Cockpit CMS

Cockpit CMS is a lightweight, headless content platform designed for developers who need full control over data storage and delivery. At its core, it exposes a RESTful and GraphQL API that can be consumed by any frontend framework or mobile stack, enabling rapid iteration without vendor lock‑in. The system is intentionally minimalistic: the core bundle contains only content management, asset handling, and user authentication, while all additional functionality is added through a modular plugin architecture. This approach keeps the codebase lean and encourages developers to tailor the system exactly to their use case.

Architecture & Technical Stack

Cockpit is built on PHP 8.3+ with a standard MVC pattern. The front‑end is rendered via a simple Twig template engine for the admin UI, but all production-facing APIs are served as pure JSON endpoints. Persistence is agnostic: the default SQLite database keeps the footprint small for local or CI environments, while MongoDB support unlocks horizontal scaling and high‑throughput workloads. The web server can be Apache (mod_rewrite) or Nginx, and the only PHP extensions required are PDO and GD for image manipulation. Container‑friendly by design, Cockpit ships as a Docker image (cockpithq/cockpit:core-latest) that mounts a writable /var/www/html/storage volume for assets and configuration, making it trivial to orchestrate with Docker‑Compose or Kubernetes.

Core Capabilities

• Dynamic Content Modeling – Collections, singletons, and tree structures are defined through a UI or via API calls. Each model can host 20+ field types (text, markdown, file, relational, etc.) and supports custom validation rules.
• Real‑Time APIs – WebSocket support is baked into the REST layer, allowing clients to subscribe to live updates for content changes or asset uploads.
• Internationalization – Every field can be localized; fallback mechanisms ensure graceful degradation when a translation is missing.
• Asset Pipeline – Images are automatically resized, cached, and can be served through a CDN. Video thumbnails are generated on upload.
• User & Permission System – Role‑based access control, 2FA, and API token generation are available out of the box. Spaces enable true multi‑tenant setups.

Deployment & Infrastructure

Because Cockpit is pure PHP, it can run on any LAMP/LEMP stack or within a cloud‑native environment. The Docker image is stateless except for the mounted storage, allowing horizontal scaling behind a load balancer. For larger deployments, MongoDB is recommended due to its built‑in sharding and replication features; SQLite remains a viable option for single‑node or low‑traffic sites. The application exposes health checks (/health) and metrics endpoints that can be scraped by Prometheus for operational monitoring.

Integration & Extensibility

Cockpit’s plugin system is event‑driven: developers can hook into lifecycle events (onItemCreate, onAssetUpload) to extend functionality or integrate with external services (e.g., sending a Slack notification on new content). Custom fields and addons are distributed as Composer packages, enabling versioned upgrades without touching the core. Webhooks can be configured per‑model to push updates to headless frontends or caching layers instantly. The GraphQL playground and auto‑generated REST documentation (via OpenAPI) give developers an interactive way to explore the API surface.

Developer Experience

The configuration is declarative: a single config.php file defines database credentials, storage paths, and feature flags. Comprehensive documentation covers every endpoint, field type, and event hook, while the active community on GitHub and Discord ensures quick support for edge cases. The MIT license removes licensing friction, allowing commercial use without royalties or closed‑source constraints.

Use Cases

• Single‑Page Applications – A React or Vue SPA can consume Cockpit’s GraphQL endpoint for instant content hydration.
• Mobile Apps – Flutter or React Native apps fetch JSON from the REST API, benefiting from real‑time updates via WebSockets.
• IoT Dashboards – Devices can pull configuration or firmware metadata from Cockpit, leveraging its lightweight API surface.
• Multi‑tenant SaaS – Each tenant gets a dedicated “space” with isolated content models, while the shared core remains unchanged.

Advantages

Developers choose Cockpit for its performance‑first architecture (lightweight PHP, optional MongoDB), flexibility (no opinionated frontend, full API control), and ownership (self‑hosted, MIT‑licensed). Compared to larger headless solutions that bundle unnecessary features, Cockpit delivers a clean API surface with minimal overhead, making it ideal for projects that demand rapid iteration and strict data sovereignty.