Building a Lean CMS Without Building a CMS

Introducing PocketCRUD

Why I Built This

Building content management systems often feels like reinventing the wheel. You set up a backend, create database schemas, build forms, write API endpoints, handle validation, manage authentication... and before you know it, you've spent days on boilerplate before adding any actual business logic. The alternative—reaching for a third-party CMS—usually comes with its own set of compromises: lack of flexibility to match your exact needs, bloated codebases full of features you'll never use, and the inevitable wrestling match when you need to do something the CMS wasn't designed for.

PocketBase is incredible for eliminating much of this complexity—it gives you a realtime database, authentication, file storage, and a full-featured admin dashboard in a single executable. But I found myself still building the same frontend CRUD interfaces over and over again. That's when it hit me: if PocketBase already has all the forms and API endpoints built in, why am I recreating them in my frontend?

That's why I created PocketCRUD—a lean approach to content management that leverages PocketBase's existing admin interface instead of duplicating it. No more building forms, no more custom API routes, no more maintaining parallel validation logic. Just point your users to PocketBase's admin panel with the right permissions, and you're done.

The Philosophy

The core idea is simple: don't build what already exists. PocketBase's admin interface is actually a full-featured CMS that most projects overlook. It handles:

• Auto-generated forms based on your schema
• Built-in validation
• File uploads
• Relationship management
• Real-time updates
• Role-based access control

PocketCRUD helps you embrace this rather than work around it, giving you a production-ready CMS with minimal code.

What's Next?

For future releases, I'm considering:

• Advanced field types (rich text, file relationships)
• Advanced filtering and search
• Custom field renderers
• Plugin system for custom field types
• Real-time updates with PocketBase realtime

Drop a comment below if there's something you'd like me to consider!

You can find PocketCRUD here.