headcodecms

A Minimalistic Web CMS - published as a shadcn registry - built for Next.js 16 Cache Components - by @markustripp

[Markus Tripp @markustripp]

Payload CMS to complex? Try @headcodecms

[Markus Tripp @markustripp]

What a journey. Almost two years ago, I shared the first prototype of @headcodecms , a simple CMS for Next.js, something minimal that developers could install like any other npm package. I planned to gather feedback and release quickly after.

Well... the plan changed.

More people got involved, feedback and feature requests rolled in. The project grew - fast. By early this year, Headcode CMS had become a fully‑fledged system. I made a big bet on the new Next.js caching architecture, even before it was production-ready. That gamble delayed things... and eventually, I put the CMS aside.

Then came Next.js Conf 2025.

Vercel officially launched the new caching system. And over one weekend, I revisited the project with fresh eyes.

A lot had changed in the ecosystem: AI tools, shadcn/ui, Drizzle ORM, TanStack, and so on. It just clicked: instead of pushing forward with the heavy version, I decided to tear it all down and build the CMS I wanted from day one: small, elegant, and open.

The new Headcode CMS is built around a simple idea:

Keep the core minimal. Integrate the tools we already love.

Here's what this new version offers:

- A dramatically simplified codebase: reduced to the essentials
- Built entirely on open‑source tools like Drizzle ORM, TanStack Form, and Zod
- Uses Next.js 16 Cache Components for performance
- Installable via a shadcn registry: like any other shadcn/ui component
- Lives inside your project: edit or extend anything
- Publish and install your own themes, section UIs, and field types via your own shadcn registry
- Works locally out of the box: no external dependencies
- Seamlessly scales up for production (Turso, Vercel Blob, etc.) via simple .env settings

You can check it out here: https://t.co/XLeG6VifjK

Thanks for joining me on this journey.

[Markus Tripp @markustripp]

Launch day: I created a Minimalistic Web CMS, published as a shadcn registry, and optimized for Next.js 16 Cache Components.

pnpm dlx shadcn@latest add https://t.co/MVNsEEcDjX

@headcodecms includes a simple admin interface, that combines UI components from shadcn/ui and Kibo UI into flexible TanStack Forms, supporting both single fields and arrays.

This setup makes it easy to define content structures in code and edit them visually in the admin.

Check it out: https://t.co/XLeG6VhHuc

Headcode CMS is fully open source and it would not be possible without these wonderful projects:
@nextjs
@tailwindcss
@shadcn
kibo-ui
@tan_stack
@DrizzleORM
@better_auth
@tursodatabase
uploadthing (@pingdotgg)
@tiptap_editor

[Markus Tripp @markustripp]

Preview of @headcodecms redesign using shadcn/ui. Check it out at: https://t.co/oHEEULwpJr - custom logo and theming support for login/setup: https://t.co/jjI7ElCqG2

[Markus Tripp @markustripp]

Great talk from @JamesMikrut from @payloadcms at Next.js Conf. It seems we both share the same vision - and his arguments are the reason why I created @headcodecms. His talk: https://t.co/iuaKjYdGEt

A key difference between Headcode and Payload is that Payload moves more in the app framework direction with structured data, whereas I stay more generic. 90% of the time, my clients don't care that the people on the team's page are modeled as person objects. They want a card component. And when I argue that the person object can be reused as an author on the blog, we often end up creating a separate BlogAuthor object. But I love both concepts.

My primary goal with @headcodecms is theme reusability. I want something like the Shopify theme store (https://t.co/c74nNMCHn5) with 164 high-quality themes as a starting point for Next.js based CMS projects.

Today, I'll migrate @headcodecms to Next.js 14, and in the next few days, I'll hopefully finish the admin panel migration to @shadcn ui, and I can release a public alpha version in 1-2 weeks.

#nextjs #nextjs14 #supabase #payloadcms #headcodecms #tailwindcss #shadcnui

[Markus Tripp @markustripp]

Sneak peek of the Headcode CMS npx cli I’m currently working on - https://t.co/oBAcvC330E @headcodecms #headlesscms #nextjs #supabase #cms

[Markus Tripp @markustripp]

I created a 100% open-source headless CMS for @nextjs 13 using @supabase. It integrates with @vercel Visual Editing, Git branches, and GitHub. Built for themes and reusable sections - supports versions and multiple languages.

I like @payloadcms and @sanity_io - but I needed an embedded, simple CMS, no extra CMS server, that uses concepts from @Shopify (theme store, theme editor).

https://t.co/YXNR2oN3UH
https://t.co/qGXDiHVjpy

I created a free developer preview you can install and try today: https://t.co/ptmgXKKy7i

Just clone/download the repo, configure Supabase in your .env, and run it.