AstroBaaS is open source: one backend for whatever you build

On 23 September 2026 we released AstroBaaS as open source, under the GPL-3.0. It is the backend we have been building our clients’ websites and shops on for months: content, catalogue and checkout in a single Node process that runs on your own server.

Why we built it

Almost every website we build needs the same things behind it: somewhere to keep pages, posts and images, an admin the client can actually work with, and an API the site reads from. Rebuilding that for every project is slow. Renting it from a hosted service means the content lives on someone else’s servers, on someone else’s terms.

AstroBaaS is our answer: build it once, properly, and own it.

One backend, any front end

AstroBaaS answers JSON over HTTP and holds no opinion about what the site looks like. Next.js, Astro, Nuxt, SvelteKit, a template you bought, or a site someone vibe-coded over a weekend: they all read the same data the same way.

For our clients that means the design can change without the content having to move.

What is already in it

• Content: posts, pages, categories, revisions, scheduled publishing, custom types and taxonomies.
• Commerce (optional): products with variants, stock, orders, customers, shipping zones, coupons, tax classes and hosted checkout. Off by default; money is kept in integer cents and computed in one place.
• Media: every upload gets WebP sizes at 400, 800 and 1600 pixels, so the site can serve the right image size.
• Languages: German, English and Greek in the admin and the shop. Greek search matches Latin spelling too, in both directions.
• API and tooling: REST with keys whose rights you set, CORS and signed webhooks, its own /openapi.json and /llms.txt, a typed SDK and a CLI.
• Storage: a JSON file, SQLite or libSQL/Turso, switched with one environment variable.
• Operations: strict security defaults, a health check a deploy script can assert, a Dockerfile and ready-made systemd, nginx and Caddy configs.

Built for AI agents

AstroBaaS ships its own MCP server (astrobaas-mcp). AI agents can read and write content through the Model Context Protocol, with a key that allows only what you allow.

So the same assistant that helps build a site can put the first drafts straight into its CMS. There they wait next to everything written by hand, until you approve them.

Where it already runs

AstroBaaS is not a demo. It runs in production:

• for two opticians in Greece, Optiki Gonia and GR-Optics;
• for the Themis photo studio;
• for Theodoros’ own publication.

The optical module, with prescriptions validated at checkout, was built for one of those shops. It now runs for both without either of them forking the core. More sites are being built on it right now.

Open source, and how it stays free

The core is GPL-3.0 and free: clone it, run it, change it, build on it.

Specialised trade modules, opticians first, are commercial plugins. They fund the core, and no licence check ever gates it.

What it doesn’t do yet

We’d rather you hear the limits from us:

• It is an early, pre-alpha release. Things will change.
• There is no external security audit yet. The defaults are strict, but nobody outside the project has audited them.
• The payment providers haven’t been verified against their live sandboxes yet.
• Plugins are compiled in at build time, not installed from a dashboard. That’s by design, but worth knowing.

What it means for your project

When we build your website or shop, AstroBaaS is one of the options behind it:

• Your content stays on your server.
• The admin speaks your language.
• The design can be renewed later without migrating anything.

Whether it fits your project is something we’re happy to work out in a short call.

Visit AstroBaaS · Source code on GitHub