lazysite is a Markdown-driven website engine and lightweight CMS. Drop a .md file into a folder and it is served as a fully rendered page - no build step, no database, no application server, just a CGI script and a tree of text. The first request renders and caches the page; every request after that is a plain static file.

Around that core sits a full publishing stack: layouts and themes, content includes and remote sources, forms, authentication, payments, a browser-based manager, a control API, and first-class support for AI agents that publish through exactly the same rules a person does.

The guiding idea is one enforced core, many thin doors: every way in - the browser, WebDAV, the API, an AI connector - runs through the same checks, so a lock, a permission, or an audit entry holds identically whoever knocks.

Why is it lazy?

Is it hard to install?

Not at all - you don't even have to install it. Download or clone the repo, install a handful of modules from your distribution, and start the built-in server. It serves the sample content, or yours, straight away.

Really - how do I install it?

For a permanent setup, run the install script. It configures lazysite with Apache, or the web server of your choice - it is just a CGI script.

What about content?

It ships with basic content you can simply edit. It is Markdown - plain text. Add your own.

And layouts and themes?

The lazysite-layouts repo has ready-made layouts and themes you can install. The quickest way to try one is to run the local server and copy a layout or theme into the starter site.

Can I build a static site and host it elsewhere?

Yes - it runs in generation mode. lazysite is both dynamic and static: you create content and it builds the pages on the fly, or exports them as a fully static site.

Most static builders do only that - what about more advanced sites?

A full templating system is built in: dynamic and remote content, news feeds, sitemaps, reading remote JSON data, looping over content, conditional display, and more.

So - no commitment while you find your feet, minimal infrastructure to test themes, and just text. What could be easier?

Why it exists

lazysite grew out of a wish for something between hand-written HTML and a heavyweight CMS - fast, file-based, and yours. Read the motivation for the full story and the design decisions behind it.

Who makes it

lazysite is built by Open Digital and developed in the open. The source lives on GitHub at OpenDigitalCC/lazysite, under the MIT licence - free to use, modify and distribute. It is built and maintained to a documented eight-dimension engineering standard - see how lazysite is engineered.

Explore

See what lazysite does, who it is for, how it compares, or how it is engineered.