ponzu-cms/ponzu

Ponzu is an open-source content management system and web server framework written in Go. It is designed for teams who need to manage content in a back-end admin panel while exposing that content as a fast JSON API for web or mobile apps to consume. The idea is to give you the editorial tools of something like WordPress combined with the speed required for high-traffic applications that serve JSON rather than traditional HTML pages. The server handles HTTPS automatically. In development it generates self-signed certificates so you can test locally, and in production it fetches and renews real certificates from Let's Encrypt with no manual configuration. It also supports HTTP/2, a faster version of the web protocol that browsers and servers use to communicate. A key feature is the command-line tool. You can describe the structure of a content type, such as a blog post with a title, body, and rating, by running a single command. Ponzu then generates all the code files, database mappings, and admin panel fields for that content type automatically. This reduces the amount of boilerplate you would otherwise write by hand. The admin panel is described as user-friendly and extensible, and the whole application compiles down to a single binary file with an embedded database, making deployment straightforward. The project runs as a single process and stores data in BoltDB, a simple embedded database included in the build. You start the server with a command-line instruction and can choose to run the admin interface, the JSON API, or both, on configurable ports. However, the README prominently flags that this project is abandoned and is no longer maintained. The maintainers suggest looking at Caddy Server if you need a similar open-source HTTP server with built-in SSL support. Anyone considering Ponzu for a production project should take that warning seriously before building on it.