Typemill

Typemill is a lightweight, self‑hosted CMS engineered for hybrid publishing workflows—websites, eBooks, manuals, and knowledge bases. From a technical standpoint it functions as a Markdown‑first content engine that renders static or server‑side generated pages while offering optional dynamic features such as AI integrations and eBook export pipelines. The core of the system is a Node.js application that serves as both an API layer and a build engine, allowing developers to treat Typemill as either a headless CMS or a traditional monolithic site generator.

Key Features

• Markdown‑centric workflow: Authors write in plain Markdown; the engine parses, sanitizes, and renders to HTML or PDF/ePub using WeasyPrint/Paged.js.
• Hybrid publishing: A single content source can be deployed to a web site, an eBook, or both with minimal configuration.
• AI integration: Built‑in hooks for OpenAI/Claude APIs enable content suggestions, auto‑summaries, or code generation directly from the editor.
• Extensible plugin system: Themes, plugins, and custom shortcodes are managed via a simple JSON manifest; developers can ship reusable modules on npm or GitHub.
• Webhooks & REST API: Exposes CRUD endpoints for pages, assets, and users; supports webhooks for CI/CD pipelines or third‑party integrations.

Technical Stack

The application follows a micro‑service friendly architecture: the core CMS can be run as a standalone process, or its API can be exposed behind an NGINX reverse proxy while the static assets are served from a CDN. This separation simplifies scaling: read‑heavy workloads can be cached at the edge, while write operations remain on a single authoritative instance.

Deployment & Infrastructure

Typemill is intentionally minimalistic to keep resource footprints low. A single VPS (1‑2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM) is sufficient for a small team’s documentation site. The Docker image bundles all dependencies, making CI/CD pipelines straightforward: pull the latest image, mount a persistent volume for content, and expose ports 3000 (API) and 80/443 (frontend). For larger deployments, Kubernetes can be used to autoscale the API pods while a separate stateless front‑end pod serves static assets from an S3 bucket or Cloudflare R2.

Integration & Extensibility

The plugin architecture is designed for rapid iteration. A plugin declares its routes, middleware, and static assets in a plugin.json file; the core loads them at startup. Developers can hook into lifecycle events (onPageCreate, onPublish) to inject custom logic, such as synchronizing with a Git repository or triggering a build in an external service. Webhooks allow external systems to react to content changes, enabling use cases like automated Slack notifications or updating a search index.

Developer Experience

Typemill’s documentation is concise, with clear API references and example payloads. The community is active on GitHub, where issues and pull requests are reviewed promptly. Configuration is driven by environment variables or a config.yaml, making it easy to integrate into existing DevOps workflows. Because the core is open source under an MIT‑style license, developers can modify or fork the codebase without licensing constraints.

Use Cases

• Product Documentation: Teams can maintain a single source of truth in Markdown, publish to an internal site and export to PDF for user manuals.
• Knowledge Base: Small companies need a lightweight, self‑hosted solution; Typemill’s search and tagging features suffice for most scenarios.
• eBook Production: Authors can write in Markdown, then generate print‑ready PDFs or ePub files with custom templates.
• Hybrid Sites: A company can host a public website and an internal help portal from the same codebase, simplifying maintenance.

Advantages

• Performance: Minimal runtime and static asset generation reduce server load, making it suitable for low‑cost hosting.
• Flexibility: Markdown first, but with a robust plugin system and API surface for custom workflows.
• Licensing: Completely open source; no per‑user or feature fees, unlike commercial CMSs.
• Developer Control: Full access to source code and the ability to host anywhere, from a Raspberry Pi to a Kubernetes cluster.

Typemill offers developers a pragmatic balance between simplicity and extensibility, making it an attractive choice for teams that need a self‑hosted CMS capable of delivering both web content and professional eBooks from a single, maintainable codebase.