explaingit

decaporg/decap-cms

📈 Trending19,063JavaScriptAudience · pm founderComplexity · 3/5ActiveLicenseSetup · moderate

TLDR

A user-friendly dashboard for editing website content stored in Git, designed for static sites. Non-technical editors can write and publish without touching code.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Admin dashboard
      Git-backed content
      YAML configuration
    How it works
      Embedded at /admin
      Editor login
      Saves to repository
    Use cases
      Client content updates
      Team collaboration
      Writer publishing
    Tech stack
      JavaScript
      Static generators
      Git integration
    Audience
      Non-technical editors
      Site owners
      Developers

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Let clients update blog posts and pages without needing developer access or Git knowledge.

USE CASE 2

Enable writers and content teams to publish articles directly through a visual editor instead of editing files.

USE CASE 3

Manage structured content like product listings or team bios with custom fields defined in configuration.

USE CASE 4

Run a Jamstack site where non-technical stakeholders can make content changes that automatically deploy.

Tech stack

JavaScriptReactGitYAMLNetlifynpm

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires Git repository setup and Netlify integration for full functionality.

Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice and license text.

In plain English

Decap CMS (formerly Netlify CMS) is a content management system designed for websites built with static site generators. A static site generator is a tool that produces a finished website from files, rather than assembling pages on demand from a database. Decap CMS gives non-technical editors a clean, user-friendly dashboard to write and edit that content without touching code or files directly. It works by embedding a small admin panel at the /admin path of your site. When an editor logs in and makes changes, those changes are saved back to the Git repository that holds your website's content, the same way a developer would edit a file and push it. You describe your content structure (what fields a blog post should have, for example) in a YAML configuration file, and Decap CMS generates the editing interface from that description. You would use Decap CMS if you are running a Jamstack site (a modern website architecture where content is pre-built into static files) and you need to let clients, writers, or teammates update content without requiring developer access. It integrates with any static site generator and any Git host. The project is written in JavaScript, licensed under MIT, and can be added to a site by loading it from a CDN or installing it via npm.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I set up Decap CMS on my static site to let my client edit blog posts without touching code?
Prompt 2
Show me how to configure Decap CMS with custom fields for a portfolio or product listing in YAML.
Prompt 3
What Git hosts does Decap CMS support, and how do I authenticate editors to save changes back to my repository?
Prompt 4
I have a Hugo or Jekyll site, how do I add Decap CMS so my team can publish content through a dashboard?
Prompt 5
How do I deploy a Decap CMS instance and connect it to my GitHub or GitLab repository?
Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.