Docs

Inka is an open-source, design-system-first page builder for any CMS. It ships as a blank slate: your components are your blocks, and you decide what editors can build. Inka is ready for production and in use on NSW Government sites; see the case studies.

The docs are a set of guides by audience — build a frontend, deploy it, edit content, test it, connect a content store, and set the rules editors work within.

The guides

How Inka Works

Inka is the page-building and governance layer between your CMS and your front ends. Content stays in the CMS, rules come from your design system, and front ends in any framework render the result. Editing is private; publishing is public.

Deploy and secure Inka

What to run, where to put it on your network, how editors' logins reach the front end, and the settings that keep editing private.

Frontend developer guide

Build a frontend that Inka can edit — add one small script and a few HTML attributes, then wire up blocks, live preview, and templates. Start with the Quick Start for your framework.

Editor Guide

This guide is for content editors using an Inka-powered site. It covers how to use the editor — how to select things, edit text, add and move blocks, work with containers and templates — without assuming you know how the site was built.

Rules and checks

The rules your front end sets are applied while people edit, from blocked saves to advice beside a field. Inka Assure, in development, will keep the record of what was checked and signed off.

CMS adapter guide

Connect Inka to a content store through one adapter contract — the same experience for editors whatever sits behind it.

Why Inka?

  • Compliance and engagement, not a trade-off — you decide where the dial sits for each site, instead of choosing between locking editors down and letting the design system drift
  • Design-system-first — components declare what they tolerate, so off-system output can't be produced
  • Multi frontend, multi backend — Next.js, Nuxt.js, Astro, plus server-only stacks (PHP, Django, Rails, Laravel) via the server-render pattern; switch channels mid-edit
  • AI under the same rules — an MCP connection for AI agents is coming soon; agents will work within the same rules as editors
  • Evidence, not just warnings — rules run while people edit; Inka Assure, in development and planned for late 2026, will record what was checked and signed off on each published version (see Rules and checks)
  • Quick to adopt — enable visual editing with simple HTML data attributes, no React or Vue required in your frontend
  • A toolkit, not a CMS — good out of the box with zero configuration, extensible when you need more; open source (MIT) and self-hostable

Try the online demo

The fastest way to feel what Inka does is to edit a real page against a real frontend in the hosted demo.

Press Try editing now on inka.sh, or open admin.inka.sh/login?demo: you are signed in as a demo account, with nothing to register for, and nothing it changes is kept. Then:

  • Open user preferences (bottom-left).
  • Pick one of the preset frontends, or paste in your own frontend URL.
  • Edit any page — every change updates the live preview.

See Build a frontend › Deployment patterns, or to run Inka locally see Run locally for development in the project README.