Introduction

FastCMS is an open-source Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) built with FastAPI, SQLAlchemy async, and Python. It provides everything you need to build data-driven applications — without managing infrastructure.

What is FastCMS?

FastCMS gives your frontend (or mobile app) a complete backend in minutes:

• Dynamic Collections — define schemas on the fly, auto-creates database tables
• Authentication — JWT, OAuth (29 providers), 2FA/TOTP, API Keys
• Access Control — row-level permission rules per collection
• Real-time — WebSocket subscriptions and SSE
• File Storage — local, S3, or Azure Blob with thumbnail generation
• Admin Dashboard — manage everything from a web UI
• Plugin System — extend with custom plugins

Who is it for?

FastCMS is ideal for:

• SaaS applications — multi-tenant apps with auth collections per user type
• Content platforms — blogs, e-commerce, media with dynamic schemas
• Internal tools — admin panels with access-controlled data
• Rapid prototyping — get a full REST API with auth in under 10 minutes

Tech Stack

Quick Start

FastCMS uses uv as its recommended Python toolchain. Install it first (one-time, ~5 seconds):

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh   # macOS / Linux
# Windows: powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

Option 1: Install from PyPI (Recommended)

# Install FastCMS as a global CLI (auto-isolated, no venv to manage)
uv tool install pyfastcms

# Create a new project
fastcms init my-project
cd my-project

# Set up the database
fastcms migrate up

# Create an admin user
fastcms create-admin

# Start the dev server
fastcms dev

Option 2: Project-local with uv add

uv init my-app
cd my-app
uv add pyfastcms
uv run fastcms dev

Option 3: Docker (production stack)

git clone https://github.com/aalhommada/fastCMS.git
cd fastCMS
cp .env.example .env       # set SECRET_KEY (openssl rand -hex 32)
docker compose up -d

See the Docker deployment guide for the full production walkthrough.

Option 4: From Source (Contributors)

git clone https://github.com/aalhommada/fastCMS.git
cd fastCMS

# uv sync creates .venv and installs everything (dev tools included)
uv sync --all-extras
source .venv/bin/activate

# Set up and start
fastcms migrate up
fastcms create-admin
fastcms dev

Then open http://localhost:8000/admin to access the admin dashboard.

Next Steps

• Getting Started — full installation guide with environment setup
• Collections — learn how to define your data schema
• Authentication — set up users and login flows
• API Reference — complete REST API documentation