Prelo

The open-source CMS for websites built by AI and run by humans.

Modern stacks made websites fast to build and impossible to hand over — Prelo ends with a WordPress-style studio your client already knows. One Node process, one SQLite file, one uploads folder. MIT licensed, self-hosted, zero external services.

npx create-prelo my-site
cd my-site && npm run dev        # site + studio + API on http://localhost:3300

Website: prelo.dev · Source: github.com/anderdigital/prelo

What it is / isn't

• Is: a CMS that serves the whole site from one process — point site: in the config at a render module or at a request handler that mounts Next/Astro/anything on the same port (or omit it and go fully headless). Familiar admin (/studio, /wp-admin redirects there), a JSON REST API, roles (admin/editor/author), scoped API keys for AI agents with a full audit log, local media with on-upload resizing, magic-link invites, and a content model defined in one file (cms.config.js).
• Isn't: a page builder, a theme marketplace, or a plugin ecosystem. Features are AI-written code in your own repo (hooks:, routes:, and x_-prefixed tables). The frontend is yours — any framework that can fetch.

CLI

| Command | What it does | | --- | --- | | prelo dev | Start site + studio + API locally; restarts on config/site changes | | prelo start | Production mode (what the Dockerfile runs) | | prelo add <plugin> | Fetch a plugin spec from prelo.dev/plugins into plugins/<name>.md for your agent to implement | | prelo check | Validate cms.config.js and print the parsed schema | | prelo doctor | Check config, database, Node version, sharp and disk | | prelo create-admin | Create the first admin user | | prelo user add / reset | Manage studio users via one-time links | | prelo key create | Mint a scoped API key for an agent (shown once, stored hashed) | | prelo seed | Load content/seed.json into the database | | prelo export [dir] | Copy the whole site state (db + uploads) to a folder | | prelo docs [topic] | Print reference docs, written for AI agents and humans |

For AI agents

Everything is designed to be driven unaided: prelo docs <topic> prints version-matched reference docs, /llms.txt describes the live API, and every error carries a hint naming the fix.

Plugins

A Prelo plugin is a markdown spec, not a package: prelo add contact-form fetches the spec into your project and your coding agent implements it as plain code you own. Browse the registry at prelo.dev/plugins.

Requirements

Node ≥ 22.5 (node:sqlite). sharp is optional — without it, uploads skip thumbnail generation and originals serve fine.

License

MIT © Prelo contributors. Third-party notices for the bundled studio are in studio-dist/THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt.