A headless CMS that manages your content, not your workflow.

Directus is an API-driven content management framework for custom databases. It decouples content for use in apps, websites, or any other data-driven projects.

Get Started

Core Principles

Built around three key concepts... with the added bonus of alliteration.

Simple

Directus manages your content with intuitive interfaces that require no training. Pulling everything directly from your database schema, setup is as easy as entering your credentials.

Secure

Nothing is more important than keeping your data safe. That’s why Directus follows best-practices for authentication and access-control, ensuring users only have access to the data you allow.

Scalable

For startups and growing enterprises alike, investing in an ecosystem is nerve-racking when you don't know what the future holds. Fully decoupled and extensible, you’ll never outgrow your CMS again.

Why a “Headless” CMS?

Content should be created and managed independently from where it's used

Multi-Client Projects

Let's say you're planning on managing content for a website, native app, and kiosk. Instead of using a CMS that's baked into the website client, it makes more sense to decouple your content entirely and access it through an API or SDK. That's a headless CMS. That's Directus.

Workflow & Organization

CMS stands for Content Management System. When did it become synonymous with platforms that maintain project templates, application logic, development workflow, and everything else? Directus gets out of the way and let's you build projects however you'd like. It only manages... content.

Directus was built with modular user-interfaces for editing different types of content. Want to build a WYSIWYG, JSON, or Markdown editor? Have an idea for a map interface? We've got Hosted credits to give away and are looking for developers to create some new UIs. Email us to learn more!

We love Pull Requests!

Choose Your Infrastructure

Whether you're looking for quick-and-easy or DIY — Directus has you covered.

Directus Open-Source

Directus Open-Source is the free downloadable version of the framework for use in DIY implementations. If you need to install Directus on your own server or you're looking to extend Directus, then this is the version for you.

GitHub Download

Directus Hosted

Directus Hosted is a highly scalable DBaaS (Database as a Service) platform for developers looking to easily give their clients an intuitive cloud-based interface for managing app/website content.

Create Instance

Dynamic API

Easily connect managed content to all your data-driven projects.

Magically Dynamic

Because Directus is essentially a database GUI, your schema updates are immediately reflected within the API and CMS. Simply authenticate and you'll be knee-deep in JSON responses in no time!

View API endpoints

Detailed Documentation

Our comprehensive documentation is written in markdown and hosted within dedicated GitHub repositories for easy collaboration and version tracking. Feel free to send us some pull-requests!

Documentation on GitHub

Content Management

A headless CMS that lets your clients safely manage database content directly.

Table Listing

Put simply, Directus is a client-friendly interface for your database – that means you can focus on your schema and application instead of proprietary CMS setup. Once connected to a new or existing database, Directus will provide access to each of your database's tables. Learn More

Item Listing

Clicking into tables will take you to an item listing page where all its records are displayed. Choose which columns you want to see, refine results by any number of filters, and even save bookmarks of your customized views. Optional columns such as active or sort instantly enable integrated active/draft/deleted status toggles and drag-and-drop ordering. Learn More

Viewing & Editing Items

On the Edit/Create page you are presented with inputs and interfaces based on the schema (column datatype & length). Intelligent defaults will render VARCHAR(100) as a text input with an appropriate max-length, TINYINT(1) as a checkbox, and TEXT as a text area. But the real magic is in curating each interface – WYSIWYG Editor, Map Location, Relational Selectors and more... or create your own! Learn More

Additional Features

All the core features you need – no plugins required.

Install & Setup

Directus stays up-to-date by pulling what it needs directly from your database schema and column datatypes. Use our installation wizard, Docker container, CLI install, or just download/clone the repo.

Branding & Style

The framework is void of any fixed Directus branding or styling – it instead offers a minimal, desaturated GUI that fits beautifully within any organization's aesthetic. Top it off by adding your project logo and/or tweaking our SASS files.

Users & Permissions

One area that always warrants granular customization is access-control. Directus users are each assigned to a user-group with fully customizable privileges for tables, columns, and workflow status or creator.

Asset Management

Files are not typically handled by the database directly, so Directus adds the ability to upload and manage files or referenced embed videos (eg YouTube/Vimeo). Storage adapters exist for the file-system and common CDNs such as S3 or Rackspace.

Messages & Comments

Sometimes it is useful to attach a note or reminder to certain items. With Directus' commenting system you can do just that – even @mention other CMS users. Beyond commenting, an integrated messaging system allows for internal communication.

Filtering & Bookmarks

Some datasets can be vast and unwieldy – that's when advanced column-based filtering becomes a necessity. And with view bookmarking, those complex or tailored results are only a click away.

Revision History

All activity within Directus is tracked giving system-wide accountability. With revision roll-backs and the optional "soft-delete policy," you'll never irreversibly lose data again.

Schema & Datatypes

Your data's organization is paramount – that is why Directus doesn't make assumptions about how you should architect your schema. Use Directus or your preferred DBA tool to curate table and column names, datatypes, relationships, junctions, indexes, etc.

Extensibility

Of course, there are many more features than we can outline here. However, you can rest assured that with adjustable user workflows, custom input UIs, and completely open-ended extension pages at your disposal, your project will never outgrow Directus.

“At its core, Directus is a customer-friendly database GUI & API – mirroring the schema directly, it offers complete control over architecture and optimizations. It's this decoupled approach that allows for the authoring of application-agnostic content that can be used anywhere.”

— Ben Haynes, Founder of RANGER

Get Started

Or download it for free!

Technical Details & Requirements

Directus is built with: Backbone.js, Underscore, Require.js, Zend DB, Slim, Handlebars, jQuery, Moment.js, Sortable.js, Noty, and SASS. Its minimum requirements are: NGINX or Apache Server, PHP 5.5+, MySQL 5.2+, PDO_MySQL, Mod_Rewrite, CURL, FileInfo, GD Library, and mcrypt

Team & Special Thanks

Project & Design Lead: Ben Haynes
Development Lead: Welling Guzman
Contributors: Olov Sundström, Jason El-Massih, Daniel Bickett, Lasha Krikheli
Illustrations: Oleg Beresnev
Logo: Ivan Bobrov

Bug Reporting & Contributing

To report a bug within Directus, recommend a new feature, or if you're interested in contributing – don't hesitate to contact RANGER! And remember to recommend changes to the Docs on GitHub.