:

npx create-cms-nova my-cms
cd my-cms

Setup & Launch

# 1. Configure your database
cp .env.example .env
# Edit DATABASE_URL in .env

# 2. Initialize database
npx prisma db push
npx prisma generate

# 3. Start development server
npm run dev

First Steps

1. 🌐 Visit http://localhost:3000 → Redirects to admin setup
2. 👤 Go to /admin/signup → Create your first admin account
3. 🎛️ Access /admin → Full-featured dashboard
4. 🎉 You're ready to build!

✨ Features

🎯 Core CMS

• ✅ Headless Architecture with REST APIs
• ✅ Visual Content Builder drag & drop interface
• ✅ Dynamic Content Types create any structure
• ✅ Rich Media Management images, files, galleries
• ✅ SEO Optimization built-in meta management

🔐 Admin & Security

• ✅ Robust Authentication with Better Auth
• ✅ Role-based Permissions granular access control
• ✅ User Management complete admin interface
• ✅ Secure APIs authentication & authorization
• ✅ Audit Logging track all changes

🎨 Design & UX

• ✅ Notion-style Interface clean & intuitive
• ✅ Dark/Light Mode automatic theme switching
• ✅ Fully Responsive mobile-first design
• ✅ Custom Components no external UI dependencies
• ✅ Accessibility WCAG compliant

🚀 Developer Experience

• ✅ TypeScript full type safety
• ✅ Hot Reload instant development feedback
• ✅ Database Agnostic PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite
• ✅ Easy Deployment Vercel, Railway, Docker
• ✅ Extensible plugin architecture

🛠️ Tech Stack

| Category | Technology | Version | |----------|------------|---------| | Framework | Next.js | 15+ | | Runtime | React | 19+ | | Language | TypeScript | 5+ | | Database | Prisma ORM | Latest | | Auth | Better Auth | Latest | | Styling | Tailwind CSS | 3+ | | Deployment | Vercel/Railway | - |

📁 Project Structure

my-cms/
├── 📱 src/app/                 # Next.js App Router
│   ├── 🔐 admin/              # Admin dashboard
│   ├── 🌐 api/                # REST API routes
│   └── 📄 (pages)/            # Public pages
├── 🧩 src/components/          # Reusable components
│   ├── 🎛️ admin/              # Admin UI components
│   ├── 📝 cms/                # CMS core components
│   └── 🎨 ui/                 # Base UI components
├── 🗄️ prisma/                 # Database schema & migrations
├── 🔧 src/lib/                # Utilities & configurations
└── 📊 src/types/              # TypeScript definitions

🚀 Available Scripts (generated project)

# Development
npm run dev          # Start development server
npm run build        # Build for production
npm run start        # Start production server

# Database
npm run db:generate  # Generate Prisma client
npm run db:push      # Push schema to database
npm run db:migrate   # Run database migrations
npm run db:studio    # Open Prisma Studio
npm run db:seed      # Seed database with sample data

# Code Quality
npm run lint         # Run ESLint
npm run type-check   # Run TypeScript checks

🌐 Environment Variables (generated project)

Create a .env file in the generated project root:

# Database
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://username:password@localhost:5432/cms_nova"

# Authentication
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET="your-secret-key"
BETTER_AUTH_URL="http://localhost:3000"

# AWS S3 (Optional)
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="your-access-key"
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="your-secret-key"
AWS_REGION="us-east-1"
AWS_S3_BUCKET="your-bucket-name"

# Next.js
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL="http://localhost:3000"

🧩 Additional Tech (template)

• UI Components: Radix UI-based custom components
• File Upload: AWS S3 integration

🎯 Use Cases

| Blog/News | E-commerce | Portfolio | Documentation | |:-------------:|:---------------:|:-------------:|:-----------------:| | Articles, categories, tags | Products, inventory | Projects, galleries | Guides, tutorials | | Author management | Order processing | Client testimonials | Version control | | SEO optimization | Payment integration | Contact forms | Search functionality |

📚 Documentation

• 📖 Full Documentation
• 🎥 Video Tutorials
• 💡 Examples & Templates
• 🔧 API Reference

🔄 Upgrade Guide

Keep your generated CMS project up to date with the template.

How it works

• Source: Pulls from the template repository configured as upstream (defaults to danielcadev/cms-nova-template).
• Target ref: Uses upstream/main by default. You can set another ref via --tag (branch, tag, or commit SHA).
• Backup: Creates a backup Git tag automatically before applying changes.
• Clean tree: Requires a clean working tree (commit or stash before upgrading).

You can override the template repository by creating a .cms-nova.json in your project root:

{
  "templateRepo": "https://github.com/your-org/your-template.git"
}

Default behavior (paths mode)

By default, the upgrade syncs only specific directories/files from the template to avoid overwriting local assets unintentionally. The default paths include:

• .github, .vscode, .eslintrc.json, eslint.config.mjs, tsconfig.json
• next.config.js, next.config.mjs, tailwind.config.js, postcss.config.js, .env.example
• scripts, package.json
• public, prisma
• src, app, src/app, src/admin, admin

Basic commands

• Preview changes:

npx create-cms-nova upgrade --dry-run

• Apply changes:

npx create-cms-nova upgrade

Advanced usage

• Specify a template ref (branch, tag, or SHA):

npx create-cms-nova upgrade --tag upstream/dev
npx create-cms-nova upgrade --tag v4.0.5
npx create-cms-nova upgrade --tag c12ddcfc63edbcb3ae6e125d81af22c29b726644

• Limit to custom paths:

npx create-cms-nova upgrade --paths "src/components/admin,docker,docs"

• Merge mode (pull all template history and resolve conflicts if any):

npx create-cms-nova upgrade --mode merge

Recommended workflow

1. Commit your change to the template repository (e.g., cms-nova-template on the desired branch).
2. In your generated project, run the upgrade (optionally against the specific ref with --tag).
3. Review and test the changes.

Tip: You can run the local script directly (useful when developing the CLI):

node create-cms-nova.js upgrade --dry-run
node create-cms-nova.js upgrade

🤝 Community & Support

🐛 Report Bug • 💡 Request Feature • 💬 Join Discussion

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Built with ❤️ by Daniel CA

Star ⭐ this repo if you find it helpful!