Forma

The portable PHP CMS that doesn’t suck

Dark admin. Pages, blog, podcasts. Real SEO. An Agent API for Cursor. One SQLite file you can back up, move, and ship anywhere.

Download Get started Buy Podcast — $39

Portability, not theater

One file. Full CMS. Zero MySQL drama.

The old pitch was “no database.” The honest one is better: Forma keeps everything in a single SQLite file. Fast enough to feel local. Small enough to copy. Serious enough to run a real site.

Site package

formax-site-*.zip

manifest.jsonversions
data.jsonportable content
database/forma.dbthe whole CMS
uploads/your media

Speed

No connection pool, no Redis ritual. PHP + SQLite on cheap hosting still feels snappy.

Simplicity

Drop the folder on Apache or Nginx. Log in. Change the damn password. Build.

Portability

Move hosts with a zip: database, uploads, and a versioned manifest future Forma can migrate.

Security surface

One admin. CSRF. Rate-limited login. File validation. Fewer moving parts, fewer ways to get wrecked.

Why Forma kicks ass

Everything you need. Nothing WordPress-shaped.

Same spirit as the original Forma site — SQLite core, htmx admin, agent-ready.

Admin that respects your eyes

Dark, fast, htmx-driven. Built for long editing sessions, not dashboard cosplay.

Pages

Markdown, HTML, or Twig. Own the markup. Ship the layout you actually want.

Blog

Markdown-first posts, clean RSS/JSON feeds, publish dates that mean something.

Podcasts

Episodes, show notes, iTunes-compatible feed. Optional $39 unlock — you host the audio; Forma handles the XML.

Snippets

Reusable blocks with shortcodes. Write once, drop everywhere — copy-paste is for suckers.

Files

Upload, preview, link. Images and audio without a plugin bazaar.

SEO that shows up

robots.txt, sitemap (with images), Open Graph, JSON-LD, redirects, health checks — automatic when you let it.

Agent API

Scoped Bearer tokens. Cursor MCP. Update pages and posts over HTTPS without SSH theater.

Locked down

Modern auth, CSRF, upload validation, .htaccess helper. Tough as nails, not theater security.

See it in the product

Built for people who will touch the code.

No theme store. No page-builder prison. Forma assumes you’re willing to hack a little — and rewards you for it.

Download on GitHub Source on GitHub Buy Podcast — $39 CMS is free. Podcast is optional.

Dark admin that doesn’t fight you

Sections load fast. Editors use real code tools. Settings for SEO, hosting, cache, agents, and versioned backups live where you’d look for them.

Forma dark admin — Blog post editor in Markdown

Write in Markdown or HTML

Distraction-light editing, meta fields that matter, SERP / OG previews so you see what Google and social will see before you publish.

Forma Snippets editor — reusable markup blocks

Agents welcome

Create a token, point Cursor at the MCP server, and let an agent edit content with scopes — content, media, settings, backup — not a shell on your box.

Forma Settings — Cache, HTML files, and hosting controls

Get started in minutes

Deploy. Log in. Change the password. Build.

No MySQL wizard. No Composer rabbit hole. PHP 8.1+, SQLite, and a web root.

Drop Forma on the server

Clone from GitHub, or unzip the latest Release (not main). Keep database/ and uploads/ writable. Later versions: Settings → Update. DreamHost notes are in the docs.

git clone https://github.com/Alta-forma/forma-cms.git
chmod -R 775 database uploads feeds

Source on GitHub

Point the vhost at the folder

Apache with mod_rewrite, or Nginx try_files. Local hack:

php -S localhost:8787 router.php

Log in and lock it down

Open /admin. Default credentials ship for first boot — change them immediately in Settings → Access. Later CMS versions: Settings → Update (GitHub Releases only — never main).

Publish something real

Edit the home page, wire SEO, upload a favicon, hit Backup for a site package before you get brave.

From the blog

Ideas worth shipping.

CMS craft, agents, SEO, and portability — written like we build. Subscribe via RSS or JSON Feed.

All posts →

RSS JSON

Forma

From mockup to live Forma page

A practical path from Figma or a static HTML folder to a shipped Forma page: slice the chrome, paste the unique layout, wire SEO, publish.

Aug 22, 2026Forma

Forma

Build the chrome first: tokens, header, footer

Lock the shared shell before you design twenty pages. Tokens in site-head, navigation in site-header, closing marks in site-footer.

Aug 22, 2026Forma

Forma

Forma is not a theme store. You bring the design.

There is no theme marketplace. Your HTML and CSS are the theme. Here is how to give Forma a real web design instead of fighting a preset.

Aug 22, 2026Forma

Ready to shape your content game?

Self-hosted PHP + SQLite. Dark admin. Agent API. One file you can move anywhere — this is the live product. Podcast is a $39 unlock.

Download Zip Buy Podcast — $39