emdash-static

One repo, two Cloudflare Workers per website. An emdash CMS for content management and a static site builder with themes for the public-facing site.

How it works

emdash CMS (Worker 1)          Static Site (Worker 2)
┌──────────────────┐            ┌──────────────────┐
│ Admin panel      │            │ Pre-built HTML    │
│ Content editing  │            │ Themed pages      │
│ R2 export        │   R2      │ No database       │
│ Deploy button    │──bucket──→│ Fast, global CDN  │
│ Theme picker     │            │                   │
└──────────────────┘            └──────────────────┘

1. Edit content in the CMS admin
2. Export to R2 (creates a JSON snapshot of all content)
3. Click Deploy with a theme — static site rebuilds from the R2 data

What's in this repo

emdash-static/
├── setup.mjs              ← One command to create everything
├── plugins/
│   └── deploy-hook/       ← CMS plugin: Deploy button + theme picker
│       ├── index.ts
│       └── sandbox-entry.ts
└── static/                ← Static site builder
    ├── astro.config.mjs
    ├── scripts/
    │   └── fetch-snapshot.mjs
    └── src/
        ├── shared/        ← Data layer, Portable Text renderer
        └── themes/        ← professional, editorial, minimal, bold

The CMS is not in this repo — it's installed from npm (emdash). This repo has the static builder and the deploy-hook plugin that connects them.

Create a new website

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+
• A Cloudflare account
• A Cloudflare API token with these permissions:
  • Account: D1 (Edit)
  • Account: Workers R2 Storage (Edit)
  • Account: Workers Scripts (Edit)
  • Account: Workers KV Storage (Edit)
  • Account: Workers Builds Configuration (Edit)
  • Account: Account Settings (Read)
  • User: Memberships (Read)

Step 1: Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/personalwebsitesorg/emdash-static.git my-site
cd my-site

Step 2: Run setup

CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN=your_token SITE_NAME=my-blog THEME=bold node setup.mjs

Or run interactively (it will prompt for each value):

node setup.mjs

The setup script automatically:

1. Creates emdash CMS in cms/ (installs from npm)
2. Adds the R2 export integration + deploy-hook plugin
3. Creates a D1 database
4. Creates an R2 bucket + enables public access
5. Deploys the CMS worker
6. Deploys the static site worker (placeholder)
7. Connects the static worker to this GitHub repo via Workers Builds
8. Sets build environment variables (THEME, SNAPSHOT_URL, R2_PUBLIC_URL)
9. Creates a build trigger + writes the deploy hook URL to the CMS

After setup, you get two workers:

CMS:    https://my-blog-cms.your-subdomain.workers.dev
Static: https://my-blog-static.your-subdomain.workers.dev

Step 3: Add content

1. Go to the CMS admin: https://my-blog-cms.your-subdomain.workers.dev/_emdash/admin
2. Set up your admin account (first visit)
3. Create posts, pages, upload images

Step 4: Export to R2

1. Go to /_emdash/export in the CMS admin
2. Click Export to R2
3. This uploads a JSON snapshot of all your content to R2

Step 5: Deploy the static site

1. Go to Plugins → Deploy in the CMS admin
2. Pick a theme from the dropdown
3. Click Deploy
4. Workers Builds clones this repo, builds static/ with your R2 data and chosen theme, deploys

The static site will be live at your static worker URL within ~1 minute.

Day-to-day workflow

Edit content → Export to R2 → Click Deploy → Static site updates

That's it. The static site rebuilds from your R2 data every time you click Deploy.

Themes

Theme	Look
professional	Warm corporate — amber accents, 3-column cards, sidebar
editorial	Literary magazine — serif headings, cream/crimson, single column
minimal	Swiss precision — black/white, flat list, maximum whitespace
bold	Dark aurora — gradients, glow effects, dark background

Change the theme anytime from the Deploy plugin settings in the CMS admin.

Making another website

Same repo, new site. Each site gets its own D1 database, R2 bucket, and two workers. The static builder code is shared.

# From a fresh clone of this repo:
CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN=your_token SITE_NAME=another-site THEME=editorial node setup.mjs

Redeploying after code changes

If you update the themes or static builder code:

git add -A && git commit -m "update" && git push

Then click Deploy in the CMS admin — Workers Builds will pull the latest code.

Project structure after setup

my-site/
├── setup.mjs
├── plugins/deploy-hook/
├── static/                     ← Static builder (shared via GitHub)
│   ├── src/themes/
│   ├── src/shared/
│   └── scripts/
├── cms/                        ← Created by setup (gitignored)
│   ├── astro.config.mjs
│   ├── wrangler.jsonc
│   ├── node_modules/
│   └── src/plugins/deploy-hook/
└── site.config.json            ← Created by setup (gitignored)

Environment variables

Set in Workers Builds automatically by setup.mjs:

Variable	Purpose
THEME	Which theme to build (updated when you change it in CMS)
SNAPSHOT_URL	R2 public URL to the exported JSON
R2_PUBLIC_URL	R2 public URL for media (images)
CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID	For wrangler deploy
CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN	For wrangler deploy