Self-hosted content platform

Run your site by talking to it.

Runs on your machine. One folder — copy it, version it, hand it over. Every admin capability is a tool an agent can call.

Install Tovu Docs

No npm package yet · clone and run from source, then the quickstart

One capability, two doors

A person opens	An agent calls
Pages › Edit HTML	pages_write_html
Forms › Submissions	forms_list_submissions
SEO › Sitemap	seo_regenerate_sitemap
Comments › Queue	comments_approve_comment
Themes › Files	theme_read_file

01 / The premise

Most platforms bolt a chatbot onto the admin.

Tovu hands over the admin itself.

Not screen-reading. Same operations, same permissions, same history.

Can it do that? is not a roadmap question. If it is in the admin, it is in the toolset — no integration to write.

02 / The ledger

What the site can do, it can also be told to do.

Each is a screen, and a set of tools.

15 capability areas, in the box

Media: Uploads, renditions, image transforms.
Forms: Definitions and submissions.
Members: Visitor accounts, magic-link sign-in.
Newsletter: Lists, double opt-in, campaigns, send log.
Comments: Moderation queue, spam handling, per-site settings.
Redirects: Rules, hit counts, bulk import.
SEO: Per-entry overrides, site-wide settings, sitemap regeneration.
Taxonomy: Taxonomies, terms, tagging.
Widgets: Instances, region bindings, inline embeds.
Analytics: Page views and events, in your own database.
Change sets: Grouped edit history you can revert.
Deployments: Static export, Dockerfile, publish targets.
External MCP: Third-party MCP servers.
API keys: Scoped, revocable keys.
Agent plugins: Installable agent instructions and tools.

03 / What is missing

The toolset has gaps on purpose.

The destructive operations were never handed over. Each omission is in the tool catalog, with its reason.

Comments
Every moderation step is reversible. Nothing in the toolset erases a comment.
Members
members_disable is a soft disable. No hard-delete tool exists.
Forms
Disabling is the only retirement path an agent has.
Migrations & imports
database_execute_migrate_forward and redirects_import are marked never agent-callable. Human confirmation only.
Publishing
Publishing and pushing both stop at a confirmation dialog. The human presses the button.

04 / Themes

Four tiers of theme, one contract.

A theme is a folder validated against a schema. Pick the tier by how much power the author needs.

declarative

JSON block trees. No logic, nothing to sandbox.
Tier 1 — data only
templated

LiquidJS in a sandboxed worker. Template logic, no JavaScript.
Tier 2 — sandboxed logic
handlebars

The same sandbox, in Handlebars syntax.
Tier 3 — sandboxed logic
static

Plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This page is rendered through one.
Tier 4 — full control

A fifth tier, code, is reserved for signed plugin JavaScript; no themes ship on it yet. Browse the catalog.

05 / Running it

It lives on your machine, in one folder.

Database, uploads, themes and plugins, all in the same directory.

Terminal

$ tovu init my-site
$ tovu serve my-site            # site and admin on one port
$ tovu export my-site           # static export
$ tovu deploy config --target fly # or render, or railway

docker

A multi-stage Dockerfile at the repo root. The container is disposable; your content is not.

introspect

tovu introspect prints the command and tool manifest as JSON — the same one an agent reads.

06 / Start

Install it, then ask it what it can do.

Not a figure of speech. The manifest ships populated.

Install Tovu Quickstart

Documentation · Theme and plugin catalog