The best CMS for static hosting is EmDash

Why EmDash

• Built on Astro

  EmDash is made for Astro, the framework that turns your pages into lean HTML. That is exactly what a static host serves best.

• A real editor

  Posts, pages, media, menus, drafts, revisions and scheduling — the editing screen WordPress users already know, without the PHP server.

• Ready for AI agents

  EmDash ships with an MCP server, so Claude, Cursor and other agents can draft, edit and search your content for you.

• Free and open source

  No licence fee and no lock-in. Start with one command, and bring your old posts along with the built-in WordPress importer.

Publish an EmDash site on Harvis

You need Node.js 22.16 or later. No Harvis account is needed to publish — you get a live link and a private claim link.

1. 01

   Create your site

   Start the EmDash setup and choose Node.js as the place you'll run it and the Starter template. Then start the local server.

   npm create emdash@latest
   cd my-emdash-site
   npm run dev

2. 02

   Write your content

   Open the editor in your browser, finish the setup wizard, and write or edit your posts and pages. Remember to press Publish changes — drafts stay private.

   http://localhost:4321/_emdash/admin

3. 03

   Turn on prerendering

   Add export const prerender = true to every public page so Astro saves it as HTML during the build. Pages with a [slug] in their name also need getStaticPaths, which lists every post to save.

   ---
   // src/pages/posts/[slug].astro
   import { getEmDashCollection, getEmDashEntry } from "emdash"
   
   export const prerender = true
   
   export async function getStaticPaths() {
     const { entries } = await getEmDashCollection("posts")
     return entries.map((post) => ({ params: { slug: post.id } }))
   }
   
   const { entry: post } = await getEmDashEntry("posts", Astro.params.slug)
   ---

4. 04

   Build and publish

   Build the site, then upload the dist/client folder. That folder holds your finished HTML, CSS and images. Harvis prints your live link and a claim link.

   npm run build
   npx hosting deploy dist/client