# AtarCMS > AtarCMS is an open-source PHP CMS for small multilingual sites, built so that AI agents can install it, run its admin and read the published site. MIT licence, one small VPS, no build step. Site languages: en (default) The full text of the site's entry pages, one after another. The map of every page and term: https://atarcms.com/llms.txt --- # Home page Source: https://atarcms.com/ - Language: en - Headline: A small CMS that AI agents can build, run and read - GitHub address: https://github.com/yanfishel/atarcms - Pillar 1: title: AI-ready, end to end - Pillar 2: title: Multilingual, right to left included - Pillar 3: title: Small and honest - Scores: heading: A clean sheet in Lighthouse - Quick start: the install command: composer create-project yanfishel/atarcms my-site --no-interaction ## Subline AtarCMS runs small multilingual sites — a studio, a clinic, a club, a workshop — on one small server. Hand it to your coding agent: it installs the site and builds it from your brief. Then your editors, or their agents, take it from there. ## Pillar 1: text A coding agent builds the site with the skill that ships in the project. A browser agent runs the admin from one guide at /admin/ai-guide. Language models read the public site through /llms.txt and a markdown twin of every page. ## Pillar 2: text Content, menus, search and feeds per language, with linked translations. Hebrew and other right-to-left languages mirror the whole site and the whole admin, not just the text. The admin itself speaks five languages. ## Pillar 3: text PHP 8.4 and MariaDB on one small VPS. No build step, no node_modules, no compiled cache: it boots from the sources on plain OPcache. One to five trusted editors, MIT licence, your data on your server. ## Scores Performance | 100\ Accessibility | 100\ Best Practices | 100\ SEO | 100\ Agentic Browsing | 3/3 ## Scores: note The default theme of the site skeleton, measured with Lighthouse — including Google's new agentic browsing audit, which checks that AI agents can use a site. ## Quick start: introduction Start a site with Composer, then fill .env, run the migrations and create the first administrator — install.md in the skeleton covers every path: your computer or a server, with Docker or without, shared hosting. Or open your coding agent in an empty folder and paste the prompt. It asks before it installs packages or changes a server, and you type the secrets yourself. ## The agent prompt Clone https://github.com/yanfishel/atarcms.git with --depth 1 into a temporary folder\ (install git first if it is missing), read .agents/skills/building-atarcms-sites/references/install.md\ there and install AtarCMS: into ./my-site on this computer, or into /var/www/\ on a server;\ then open the site's folder and continue with its skill. ## Screenshots - ![The dashboard: recent activity, content and translation state at a glance](https://atarcms.com/uploads/2026/10/3e19aa050d5d582eb3a7ea1723e0d314.png) - ![The entry form: tabs per field group, the status and publication date beside the fields](https://atarcms.com/uploads/2026/10/06cde93c198ffe8391c4bf2d0e8f57f8.png) - ![Rich text (CKEditor 5) beside structured fields: address, opening hours, a Google map](https://atarcms.com/uploads/2026/10/61982d79f7cba4f692149ecbbe4191c9.png) - ![Sections: the site's menu as a tree, drag to nest, every change audited](https://atarcms.com/uploads/2026/10/05a5602e8f75fde1a8bc5e83d00c4f42.png) - ![Full right to left: the same admin in Hebrew, mirrored by logical CSS](https://atarcms.com/uploads/2026/10/e7cdbe2413f2a827ce40c4258d2584a4.png) - ![Site settings, Integrations: verification codes and statistics, each one field](https://atarcms.com/uploads/2026/10/676080024f340f5ffd65f115c904f111.png) --- # Contacts Source: https://atarcms.com/contacts - Language: en ## Text **GitHub is the fastest way to reach the project.** Found a bug, missing a feature, stuck while installing? Open an issue: the answer helps the next person too. - [Issues of the site skeleton](https://github.com/yanfishel/atarcms/issues) (installing, the default theme, the agent skill) - [Issues of the core](https://github.com/yanfishel/atarcms-core/issues) (the admin, content, security) Security vulnerabilities are reported privately, as `SECURITY.md` in either repository explains. For anything else, write to [dev@atarcms.com](mailto:dev@atarcms.com). --- # AtarCMS v0.2.0: demo content that follows your brief Source: https://atarcms.com/news/atarcms-0-2-0 - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en - Tags: Releases ## Summary Demo content now builds the sections, pages and tags of your brief, a new admin speaks the site's language, and the launch checklist walks you through Google sign-in. ## Text Version 0.2.0 carries the lessons of the first site built from scratch by a coding agent. - **Demo content follows the site.** An optional `config/demo.php` gives `bin/atar demo:seed` the brief's sections with their subsections, pages and news tags per language. A malformed file stops the seed before anything is deleted, and an address the site already uses is skipped and reported. - **The first admin speaks the site's language.** `bin/atar user:create` saves the site's default language as the new user's interface language. - **A quiet page footer in the admin** carries the link to the AI guide. - **Google sign-in, step by step.** The handbook and the launch checklist walk the owner through creating the OAuth client, and the brief mentions it early. - **Everything from Packagist.** `composer create-project` needs no GitHub token and no extra repository. Updating a site: `composer update yanfishel/atarcms-core`, `php bin/atar migrate`, `php bin/atar doctor`, then the steps `UPGRADE.md` lists for the version. --- # AtarCMS v0.1.0: the first public version Source: https://atarcms.com/news/atarcms-0-1-0 - Published: Oct 15, 2026 - Language: en - Tags: Releases ## Summary The core and the site skeleton are public under the MIT licence and on Packagist: composer create-project yanfishel/atarcms starts a site. ## Text The first version of AtarCMS is out: the core ([yanfishel/atarcms-core](https://github.com/yanfishel/atarcms-core)) and the site skeleton ([yanfishel/atarcms](https://github.com/yanfishel/atarcms)), both under the MIT licence. ### What is in it - Content: collections, sections, taxonomies and menus; revisions, autosave, preview and scheduled publication. - A media library with WebP and AVIF variants on demand, search, site settings and generated share images. - The admin in five languages: English, Russian, Hebrew, German and French. - The default theme, the site builder skill for coding agents and `bin/atar doctor`. - Web server configs for nginx, Caddy and Apache, and Docker setups for development and production. ### AI-ready from the start The admin describes itself to browser agents at `/admin/ai-guide`, the public site has a markdown map at `/llms.txt`, and every public page has a markdown twin at its address plus `.md`. [More on AI-ready](https://atarcms.com/ai-ready). ### A draft version AtarCMS is still in its greenfield phase: a later 0.x version may change the database schema in place and need a fresh install. `UPGRADE.md` says so for every version. --- # Hello from atarcms.com, built by an agent Source: https://atarcms.com/news/hello-from-atarcms-com - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en - Tags: Project ## Summary The project's own site runs on AtarCMS, and a coding agent built it from the owner's brief with the skill that ships in the skeleton. ## Text The best demonstration of a CMS for AI agents is a site an agent built. This one was: a coding agent cloned the skeleton, installed AtarCMS with Docker, wrote the owner's answers into a site brief, set up the content model, built this violet theme from a copy of the default one and drafted the texts for the owner to review. Everything it relied on is public: the skill in `.agents/skills/building-atarcms-sites/`, `HANDBOOK.md` and the console's checks. Read [How it works](https://atarcms.com/how-it-works) to do the same for your site, and check [/llms.txt](https://atarcms.com/llms.txt) to see what agents read here. --- # CKEditor is GPL: does that affect my site? Source: https://atarcms.com/faq/ckeditor-and-gpl - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en ## Answer No, not for running a site. AtarCMS's own code is MIT. The admin's rich-text editor is the GPL build of CKEditor 5, which ships with the core as a separate, unmodified component with its own licence files. The GPL matters only if you redistribute AtarCMS itself together with the editor: then that redistribution must honour the GPL for that component. Running your site, and the theme and content you make, are not affected. --- # Where is my data? Source: https://atarcms.com/faq/where-is-my-data - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en ## Answer On your server. AtarCMS keeps content in your own MariaDB database and files in the site's `storage/uploads/` folder; nothing is sent to us or to any cloud service. Backups are a database dump plus that folder, the site key and the `.env` file. The site loads no third-party scripts or fonts. Statistics counters are off unless you add one, and then visitors are asked first. --- # What hosting do I need? Source: https://atarcms.com/faq/what-hosting-do-i-need - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en ## Answer PHP 8.4 with the usual extensions (gd, intl, mbstring, pdo_mysql), MariaDB 10.11 or newer (MySQL 8 should work) and any web server. One small VPS is enough for a site with a few editors; Docker setups for development and production are included. Installing works on your own computer (with or without Docker), on a server (Debian or Ubuntu, with or without Docker) and on shared hosting with SSH and PHP 8.4. There is no build step and no Node.js: the site boots from its sources on plain OPcache, and `bin/atar doctor` checks the result. --- # What does it cost? Source: https://atarcms.com/faq/what-does-it-cost - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en ## Answer AtarCMS itself is free: the core and the site skeleton are open source under the MIT licence, for any site, commercial ones included. What you build on it (your theme, your content) is yours. You pay only for what you choose around it: hosting (one small VPS is enough), a domain, a mailbox for the forms' mail, and the coding agent you work with. --- # What exactly can an AI agent do in the admin? Source: https://atarcms.com/faq/what-can-an-ai-agent-do-in-the-admin - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en ## Answer Everything the user it signs in as may do, through the same screens a person uses. The admin describes itself at `/admin/ai-guide`: the screens that user may open, every content type with its fields and limits, and how saving, autosave, translations and media work. In practice an agent writes and translates entries, uploads pictures and sets their alt texts, edits menus and site settings, and reads the messages of the contact form. It cannot do more than its user: an author's agent edits only that author's drafts. Every change goes into the activity history with the user's name. --- # How is this different from WordPress? Source: https://atarcms.com/faq/how-is-this-different-from-wordpress - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en ## Answer WordPress is a general platform with a huge ecosystem of themes and plugins. AtarCMS is deliberately small: one codebase for small multilingual sites with one to five trusted editors, without plugins to keep up to date. - **Made for agents:** an agent skill to build the site, an admin guide for browser agents, `/llms.txt` and markdown twins for language models. - **Multilingual in the core:** linked translations, per-language menus, search and feeds, full right-to-left in the site and the admin. - **Strict by default:** a Content Security Policy with no inline scripts, no third-party code on the pages, a cookie banner only when you add counters. - **Content in code:** content types and fields are defined in configuration, so an agent can read and change the site's structure safely in git. If you need an online shop, a membership site or a thousand plugins, WordPress (or something else) fits better. --- # Do I need a programmer? Source: https://atarcms.com/faq/do-i-need-a-programmer - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en ## Answer Not for building or running the site. A coding agent installs AtarCMS, builds it from your answers and walks you through launch, asking you before anything that needs your decision. Editing content afterwards happens in an admin made for people who are not programmers. What you do need: a coding agent you can run (on your computer or with SSH access to a server), and some patience to answer its questions and review its work. A developer helps if you want custom features beyond what AtarCMS does out of the box. --- # Privacy policy Source: https://atarcms.com/privacy > What atarcms.com collects (only what you send through the contact form), why, where it is kept and how long. - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en (translations: [he](https://atarcms.com/he/privacy.md), [ru](https://atarcms.com/ru/privacy.md)) ## Lead line atarcms.com does not track you. The only personal data it handles is what you send through the contact form. ## Text Draft — to be reviewed by the site owner before launch. ### Who runs this site atarcms.com is the product site of AtarCMS, an open-source project maintained by Yan Fishel. You can reach the project through the [contact form](https://atarcms.com/contacts) or on [GitHub](https://github.com/yanfishel/atarcms/issues). ### What we collect - **The contact form:** your name, your e-mail address, an optional phone number and your message. We use them only to answer you. - **Server logs:** the web server records technical data of requests (the address requested, the time, the IP address and the browser's identification) to keep the site running and secure. Logs are kept for a short time and are not used to identify visitors. ### What we do not do - No analytics, no statistics counters, no advertising pixels, no session replay. - No cookies for visitors. (Editors who sign in to the admin get a session cookie; visitors do not.) - No fonts, scripts or images loaded from other companies' servers: everything comes from this site. ### Where the data is kept and for how long Messages from the contact form are stored in the site's own database on its own server and are seen only by the site's administrators. We delete a message when the conversation it started is over, and at the latest after one year. We do not sell or share your data with anyone. ### Links to other sites This site links to GitHub, where the project's code and issues live. GitHub has its own privacy policy. ### Your rights You may ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it or to delete it: write through the contact form, and we will answer within 30 days. ### Changes If this policy changes, the new version is published on this page with its date. Last updated: October 2026. --- # Accessibility statement Source: https://atarcms.com/accessibility > How atarcms.com is made accessible: the standard it aims for, the accessibility toolbar, known limits and how to report a problem. - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en (translations: [he](https://atarcms.com/he/accessibility.md), [ru](https://atarcms.com/ru/accessibility.md)) ## Lead line We want everyone to be able to read and use atarcms.com, with any device and any assistive technology. ## Text Draft — to be reviewed by the site owner before launch. ### The standard This site aims to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA. ### What we did - Semantic markup: landmarks, one main heading per page, a skip link, labelled navigation and form fields. - Everything works with the keyboard alone, with a visible focus ring. - Text and controls keep a contrast of at least 4.5:1 in the light and the dark colour scheme. - Pictures have text alternatives; the screenshots are described in their captions. - The site works without JavaScript; motion stops when the device asks for reduced motion. - An accessibility toolbar (the round button in the corner) lets you enlarge text, widen spacing, switch to a readable font, raise the contrast, use greyscale or inverted colours, highlight links, enlarge the cursor, stop animations, use a reading guide or hide images. Your choices are kept in your browser. ### Known limits - The admin screenshots on the home page show text as pictures; their captions summarise what they show. - Pages on GitHub, which we link to, follow GitHub's own accessibility. ### Report a problem If something on this site is hard to use, tell us through the [contact form](https://atarcms.com/contacts) or open an issue on [GitHub](https://github.com/yanfishel/atarcms/issues). Please say which page and what happened; we aim to answer within five working days. This statement was prepared in October 2026. --- # How it works Source: https://atarcms.com/how-it-works > How a site gets built on AtarCMS: what the owner prepares, the one prompt for a coding agent, what comes out, and the tools the agent works with. - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en ## Lead line You describe the site; a coding agent installs AtarCMS, builds it from your answers and checks its own work. Here is the path for both of you. ## Text ### The owner's path #### 1. Prepare a few answers The agent interviews you, and answers you prepare up front turn several rounds into one. Useful to have: - what the site is about, who visits it, and its name; - the languages, and which one is the main one; - the pages and sections you imagine (unsure is fine: the agent proposes); - a site you like as a style sample, or a purchased template with its files and its licence; - contacts and social links, the texts, photos and logo you already have, and anything that must *not* appear. The domain, a mailbox for the forms' mail and analytics numbers are needed only on launch day. #### 2. Paste one prompt Open your coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any agent that can run commands) in an empty folder on your computer, or with SSH access to your server, and paste: ``` Clone https://github.com/yanfishel/atarcms.git with --depth 1 into a temporary folder (install git first if it is missing), read .agents/skills/building-atarcms-sites/references/install.md there and install AtarCMS: into ./my-site on this computer, or into /var/www/ on a server; then open the site's folder and continue with its skill. ``` The agent asks before it installs system packages or changes a server, and you type the secrets yourself: passwords never pass through the chat. #### 3. Review, step by step The agent writes your answers into `site-brief.md` for you to confirm, then works in phases: the content model, the design analysis, the theme, the content, the checks. It commits after every phase, so you can go back to any step, and it shows you the site on your own computer before anything goes live. #### 4. What you get - A working site with its own theme, in your languages (right-to-left included), with news, pages, a contact form, search and a media library. - An admin your editors use without training, with revisions, autosave, preview and scheduled publication. - Accessibility built in: a toolbar for visitors and an accessibility statement page. - A git repository of the whole site and a launch checklist: HTTPS, mail, backups, Google sign-in. ### The agent's path #### The skill The site skeleton ships an agent skill in `.agents/skills/building-atarcms-sites/`, in the open Agent Skills format: Claude Code finds it through `.claude/skills/`, other agents through `AGENTS.md`. It holds the phases, the hard rules (never edit `vendor/`, ask before deleting content, keep the working theme until the new one passes its check) and references for installing, the content model, design sources, the theme guide, verification and going live. #### The handbook and the console `HANDBOOK.md` explains how the site works under the surface: the theme and its helpers, the content model, the admin, languages, media, search and production. The console checks the work: `bin/atar doctor` checks the installation, `bin/atar theme:check` renders every page type of the theme before it goes live. #### The admin guide Once the site runs, a browser agent signed in as an editor reads `/admin/ai-guide`: one known address that describes the admin's screens, every content type of this site with its fields and limits, and how saving, autosave, translations and media work, filtered by that user's permissions. More on what agents get from a finished site: [AI-ready](https://atarcms.com/ai-ready). --- # AI-ready Source: https://atarcms.com/ai-ready > Every AtarCMS site is readable and operable by AI agents: /llms.txt, a markdown twin of every page, an admin guide for browser agents and an admin that works without JavaScript. This site is the proof. - Published: Oct 16, 2026 - Language: en ## Lead line Being readable and operable by AI agents is the project's central design goal, not an add-on. Every claim on this page links to this very site, so you can check it. ## Text ### /llms.txt: the whole site in one request Every AtarCMS site publishes `/llms.txt` ([llmstxt.org](https://llmstxt.org)): a markdown map with the site's name, description and languages, and a link to every public page and tag. An agent researching the site reads one file instead of crawling it. See this site's: [/llms.txt](https://atarcms.com/llms.txt). When an agent wants everything at once, `/llms-full.txt` gives the full text of every public page in one markdown file, in the same order. See this site's: [/llms-full.txt](https://atarcms.com/llms-full.txt). ### A markdown twin of every page Every public entry page also answers at its address plus `.md` with the same content as clean markdown: no menus, no scripts, no layout to strip. The twin carries a `Link: rel="canonical"` header back to the HTML page and `X-Robots-Tag: noindex`, so search engines never see duplicates. Old addresses redirect with 301, like the HTML pages. Try it here: [/ai-ready.md](https://atarcms.com/ai-ready.md) (this page), [/how-it-works.md](https://atarcms.com/how-it-works.md), [/index.md](https://atarcms.com/index.md) (the home page). ### The admin describes itself A browser agent working in the admin for a signed-in editor reads `/admin/ai-guide`, the "AI guide" link in the admin's page footer. It is generated for the site and for that user: the screens they may open, every content type with its fields, limits and help texts, the menus and languages, and how saving, autosave, translations and media work. One known address instead of hidden per-page hints. ### An admin that works without JavaScript Every admin screen works from the server's HTML: links are links and every action is a form. Messages are polite live regions, validation errors sit at their fields with `aria-invalid`, refused buttons say why in their `title`. The admin renders semantic markup and never hides state in scripts, so agents that drive a browser through the accessibility tree operate it reliably. ### A public site agents can use The default theme scores 100 in Lighthouse for accessibility, best practices and SEO, and 3/3 in Google's agentic browsing audit. Pages are server-rendered HTML with landmarks, one heading per page and labelled controls; a strict Content Security Policy keeps scripts nobody chose off the pages. ### Checked from the outside An independent AI-readiness audit by AgentCheck checks the manifests, bot access, content semantics and whether agents can act on the page. This site scores 100/100: [see the report](https://agentcheck.dev/r/66mU7j2dTbDfM4VwP_oqBulG). ### Built by an agent, too This site was installed and built by a coding agent from the owner's brief, following the skill that ships with AtarCMS. The steps are on [How it works](https://atarcms.com/how-it-works). ### Under construction? Hidden. "Hide from search engines" in the site settings hides `/llms.txt`, `/llms-full.txt` and the `.md` twins along with the sitemap, so a site that is not ready leaks nothing.