v1 The modular release is here — everything is a module now. →

Open-source CMS powered by Go v1

Lesstruct

Everything is a module. The Go CMS you can shrink, extend, and ship as one binary — for humans and AI agents.

Quick start Features See it in action

The Lesstruct admin panel: rich-text editor with custom fields and an SEO panel.

What’s new in v1

The 1.0 rewrite turned every feature into a first-class module with a frozen, versioned contract at its center.

Modular architecture

Everything is a module

Eleven first-party modules with a declared dependency graph. Disable what you don't need — dependents cascade with a logged warning.

The kernel

A frozen, versioned contract

One small Go module every feature compiles against: lifecycle, identity, envelope, discovery — semver-tagged and adversarially reviewed.

Lesstruct CLI

Built for AI agents

Agents live on command lines. The Lesstruct CLI drives content, media, and exports over the versioned API — no browser needed.

Features

A single binary runs the whole CMS. Configure content types and fields in config.toml, extend with WebAssembly, and drive it from the terminal. See the full list →

One binary, no Docker

A static Go binary plus embedded SQLite. No runtime, no container, no node_modules in production.

Modular & lean

Eleven built-in modules with a declared graph — disable what you don't need and the binary stays one lean whole.

Headless mode

Flip [headless] enabled = true to serve only the admin panel and REST API — a pure headless CMS.

Two-layer configuration

config.toml holds your content schema; .env holds deployment state. Only JWT_SECRET is required.

Custom post types & fields

Define post types and fields in config.toml. The admin form, storage, and queries all read from it.

Importers & Exporters

Migrate from WordPress (WXR) or Hugo — posts, custom fields, media, authors — via async jobs. Export everything as a Hugo-compatible archive and HTML static files.

WebAssembly plugins

Drop a .wasm into plugins/ to hook before_save, after_create, after_publish.

Media & WebP

A media library with automatic WebP conversion, configurable thumbnail variants, and dedup.

AI built in

Generate images, enhance & translate text, and author on-brand HTML/CSS from a prompt — reusing your theme's design tokens. Bring your own key.

i18n by default

Multilingual content with translation groups and hreflang in the sitemap.

SSR, SSG & AMP

Server-rendered and SEO-friendly. Generate a static site with AMP variants via the admin or lesstruct-cli ssg.

REST API & CLI

A versioned /api/v1 with API keys, plus lesstruct-cli for agents and terminals.

Roles & security

JWT auth, failed-login lockout, Argon2id, rate limits, and security headers.

Custom roles

Add custom roles or override the built-ins with [[role]] entries in config.toml — per-post-type manage, publish, media, and comment capabilities.

Safe by default

HTML sanitized on write and read, a configurable CSP, and safe-link policies — secure without a security degree.

One server, one CLI

One product, one companion tool. SQLite is built in by default; PostgreSQL and MySQL are a configuration away. The API and CLI in the docs →

lesstruct server

The whole CMS as one static binary: admin panel, REST API, and the rendered content site. SQLite by default; PostgreSQL and MySQL via DB_DRIVER.

lesstruct-cli cli

The companion command line for AI agents: content, media, and export operations straight from the terminal.

Quick start#

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go install github.com/aristorinjuang/lesstruct@latest
export JWT_SECRET="$(head -c 48 /dev/urandom | base64)"
lesstruct

Open http://localhost:8080/admin, register the first account, and start publishing. Full configuration reference lives in the Configuration docs.

Install the CLI#

lesstruct-cli is a terminal client for the REST API — useful for scripts and AI agents.

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go install github.com/aristorinjuang/lesstruct/cmd/lesstruct-cli@latest

Point it at a running server and create an API key from the admin panel. The full command reference lives in the API Reference.

Where to go next#

Evaluating Lesstruct? Browse the full Features catalog, or see it in action with screenshots from a running demo.
New to Lesstruct? Read the Project Context for the architecture overview, then skim the Configuration reference.
Building a site? Start with the Theme Development guide.
Extending the CMS? The Plugin Development guide and Plugin Capabilities reference cover the WASM hook model and host functions.
Integrating via API? The API Reference documents every /api/v1 endpoint, and lesstruct-cli ships in the same release for terminal-first and AI-agent workflows.

AI agent ingestion#

This site is designed to be crawlable by AI agents in addition to humans.

/llms.txt — index of every documentation page with a one-line summary.
/llms-full.txt — every page concatenated in section order, suitable as a single context window.
Per-page markdown is also served at the canonical path (e.g. /docs/api-reference/index.md) for retrieval pipelines that prefer per-page fetches.
/sitemap.xml — Hugo’s built-in sitemap.

For an LLM working inside the repo, the source tree is the contract: docs/ is developer-facing, skills/*/references/ is the user-facing snapshot that ships in the binary.