road-map
Version 0

Buildog (version 0) Roadmap

This roadmap is grouped by themes rather than strict dates so the order can shift as priorities evolve. Contributions toward any item are welcome — open an issue or PR on the relevant tracker.

Vision

  • One product, many sites. Every account provisions a tenant with its own posts, members, theme, and (optionally) custom domain.
  • Theme-driven rendering. Public sites are rendered server-side from Handlebars themes (.hbs) over a stable theme API, so creators and designers can ship custom looks without touching the app code.
  • Content first. A focused editor, drafts, scheduling, newsletters, and member subscriptions — the building blocks of a modern publication.
  • Open and self-hostable. The full stack (apps/buildog admin, apps/api, renderer, themes) runs locally with one command.

Now

Foundational work for the pivot. These items unblock everything else. (Handlesbars just an option, if we want we can use other theme engine as well.)

  • Theme engine (apps/renderer + packages/themes): introduce a new rendering service that compiles and serves Handlebars themes. Define the theme contract (package.json fields, expected templates: default.hbs, index.hbs, post.hbs, tag.hbs, author.hbs, partials/, assets/).
  • Default theme (packages/themes/casper-lite): ship a clean, responsive starter theme so new sites look good out of the box.
  • Multi-tenant data model (apps/api): introduce sites, posts, tags, authors, members, settings tables scoped per tenant; migrate existing single-tenant data.
  • Retire per-site Next.js generation: remove the project-per-blog scaffolding and replace publish flows with writes to the tenant DB + cache invalidation on the renderer.
  • Content API v1 (apps/api): read endpoints (/posts, /posts/:slug, /tags, /authors, /settings) consumed by the renderer and the optional packages/web-sdk.
  • Admin shell (apps/buildog): site switcher, post list, editor, and basic settings wired to the new API.

Next

Planned for the cycle after the foundation lands.

  • Custom domains & subdomains: every tenant gets <slug>.buildog.app by default; allow attaching a custom domain with automatic TLS (Let's Encrypt / Caddy or similar).
  • Drafts, revisions, and scheduling: persistent draft history, diffing, and a background worker that publishes scheduled posts.
  • Media library: per-tenant asset storage (S3-compatible) with upload, search, and reuse from the editor.
  • Theme uploads & validation: zip upload from the admin, schema validation (à la gscan), live preview before activation.
  • Members (free tier): signup, login (magic link), member-only posts, and a basic {{#if @member}} helper in themes.
  • Newsletters (basic): send a published post to members via an email provider integration (Resend / Postmark / SES).

Later

Larger efforts that depend on the foundation above.

  • Paid memberships & subscriptions: Stripe integration, monthly/yearly tiers, gated content, member portal.
  • Theme marketplace: discoverable gallery of community themes, install with one click.
  • Analytics: per-post views, referrers, read time, and member conversion funnels.
  • Multi-author collaboration: invitations, roles (owner, editor, author, contributor), per-post permissions.
  • Comments & reactions: opt-in reader engagement on published posts.
  • Webhooks & integrations: outbound events for publish/update/delete; first-party connectors for Slack, Zapier, social platforms.
  • Self-hosting guide: first-class Docker Compose setup covering apps/buildog, apps/api, apps/renderer, database, object storage, and reverse proxy.

Ongoing

Continuous work that is not tied to a single milestone.

  • Editor (packages/editor): stabilize block-based editing, keyboard shortcuts, image uploads, and embeds.
  • UI library (packages/ui): expand the shadcn/ui-based component set used across the dashboard.
  • Performance: keep dashboard interactions snappy and renderer TTFB low (cache compiled templates and content per tenant).
  • Accessibility: meet WCAG 2.1 AA for the dashboard and the default theme's published output.
  • Test coverage: unit and integration tests across the monorepo, including a theme-contract test suite.
  • Developer experience: faster Turborepo builds, clearer error messages, smoother local setup.
  • Docs (apps/docs): theme authoring guide, Content API reference, self-hosting, and migration notes from the pre-pivot architecture.

Out of scope (for now)

To keep the project focused, the following are explicitly not planned:

  • Native mobile apps (the admin targets the web; published sites are responsive HTML).
  • Generic page builders or e-commerce — Buildog is opinionated toward blogs and newsletters.
  • A managed hosted offering separate from the open-source project (may revisit once self-hosting and themes are mature).
Web SDK