michelbarnich.com

Introducing OxidizeCMS

Date: 4.6.2025

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been building an open-source project called OxidizeCMS—a content management system written in Rust.

It’s designed to be simple, fast, and developer-friendly. OxidizeCMS renders Markdown files into static HTML and supports dynamic functionality through Lua scripts. It’s a lightweight alternative for anyone who wants to build websites without pulling in a large stack of dependencies.

Some key features:

Markdown-based content – Write content in plain Markdown; the system handles rendering.
Lua scripting support – Add dynamic behavior where needed using Lua.
Built-in observability – Uses the OpenTelemetry SDK for easy integration with tracing and metrics tools.
YAML configuration – Everything is configured in a single, minimal YAML file.
Git-native workflow – The entire site is versioned using Git, including content and logic.

This website is actually running on OxidizeCMS, as is another project I’ve been working on (which I haven’t announced yet). So far, it’s been solid in production and easy to iterate on.

If you’re curious, the code is open and available here

It’s still evolving, but it’s usable today. Feedback or contributions are welcome.