Dossier

Toolkit for building headless CMSs

Headless CMSOpen-sourceAPI-firstToolkitCustom CMSGraphQLJSON API

Overview

Dossier is an open source toolkit for building headless CMSs. Build your own CMS with full control.

Best for:

Custom CMS buildsDevelopersFull controlTypeScript projects

Features

GraphQL API
TypeScript
Full-text Search
Publishing

Pricing

Free TierNo
Free LimitUnlimited, open source
Self-hostedYes

Compatible Technologies

Frameworks
Databases
PostgreSQLPostgreSQL
SQLiteSQLite
Server Requirements

18.x+

Node.js

Technical Features

GraphQL API
REST API
Webhooks
Headless
Visual Editor
Live Preview
Media Library
Image Optimization
CDN Included
i18n
Version History
Drafts
Role-Based Access
Multi-Tenant
Audit Logs
TypeScript
Official SDK
CLI Tool
Plugin Ecosystem
SSO / OAuth
CI/CD Integration
Caching
Edge Deployment
Auto Scaling

Community

49

GitHub Stars

Enterprise Features

Scalability

Horizontal scaling and high-availability deployments

Security & Compliance

Dossier is an open-source toolkit for building custom headless CMS solutions, developed by Jonas Bengtsson. Rather than being a ready-made CMS, it provides the foundational libraries and APIs that allow developers to assemble their own content management system while retaining full ownership of the data, authentication, and hosting infrastructure.

Key Features of Dossier

  • Bring-your-own-auth architecture that integrates with any existing authentication and authorization solution
  • Support for PostgreSQL and SQLite databases, including in-memory SQLite for browser-based and local test environments
  • Auto-generated TypeScript types and GraphQL schema from content model definitions
  • Flexible access control supporting both editorial and user-generated content within the same database
  • Lightweight enough to run a full stack in the browser, yet scalable for production PostgreSQL deployments

Who Should Use Dossier

Dossier is aimed at TypeScript developers who want to build a tailored headless CMS deeply integrated into their own application rather than adopting a pre-built platform. It suits projects where teams need granular control over auth, storage, and content access patterns — particularly applications that combine editorial workflows with user-generated content under a single data layer.