gleamcms

A fact-oriented, sovereign content management system built on the AaronDB temporal datalog engine for the Erlang/BEAM virtual machine.

gleamcms is an independent, sovereign project. It depends on aarondb purely as an embedded Datalog engine and owns its complete web, projection, and media layers (wisp / mist / lustre / simplifile).

The Core Philosophy: Content as Immutable Values

Traditional content management systems (WordPress, Strapi, Ghost, Payload) are place-oriented: they model content as mutable database rows or documents. Updating an article overwrites the values at that disk location (UPDATE posts SET ...), destroying historical provenance unless secondary audit tables are bolted on.

gleamcms adopts Rich Hickey’s Epochal Time Model and the Value of Values:

• Posts are Datalog Facts: Each post attribute (cms.post/title, cms.post/slug, cms.post/content, cms.post/status, cms.post/published_at, cms.post/featured_image, cms.post/section_type) is an immutable Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) datom asserted atomically via aarondb.transact/2.
• Sections are Just Posts: A web page is a theme configuration plus a collection of section-posts (hero, features, stats, cta, content). The theme renderer dispatches on section_type, cleanly uncomplecting content from presentation.
• Projections are Pure Functions: Generated static sites, RSS feeds, and SSR views are deterministic pure projections: f(Facts, ThemeConfig) -> HTML.
• Zero-Dependency Sovereignty: Runs directly on the BEAM with embedded Mnesia storage. No external PostgreSQL, Redis, or Node.js runtime required.

Layout

src/
  gleamcms.gleam              # Application bootstrapper and listener
  gleamcms/
    config.gleam              # Typed, fail-closed runtime configuration
    theme.gleam               # Renderer interface definition
    ai/
      designer.gleam          # Bounded AI theme designer (30s timeout, CSS whitelisting)
    builder/
      generator.gleam         # Atomic static site generator (isolated staging + swap)
      importer.gleam          # Legacy JSON data migration tooling
      media.gleam             # CAS media abstraction interface
      storage.gleam           # Pluggable storage adapter (LocalStorage & S3Storage)
      theme.gleam             # Theme resolution and provider
    content/
      ast.gleam               # Typed AST representations (Inline, Block, Document)
      markdown.gleam          # Pure functional Markdown parser & safe HTML renderer
    db/
      post.gleam              # Post model, validation, and Datalog persistence
      schema.gleam            # AaronDB attribute schema declarations
    editor/
      app.gleam               # Lustre SSR admin editor shell
    events/
      webhook.gleam           # Signed HMAC-SHA256 webhook event dispatcher
    runtime/
      ffi.gleam               # Quarantined Erlang host FFI bindings
    server/
      api.gleam               # JSON decoders, CRUD, sync, generation & design endpoints
      auth.gleam              # Stateless HMAC sessions, cookies & POST-only login guard
      router.gleam            # High-level HTTP request dispatcher (<70 LOC)
      static.gleam            # Static asset & generated output serving + security headers
    themes/
      catalog_a.gleam         # Curated theme definitions 1 to 25
      catalog_b.gleam         # Curated theme definitions 26 to 51
      configurable.gleam      # Config-driven dynamic HTML/CSS renderer
      default.gleam           # Built-in sovereign dark/light theme
      library.gleam           # Unified theme catalog aggregator
  gleamcms_httpc_ffi.erl     # Erlang FFI (bounded port execution, crypto HMAC, inets)

Gap Analysis: GleamCMS vs. External CMS Alternatives

Configure (Fail-Closed)

gleamcms refuses to start unless all required secrets are non-blank. Configuration is loaded once during boot and threaded explicitly:

Quick Start

# 1. Set environment secrets
export GLEAMCMS_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
export GLEAMCMS_ADMIN_TOKEN=$(openssl rand -hex 16)
export GLEAMCMS_PORT=4000

# 2. Run test suite
gleam test

# 3. Start sovereign server
gleam run

Access the admin editor at http://localhost:4000/admin and log in with your configured GLEAMCMS_ADMIN_TOKEN.

Invariants & Certification

• Strict File Sizing: Every source and test file is strictly < 500 LOC.
• Zero NPM / Node Dependency: Built 100% in type-safe Gleam and Erlang/OTP.
• Red/Green TDD: Full test coverage across AST parsing, atomic SSG generation, webhook dispatch, and storage adapters (45/45 passed).
• Architectural Decision Records: Complete decision log maintained in docs/ADR_LOG.md.