Raven CMS Introduction

Raven is a self-hosted CMS focused on readable code, update-safe customization, and local ownership of your data. It supports traditional manual development and AI-assisted workflows, but runtime behavior does not depend on AI tooling.

Philosophy

• Keep core runtime behavior in private/sys/.
• Keep reusable shared logic in private/lib/.
• Keep user customization in themes and extensions:
• public themes in public/theme/{slug}/
• extensions in private/ext/{slug}/
• Keep runtime data local to the install (private/dat/ and .tmp/).

Runtime Snapshot

• Public entrypoint: public/index.php
• Panel entrypoint: panel/index.php
• Installer entrypoint: public/install.php
• Core bootstrap: private/Raven.php
• Target PHP: 8.5
• Composer dependencies install to composer/

Quick Start

1. Install requirements:

• PHP 8.5
• web server (for example Nginx)
• SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL

1. Install dependencies from project root:

• composer install

1. Run installer:

• open /install.php in your browser

1. Complete install form:

• set site/panel config
• configure database
• create initial admin user

1. Post-install hardening:

• remove public/install.php
• verify panel login and public homepage

Customization Surfaces

• Themes: use Theming Guide and public/theme/AGENTS.md.
• Extensions: use Extensions Guide and private/ext/AGENTS.md.
• CLI: use the CLI Appendix, including its generated command references.

Developer References

• System map: Filetree
• Developer API index: Appendix API
• Generated reference appendices: docs/appendix/
• Release history: release-notes.md

Project Status

Raven is an active prototype. Some narrative docs still require full manual verification against the live codebase. When uncertain, treat AGENTS.md files and generated appendices as higher-confidence references.