Pebblestack

A small, no-bloat PHP CMS. WordPress without the marketplace.

Stack: PHP 8.2 + SQLite + Twig. One folder. No plugin store, no theme store, no block editor, no multisite. The "no" list is the product.

Install on Hostinger (or any shared PHP host) in 60 seconds

1. Download this repo as a ZIP (green "Code → Download ZIP" button on GitHub) or git clone it.
2. Upload the entire folder contents into public_html/ on your host (Hostinger, Namecheap, Bluehost — any PHP 8.2+ shared plan). Include the vendor/ folder. Yes, all of it.
3. Visit https://yourdomain.com/install.php. Pick a site name, admin email, password.
4. You're done. Public site is at /. Admin is at /admin.

No Composer to run. No MySQL to provision. No Docker. No Node.js. The repo is drop-in deployable as-is.

Why this exists

WordPress runs on every cheap shared host on the planet, but it brings 20 years of marketplace-driven complexity with it. Pebblestack is what you'd build today if you only needed the 10 things 90% of sites actually use.

• Single-folder install. Unzip into your webroot. That's the install.
• One file is the database. SQLite — back up by copying data/pebblestack.sqlite.
• Typed content collections. Define pages, posts, or anything else in config/collections.php. No "Custom Post Types UI" plugin.
• Markdown by default. No block editor. Write content, render it.
• Auto-escaped templates. Twig means you don't ship XSS by accident.
• Built-in media library with MIME-sniffed uploads + alt text + markdown snippets.
• Roles + multi-user — admin/editor/viewer with sane gating.
• Forms — mark a collection is_form: true and it accepts public submissions at POST /forms/{name}.
• Revisions + restore — every save snapshots the prior version.
• Privacy-friendly metrics — server-side page views, no JS pixel, no cookies, no IPs.
• SEO baked in — /sitemap.xml and /robots.txt work out of the box.
• Auto-migrating — drop in a new release, refresh the page, the DB updates itself.

Building a website with Pebblestack + an AI assistant

The intended workflow:

1. Clone Pebblestack into your project directory.
2. Tell your AI assistant: "Build the frontend for {site type} using Pebblestack as the base."
3. The AI edits templates/theme/default/ (the theme) and config/collections.php (the content shape). Everything else stays untouched.
4. Upload the whole thing to public_html/. Visit /install.php. Done.

See AGENTS.md — it tells the AI exactly which files to touch, which to leave alone, and how the system fits together.

Project layout

index.php           # front controller
install.php         # first-run installer entry
.htaccess           # rewrites + security
config/             # app.php + collections.php — edit these
templates/admin/    # admin UI Twig templates — leave these
templates/theme/    # public-facing themes — edit these
src/                # framework — leave this
data/               # SQLite + migrations (blocked from web)
uploads/            # media (PHP execution disabled here)
vendor/             # Composer deps (shipped in repo for shared hosting)

Field types available in config/collections.php

Type	UI
text	single-line input
textarea	multi-line text
markdown	markdown editor (CommonMark)
slug	URL-safe slug input
boolean	checkbox
number	numeric input
select	dropdown (provide options)
datetime	datetime picker
url	URL input (validated)

What's NOT in Pebblestack (and never will be)

• Plugin marketplace
• Theme marketplace
• Block / Gutenberg editor
• Multisite
• Comments (use Disqus / Cusdis / Giscus)
• A WP-style admin bar on the public site

If you need those, use WordPress. Pebblestack stops where WordPress's bloat starts.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.