Code your AI can follow.
Plain PHP and browser-native code. Clear structure helps your AI understand the project and make focused changes.
Your own
AI-driven
website.
Build and maintain your own website with AI.
Your code. Your ideas. Your choice of AI.
Plain code. No build step. Entirely yours.
FIG. 01 / THE ANATOMY OF A WEBSITE
your expressionthemes/01
your possibilitiesplugins/02
your foundationcore/03
make it yours
solid underneath
SEPARATE BY DESIGN. CONNECTED BY CONTRACT.
A familiar stack.
A fresh starting point.
No Composer.
A fresh starting point.
HTMLCSSJavaScriptPHPSQLite
No npm.No Composer.
01 / THE IDEA
Less machinery.
More making.
Your website. Your AI. Your way.
webspine is a lean, open-source foundation for building and maintaining your website with your choice of AI. Clear boundaries between content, themes, components, and plugins give your AI guardrails to keep the code organized and maintainable.
Bring your own AI app with access to your project files—such as ChatGPT Desktop, Claude Code, or OpenCode. You own the code and can keep developing it independently of future webspine releases.
Built with plain PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. No frontend framework, Node.js runtime, or build step—just straightforward deployment on a PHP web server with SQLite support.
Meet the principlesYour site stays yours.
Themes, plugins, and content live outside the core. Update the foundation, keep your identity.
Small enough to make your own.
A lean, readable foundation you and your AI can maintain and extend—without relying on future webspine releases. You own the code and its direction.
02 / THE STRUCTURE
Everything in
its own place.
A stable core. An independent surface.
A clear connection between the two.
// Your design, in familiar files.
site/themes/
your-theme/
theme.json ← identity & API
layout.php ← shared structure
home.php
assets/
style.css
app.js Design without asking the core for permission.
// Small extensions. Explicit connections.
core/plugins/
sqlite/ ← storage provider
smtp/ ← mail provider
site/plugins/field-notes/
plugin.json ← dependencies
plugin.php ← routes & hooks
$app->services->get(Pages::class); Consume a contract. Choose your provider.
// Just enough to hold it all together.
core/
bootstrap.php
src/
Contracts/ ← service interfaces
Router.php
Registry.php
Theme.php
Updater.php Update the core. Preserve everything around it.
Separate folders. Shared contracts. No tangled dependencies.
Explore the architecture03 / YOUR NEXT WEBSITE
From zero
to your thing.
Download. Install. Start making.
There’s no toolchain to get in your way.
Your terminal
# In your extracted webspine folder
php core/bin/console.php install
# Start your local development server
php -S localhost:8080 -t public public/router.php Open localhost:8080. Make something good.
04 / HONESTLY, WHERE WE ARETHE BOOTSTRAP, NOT A COMPLETE CMS
A foundation,
with a future.
The essentials are here: routing, SQLite persistence, themes, plugins, SMTP, and reversible local core updates.
Content editing, authentication, more database providers, and signed online updates are still ahead. This is a starting point you can understand and build on.
See what’s here & what’s next