Aether: A CMS That Gets Out of Your Way

Summary

Aether CMS is a fast, minimal platform built for simplicity. No bloat, just clean, modular architecture for effortless content management. My journey with content management started in the WordPress ecosystem, building themes and plugins. But over time, I grew tired of the heavyweight platforms and returned to the roots of the web: HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript. That path led me through the JAMstack world, but I found most tools overcomplicated and bloated. So I built Blog-Doc, a lightweight CMS/SSG that taught me the value of simple content workflows. Then came LiteNode, my custom Node.js framework built for performance and minimalism. Aether CMS is where that journey led. It's everything I've learned about content systems, distilled into a platform that runs on just four core modules: adm-zip, argon2, litenode, and marked. No bloat. No overengineering. Just fast, clean, modular architecture. Unlike many JAMstack tools that feel like using a cannon to kill a fly, Aether strikes the perfect balance between developer empowerment and user-friendliness. Built from Experience, Not Hype Aether isn't a weekend project or an AI-generated solution. It's the result of years of real-world development, starting with WordPress, evolving through Blog-Doc, crafting LiteNode for it, and culminating in a complete rethink of what a CMS should be. Every architectural decision reflects actual use and iteration. The integrated static site generator isn't bolted on, it's fundamental to the design. The file-based storage isn't trendy, it's practical. The four-dependency approach isn't restrictive, it's liberating. This is what happens when you build tools for yourself first, then share them with the world. The Philosophy: Files Over Databases Here's a radical idea: what if your content lived in simple, readable files instead of being locked away in a database? What if you could edit a blog post in any text editor, version control your entire site with Git, and deploy anywhere without...