Automad is a flat-file content management system that stores all content in JSON formatted files rather than relying on a database. This approach minimizes administrative overhead and eliminates the need for complex setup procedures.
Your site remains portable and deployable on minimal hardware while still providing database-like features such as searching and tagging. Backups are simplified to the process of committing files to a Git repository.
In This Guide
The System Guide provides comprehensive information on the key topics needed to effectively host and run your own Automad instance. It covers configuration options, user management, theme installation, the Automad Console CLI, and automated backups using Git.
Configuration
Automad is a flat-file content management system designed for performance and straightforward configuration. Configuration can be managed through several methods depending on the context and scope of the settings being configured.
Encrypting Secrets
Automad stores credentials such as the mail server password, AI provider API keys and the hashes of MCP access tokens as PHP files in the config directory of your installation. This page explains how you can encrypt those secrets with your own key and how to provide that key in different server environments.
User Accounts
Every person who works on your site signs in to the dashboard with their own user account. This page explains how to manage your own account, secure it with two-factor authentication, recover access and invite other people to collaborate with you. All of these options can be found in the Users section of the System Settings.
Themes
Themes define the look and the available templates of your site. They are distributed as packages and can be installed, updated and removed directly in the Packages section of the dashboard. Alternatively, you can manage them on the command line using Composer.
Console
The Console is Automad's command line interface. It lets you run system tasks such as clearing the cache, changing the configuration, creating users or updating Automad from a terminal. This is useful for automated deployments, scripts or in case you can't access the dashboard.
Backups
Automad is a flat-file content management system and doesn't use a database. All content, settings and themes are stored as plain files in the installation directory, so a backup is simply a copy of those files. This page explains which files matter, how to back them up and how to automate version-controlled backups to GitHub.