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Vault CMS

How it works

Vault CMS is a headless setup built on Obsidian for writing and Git for publishing. Your content is plain Markdown inside your Astro project. There is no database and no hosted Vault CMS backend—only files.

The core idea

Section titled “The core idea”

Your Obsidian vault is your Astro content folder. Installing Vault CMS drops a preconfigured .obsidian workspace into src/content (or your project root). Opening that folder in Obsidian gives you an editor wired to your site’s content collections.

your-astro-site/
├── src/
│   └── content/          ← Open this folder as your Obsidian vault
│       ├── .obsidian/    ← Vault config, plugins, and hotkeys
│       ├── _bases/       ← Home.base CMS dashboard view
│       ├── _GUIDE.md     ← Quick-start reference
│       ├── posts/
│       ├── pages/
│       └── ...
├── astro.config.mjs
└── package.json

Key pieces

Section titled “Key pieces”
  • The vault — The folder you open in Obsidian. It lives inside your Astro project so new files are part of your content collections immediately.
  • .obsidian — Pre-built plugin settings, hotkeys, and editor preferences tuned for Astro.
  • Home.base — A Bases CMS dashboard: grid of content, filters, and slug previews. Open via Home in the tab bar or Ctrl/Cmd + M. See Home Base.
  • Bundled plugins — The main workflow is carried by Vault CMS (wizard), Astro Composer (frontmatter and links), and Git (obsidian-git) for publishing.

The publishing workflow

Section titled “The publishing workflow”
  1. Write in Obsidian — Ctrl/Cmd + N creates a note; Astro Composer can insert frontmatter. Edit in Markdown.
  2. Review in Home.base — Check the Path column for the live URL. Use draft: true to keep work off the site until you are ready.
  3. Push with Git — Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + S (or the status bar up-arrow) commits and pushes.
  4. Site rebuilds — Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, etc. detect the push and run your Astro build.

Details: Publishing.

Vault CMS is theme-agnostic

Section titled “Vault CMS is theme-agnostic”

Vault CMS does not control your Astro theme or templates—it only helps you manage Markdown in content collections. Your theme defines what readers see.

For a theme built around Vault CMS, see Astro Modular. For theme fit, see Theme comparison.