What it is

TinaCMS is an open-source headless content management system for Git-based content stored in a user's own GitHub repository. It lives in the TypeScript, React, and Next.js ecosystem and is categorized under Content & Publishing / Content Management Systems. It supports Markdown, MDX, JSON, YAML, and other content formats, with visual editing as a central feature.

The concrete problem it solves is giving editors a usable interface for content that remains in source control. Teams can keep Markdown and related files in GitHub while using TinaCMS for editing, previewing, and querying content. The project also offers a GraphQL API and an optional live preview to make editing intuitive for less-technical people.

Key capabilities

• Stores content in the user's own GitHub repository, keeping Markdown and other files under Git version control.
• Supports Markdown, MDX, JSON, YAML, and more as content formats.
• Provides a GraphQL API for querying content, including nested fields such as post.author.firstName.
• Supports references between documents, enabling linked content models rather than isolated files.
• Works with statically generated and server side rendered pages, according to the README.
• Offers an optional, opt-in live preview for editing Markdown files, aimed at less-technical users.
• Includes starter-site creation through npx create-tina-app@latest and a hosted demo path through TinaCloud.

Who uses it and how

• Teams building React or Next.js sites can use TinaCMS as a Git-based CMS layer for Markdown, MDX, JSON, or YAML content.
• Content editors can use the live preview workflow to edit Markdown files without directly working in the repository.
• Developers can query content through the GraphQL API while keeping the underlying files in a GitHub repository.
• New users can evaluate the project by generating a starter site locally or by opening the TinaCloud quickstart demo.
• Organizations that want source-controlled content can adopt it as an open-source, Apache-2.0 licensed option in the TypeScript ecosystem.

Getting started

Users can test a TinaCMS starter site locally with npx create-tina-app@latest, or try a demo site on TinaCloud via the quickstart link. The README also points to Tina's documentation for further setup.

When to use it — and when not to

TinaCMS fits teams that want Git-stored content, Markdown editing, and a GraphQL query layer. A self-hoster must operate around the user's own GitHub repository and decide whether to enable the optional live preview, while the provided metadata shows 444 open issues and zero listed contributors, which may signal maintenance or data reporting concerns. It is less suitable for teams that need a fully managed CMS workflow, because the hosted path mentioned is a demo or TinaCloud quickstart rather than a detailed production hosting model in the excerpt.

npx create-tina-app@latest