Launching today
TypeDock
PHP CMS simple as WP. Built for the agent era.
6 followers
PHP CMS simple as WP. Built for the agent era.
6 followers
TypeDock is an open-source PHP CMS where themes are schemas, not arbitrary PHP. Declare settings, menus, slots, and data fetches in `theme.json`. Write Latte templates. The database stays out of reach of theme code. Plugins declare their extension points through manifests. Content is stored as Tiptap JSON instead of pasted HTML. Deploy on $5 shared hosting or Docker. PHP 8.2+. SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL. Release candidate — ready to test, honest about what's still early.
Hi PH — I'm Yusuke, and I built TypeDock because I kept running into the same problem with WordPress client sites.
The install is fast. The first demo is great. Then six months later, a theme's `functions.php` has grown into an application, three plugins are silently fighting each other, and the editor is full of DIV soup that no template can safely parse.
The maintenance ceiling isn't a WordPress bug — it's what happens when there are no visible contracts between the CMS, the theme, the plugin, and the content.
I didn't want to go headless. My clients run small sites on ordinary PHP hosting. Adding a CDN, a Node runtime, and a build pipeline to deploy a brochure site is the wrong trade.
So TypeDock tries a third path: keep the "upload a zip and it works" deployment story, but add typed surfaces where maintenance usually breaks down.
Themes declare settings, menus, slots, and data fetches in `theme.json`. No database access, no arbitrary PHP logic.
Plugins extend the CMS through explicit extension points. Admin UI runs in an isolated iframe.
Content is stored as Tiptap JSON — a clean AST instead of pasted HTML.
Deployment is PHP 8.2+, SQLite/MySQL/PostgreSQL, shared hosting or Docker.
It also happens to be a much easier surface for coding agents to work with — a theme scaffold or a plugin stub is just a JSON declaration plus some Latte templates, not an opaque `functions.php`.
This is a release candidate, which means the architecture is stable enough to build on but I'm still gathering real install feedback. The most useful thing anyone here can do is try the install tutorial, build something small, and tell me what broke.
Docs and install guide are at typedock.com/docs. GitHub is linked above. Happy to answer questions about the architecture or the agent-era angle in the comments.