Atlas CMS

Atlas is a toolkit for developers and a gift to end users. Built as a desktop application on top of Strapi, it provides deep admin panel customization alongside substantial UX improvements that work immediately.

Strapi's Problem

Every developer who's deployed Strapi knows the pattern: you build a powerful backend, then spend weeks walking clients through the admin panel's complexity.

When users open Strapi for the first time, they're met with a sea of nested boxes, fields, and menus. Explaining to your client that this is good, actually ("the content editor is a visual abstraction on top of a relational database ☝️🤓") is never a winning strategy. Strapi's UI is robust but terribly unintuitive, and surprisingly provides very limited customization options.

Why not build your own admin panel?

Strapi shines because everything is done by default. I can create a content type and have a database table, admin panel page, REST API, etc. done in 30 seconds. Under tight deadlines, this is invaluable.

But once you've built your MVP and want to go deeper, Strapi provides no options. This forces an impossible choice: MVP tomorrow and MVP in a year, or MVP in a month and full product in a year? Most client features should be minor adjustments to defaults, not full ejection from Strapi's ecosystem.

"Done by Default" Philosophy

Atlas maintains useful default implementations for all Strapi features (with improvements), then opens them up for extension and replacement. You get all the benefits of Strapi without being locked into its minimal UX.

Technical Innovations

Admin Panel Overhaul

Based on two years of client feedback on Strapi v4 pain points:

• Modular UI components - extend, replace, or customize per client
• Visual improvements and reduced layout shift
• Simplified role management that non-technical users understand
• Reduced cognitive load by selectively exposing features based on user roles

Performance Architecture

• Aggressive caching across API responses, media assets, and admin routes
• Link prefetching for near-instant navigation
• Optimized API calls with debounced batching and refactored query logic
• Media optimization pipeline with automatic WebP/AVIF conversion and blur hash placeholders
• React refactors to eliminate state abuse and performance bottlenecks

Multi-Tenant Foundation

• Tenant-scoped admin interface with isolated content and user access
• Extensible authentication (OAuth2, email/password)
• Role-based permissions with tenant boundaries

Developer Experience

Atlas maintains Strapi's extensibility while solving its usability problems:

• Use your own components or extend ours
• Full compatibility with existing Strapi plugins
• No proprietary lock-in—it's still Strapi underneath
• Incrementally excising Strapi Design System (it's so bad)

Feature Highlights

• AI integration with site-specific LLMs trained on client content
• Native email tools for newsletters and campaigns
• Advanced rich text editor with media embeds and cross-platform formatting
• SEO and analytics dashboards with exportable data visualization
• Content lifecycle management - drafts, scheduling, editorial calendars

Why This Matters

Atlas turns Strapi deployments from high-maintenance client relationships into set-and-forget solutions. You get developer control with an interface clients can use independently from day one.

The result: faster delivery, happier clients, scalable deployments without ongoing intervention.