Nice. I'll be watching this. Buddy and I are currently building an app on Pocketbase and are thoroughly enjoying it. I like your idea of starting from a config file rather than a UI.
The 1-file Headless CMS for your front-end
Manifest micro-backend powers websites, apps and directories around the world with 1 YAML file only.
CollectionsSinglesAuthValidationStorage
backend.ymlmanifest/backend.yml
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Why pay for the whole cow if you just need a glass of milk?
80% of CMS-powered websites and apps only use the most basic CMS features.
Using such oversized solutions lead to unnecessary costs, complexity and hassle for your team and your customers.
Manifest allows you to develop 10x faster integrating smoothly in your stack and bringing you only the essentials features.
Database
Built-in persistent database to store data
Admin Panel
Ready-to-use back-office dashboard for admins
REST API
Instant CRUD endpoints and OPEN API doc (Swagger)
File Storage
Store user files. Resize and optimize images
Backed by:
A complete backend that fits into a single YAML file
Adding a backend to your app can be tricky. Even for a simple requirement, you step into a whole new world and quickly feel overwhelmed by the many concepts you need to understand.
Manifest aims to cut the learning curve and ship very quickly without trading-off your coding standards and best practices.
Connect to any frontend
Plug-and-play with all frontend stacks and mobile stacks through our JS SDK or REST API. Adding a backend to a website or an app to make it dynamic has never been that easy.
Yes, you can do SSG and SSR too.
World class admin panel
The Manifest admin panel stands toe-to-toe with the admin panels of heavyweight solutions.
It is simple, elegant, and most importantly non-technical so you can give it to your customers and app administrators without the fear that they will break anything.
Self hosted
Manifest is a free and open-source Backend-as-a-Service that you can use anywhere.
Enjoy Manifest on your way: no lock-in, and keep your data private.
Keep your way of doing
Manifest integrates perfectly with your project, just like any other file in your codebase.
Keep it your way: work from your IDE, use testing, environments, AI assistants and leverage source control features like committing and branching.
Loved by developers 🤩
kudos, this is very cool. i thought pocketbase was simple. this is very very simple. I love simple.
Wow I've never heard of manifest before now, it looks fascinating
Hey very useful app, I'll be watching this. I once wanted to set up backend apps during automated CI jobs in order to facilitate e2e tests and ended up making a utility kind of similar - but yours truly goes beyond.
It works! I like this a lot. I've been leaning into Pocketbase because it is easy and fairly complete with what I need. This is easier and more complete. Are you modeling this after something that exists already?
I really appreciate the simplicity of the DSL presented. I'm curious how you see the project evolving as you add those things. How do you see it differentiating itself from rails or django?
i was trying manifest today and work fine, is very simple, i would use in a project without doubt.
I love it so far. The simplicity is awesome.
Hello! Just started trying out Manifest for a personal React project. Love the idea!
This seems nice! I will def. follow this, and jump on the bandwagon then you are out of beta 😎
Congrats on shipping, this looks nice and well thought-out.
Join Manifest community
You are enthusiast about Manifest ? So are we !
Join our growing community to give your feedback, suggest features and share some love.
Roadmap
Manifest is in BETA version and we are currently developing the stable product version with the community. Here are the upcoming features:
Rich text editor
Rich text editor to create stylized HTML from the admin panel
Q4 2024
Single-type model
A convenient data model that can only have one record
Q4 2024
Custom logic
Create endpoints and add your own custom logic
Q1 2025
Webhooks
Notify third-party platforms on defined events
Q1 2025
FAQ
What is a headless CMS ?
A classical CMS manages the backend and the frontend part. A Headless CMS removes the frontend so you are free to use your own one, using an API to connect to it. Manifest also covers the "back-office" / "admin panel" as it can be seen as part of the "backend"
Is Manifest a low-code / no-code tool ?
No. It just works like just any other file in your codebase. It's code, simple code.
Is Manifest for me?
It does not matter if you are junior or senior developer, if you code in JS, PHP or Python. You can be frontend, backend or fullstack, a mobile developer, indie hacker or devsigner. If you know a bit of software development, you will have no problem using Manifest.
Can I use Manifest in production?
Manifest is currently in BETA, you can use it at your own risk. It is stable enough to power small projects, prototypes and MVPs but we do not recommend to use it on critical platforms.
What is behind the magic?
Good sense and ordinary popular stacks: the current version runs on NodeJS, Express and NestJS. We use JSON Schema to validate the YAML file, JS-YAML to parse it and TypeORM to map it into a SQLite database.
