Primo

Primo is a CMS for developers who build sites for clients who need to manage them afterward. Your entire site stays in sync as both a database and a folder of files, so Claude Code, Cursor, and any AI agent can edit it directly. Your clients manage content visually in the browser.

In active development since 2019. Self-hosted by freelancers, agencies, and small teams.

One-click deploy:

The shape of it

One Go binary. PocketBase (SQLite) for storage. Svelte 5 for the editor UI and for the blocks you write. The same server hosts the CMS and serves your published sites — no external services, no separate frontend to wire up.

Every site lives in two synchronized representations: a relational database (powering the visual editor and multi-site serving) and a folder of structured files (powering code editors, version control, and AI agents). Edit either side, both stay in sync.

The workflow

primo pull yourserver.com       # pull your site down as local files
claude                          # edit with Claude Code, Cursor, or any agent
primo push                      # push changes back — CMS updates live

Your clients keep editing content in the browser the whole time. Code and content stay in sync.

What's in the box

• Visual editor — non-technical editors work within the guardrails you define. No more "I broke the site" texts.
• Block library — reusable Svelte components, shared across all your sites.
• Static output — clean, fast, SEO-friendly HTML. Deploy to any static host, or let Primo serve it.
• Multi-site — one server, many sites, one dashboard. Connect a domain per site.
• Local-file workflow (beta) — pull/edit/push with the CLI, AI-agent compatible.

Quickstart

The easiest way to get started is Railway:

Or run it anywhere Docker runs:

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -v primo-data:/app/pb_data ghcr.io/palacms/palacms:latest

Then open your server's URL to create your first site.

Next steps:

1. Quickstart — key concepts
2. Build your first site
3. Write your first block

Who it's for

Freelancers, small agencies, and small teams who code their clients' sites and need the clients to manage content afterward — without breaking anything.

How Primo compares

• vs. WordPress — same mental model (CMS + blocks + multi-site) but built on modern tooling: Svelte instead of PHP, static output instead of server rendering, one binary instead of themes + plugins + hosting.
• vs. Webflow / Framer — your clients get a similar visual editor, but you write real code instead of using a proprietary builder. Self-hostable, no vendor lock-in.
• vs. Astro / Eleventy — Primo is a static site generator too, but bundles the CMS, block library, and multi-site hosting with it. You get the SSG workflow and the client handoff.
• vs. Sanity / Storyblok — structured content and component blocks, but monolithic: no separate frontend to wire up, no API tokens, no deployment glue.

Full comparison →

Project status

• Stable: visual CMS, block library, static output, multi-site, self-hosted deployment.
• Beta: CLI + local-file workflow (primo pull / primo push), AI-agent compatibility.

Documentation

• Installation — self-host or run locally
• Quickstart — key concepts
• Writing Blocks — Svelte components
• Field Types — content field reference
• Managing Sites — site groups
• Page Types — custom page structures
• Collaboration — working with editors
• Keyboard Shortcuts

Community

• GitHub Issues — bugs and feature requests
• GitHub Discussions — questions
• CONTRIBUTING.md — if you want to hack on Primo itself

License

MIT