- PHP 83.6%
- CSS 12.1%
- Go Template 4.3%
| Filename | Latest commit message | Latest commit date |
|---|---|---|
| configs | ||
| content | ||
| images | ||
| includes | ||
| languages | ||
| modules | ||
| templates | ||
| .htaccess | ||
| index.php | ||
| LICENSE | ||
| manifest.php | ||
| README.md | ||
| robots.txt | ||
PnyxCMS
A small, fast, modular PHP CMS. Server-rendered, no client-side JavaScript, comfortable on the cheapest shared hosting or VPS.
- Website and documentation: https://pnyxcms.eu/
- Source: https://git.chunkybastard.com/flavius/pnyxcms (mirror: https://codeberg.org/flavius/pnyxcms)
- Licence: EUPL 1.2 (see Licensing)
Why PnyxCMS
- Fast. Flat-file pages render in 1.5–5.2 ms with 2 MB peak RAM; a 70 KiB Markdown article from the database averages 28 ms (Celeron N5105).
- Modular. Everything beyond a small core is a component you enable in one manifest file.
- Lean. No framework, no Composer dependencies, no build step.
- Trusts its operator. No auto-escaping or other fool-proofing in the core; components that take user input handle its security.
- Privacy-friendly. No client-side JavaScript; honours Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control.
Installation
Requires PHP 8.1+ and Apache 2.4 with mod_rewrite and AllowOverride
(other servers work if you translate the .htaccess rules).
- Copy the repository into your web root.
- Create
logs/one level above it, writable by the web server. Paths for configs, logs and content are set inmanifest.php. - Set at least
url(with a trailing slash),domain,titleandserver-timezoneinconfigs/config.php. - Enable components in
manifest.phpand add content tocontent/.
See https://pnyxcms.eu/self-hosting.html for details.
Architecture
Inspired by Linux and Gentoo: manifest.php is make.conf,
includes/boot/core.php is the kernel, and includes/boot/init.php is
OpenRC, bringing components up in three runlevels: S (start), T (template)
and E (end).
| Type | Location | Loaded when |
|---|---|---|
| Library | includes/libraries/<name>/ |
every request, at the start of S |
| Payload | includes/payloads/<name>/ |
at the runlevels it is enabled for (-s, -t, -e) |
| Signal | includes/signals/<name>/ |
on ?signal=<name> |
| Module | modules/<name>/ |
on ?action=<name>, or as the main module |
| Snippet | includes/snippets/ |
on demand, via $main -> load_snippet() |
$enabled_libraries = array("dependency-resolver", "date", "text-processor");
$enabled_payloads = array("do-not-track -s", "page-tags -st");
$enabled_signals = array("error-codes");
$enabled_modules = array("main", "simple-pages", "posts");
Each component has its own config in configs/<type>-<name>.php and its own
language file in languages/<language>/. Full documentation:
https://pnyxcms.eu/posts/.
In production
firebo.lt, a tabletop RPG matchmaking site in five languages, runs on PnyxCMS: about 300 PHP files across 11 modules, 9 libraries, 10 payloads and 7 signals. Its components will be gradually migrated into mainline PnyxCMS and released as open source.
Contributing
The main repository is https://git.chunkybastard.com/flavius/pnyxcms. Pull requests are welcome on the Codeberg mirror.
House style: $object -> method() with spaces around ->; lowercase true,
false, null and new; tabs; the standard header in every PHP file.
Components are versioned individually; the CMS is a rolling release, with
BUILD in index.php as the build number.
Licensing
PnyxCMS is licensed under the European Union Public Licence 1.2,
except modules/main/, which is under the MIT Licence.
This is deliberate: module/main is a reference for building your own
modules, under any licence, proprietary included.
Written by Konstantinas F. Pacevičius. Started in 2010, refactored in 2024, public in 2026.