not_pressed-core

The core engine behind NotPressed — a drop-in, fully open-source CMS for Rails 8. Auto-discovers your app's navigation, provides a block-based content editor, and supports plugins and themes — all without the WordPress tax.

Not WordPress. Not pressed for cash. Not pressed for time.

Most CMS options force you to either adopt a monolithic platform (WordPress, Strapi) or bolt on a headless CMS that doesn't understand your Rails app. not_pressed-core takes a different approach: it's a Rails engine that lives inside your existing application, works with your routes and views, and stays out of your way.

• 3 commands to a working CMS — install the gem, run the generator, migrate
• Works with your app — auto-discovers routes, partials, and navigation from your existing codebase
• Zero external JS — built entirely on Hotwire, Turbo, and Stimulus
• Batteries included — pages, blog, media library, block editor, forms, SEO, themes, plugin system
• Extensible — plugin architecture, custom content types, theme system, import/export

• Ruby >= 3.2
• Rails >= 8.0
• Active Storage (for media library)

Add not_pressed-core to your Gemfile:

gem "not_pressed-core"

Run the install generator:

bundle install
rails generate not_pressed:install
rails db:migrate

Optionally load sample content:

rails runner "load 'db/seeds/not_pressed.rb'"

Visit /not_pressed to access the admin panel.

Build pages from ordered, typed content blocks with a drag-and-drop editor:

Custom block types can be added via the plugin system.

• Hierarchical page tree with drag-to-reorder
• Draft / published / scheduled / archived workflow
• Page duplication, version history
• SEO fields, layout selection, visibility controls
• Live preview with split/toggle pane

Built-in blog with categories, tags, and RSS:

• Blog posts are pages with the blog_post content type
• Category and tag management in admin
• Public blog listing with pagination
• Category and tag filtering
• Year/month archives
• RSS 2.0 feed at /blog/feed.rss

Centralized media management backed by Active Storage:

• Upload, browse, search, and filter
• Automatic metadata extraction (dimensions, file size, content type)
• Alt text and title fields for accessibility and SEO
• Image variants and thumbnail generation
• Media picker modal for the block editor

Drag-and-drop form builder with submissions:

• Field types: text, email, textarea, select, checkbox, radio, number, date, phone, url
• Submission management with CSV export
• Email notifications on submission
• Embeddable via the form block type

• Per-page meta title, description, Open Graph, Twitter Cards
• Canonical URLs and robots meta directives
• Auto-generated XML sitemap at /sitemap.xml
• Configurable robots.txt
• Per-page and global JS/CSS code injection

not_pressed-core builds navigation automatically using three layers:

1. Config DSL — explicitly defined menus
2. Route introspection — scans your Rails routes for navigable pages
3. Partial parsing — detects existing nav/menu/header partials in your views

The install generator creates config/initializers/not_pressed.rb:

NotPressed.configure do |config|
  # Site name displayed in the admin header
  config.site_name = "My Site"

  # Admin panel mount path (default: "not_pressed")
  config.admin_path = "admin"

  # Records per page in admin listings
  config.per_page = 25

  # Authentication — Devise method, custom Proc, or nil (no auth)
  config.admin_authentication = :authenticate_admin_user!
  config.admin_current_user = :current_admin_user
  config.admin_unauthorized_redirect = "/login"

  # Available layouts for pages
  config.available_layouts = %w[default sidebar full_width]

  # Default theme
  config.default_theme = "Starter"

  # Auto-discover navigation from routes and view partials
  config.auto_discover_navigation = true
  config.cache_navigation = true

  # SEO title separator
  config.seo_title_separator = " | "

  # Global code injection (head/body)
  config.global_head_code = ""
  config.global_body_code = ""

  # Navigation DSL
  config.menus do |menu|
    menu.add "Home", "/"
    menu.add "Blog", "/blog"
    menu.add "About", "/about"
  end
end

not_pressed-core doesn't ship its own auth — it plugs into yours:

# Devise
config.admin_authentication = :authenticate_admin_user!

# Custom logic
config.admin_authentication = ->(controller) {
  controller.redirect_to "/login" unless controller.session[:admin]
}

# No auth (development only!)
config.admin_authentication = nil

Define custom content types with the builder DSL:

NotPressed.define_content_type(:event) do
  label "Event"
  icon "calendar"
  description "An event with date and location"
  allowed_blocks :text, :heading, :image
  has_slug true
  has_parent false

  field :event_date, :datetime, label: "Event Date", required: true
  field :venue, :string, label: "Venue"
  field :ticket_url, :url, label: "Ticket URL"
end

WordPress-style plugin system with hooks, filters, custom blocks, and admin extensions:

class MyPlugin < NotPressed::Plugin
  name "my_plugin"
  version "1.0.0"
  description "Does something useful"

  on(:after_page_save) { |page| Rails.logger.info "Saved: #{page.title}" }

  block_type :callout

  settings do
    field :api_key, :string, label: "API Key"
  end

  admin_menu label: "My Plugin", icon: "puzzle-piece"

  routes do
    get "my-plugin", to: "my_plugin#index"
  end
end

Plugins can be exported as .zip archives and imported on other installations via the admin panel.

See Plugin Development Guide for full documentation.

Swappable themes with layouts, color schemes, and template overrides:

class MyTheme < NotPressed::Theme
  name "my_theme"
  version "1.0.0"

  layout :default, label: "Default", primary: true
  layout :sidebar, label: "With Sidebar"

  stylesheet "not_pressed/themes/my_theme"

  color_scheme do
    color :primary, "#3366cc", label: "Primary"
    color :background, "#ffffff", label: "Background"
    color :text, "#333333", label: "Text"
  end
end

Themes support color customization from the admin panel, template overrides via view path prepending, and can be exported/imported as .zip archives.

See Theme Development Guide for full documentation.

After checking out the repo:

bundle install
cd spec/dummy && rails db:create db:migrate && cd ../..
bundle exec rspec

The test suite uses a Rails 8 dummy app in spec/dummy/.

• Plugin Development Guide
• Theme Development Guide
• Hooks & Filters Reference
• CSS Variables Reference
• API Reference

not_pressed-core is released under the NPL-1.0 License.