Headless dotCMS Quick Start : Introducing dotCMS create app CLI

Why headless CMS onboarding feels slow

Developers adopting a headless CMS often struggle with:

• Discovering API endpoints and authentication flows

• Understanding content delivery and pagination APIs

• Setting up SDKs, environment variables, and local environments

• Wiring frontend frameworks manually

If developers don’t render content within the first 10–15 minutes, adoption drops significantly. Developer Experience (DX) matters.

The Fastest Way: @dotcms/create-app CLI

The @dotcms/create-app CLI automates the entire headless CMS setup process, including:

• Frontend scaffolding (Next.js, React, etc.)

• Local CMS instance via Docker

• API authentication configuration

• Demo content + site configuration

• Universal Visual Editor (UVE) setup

This removes the need to manually read dozens of documentation pages before seeing real content.

Step-by-step: create a Next.js headless app

Step 1: Bootstrap a Headless CMS Project

Use npx to run the CLI:

npx @dotcms/create-app demo

You will be prompted for a few configuration options.

1. Project Directory

Choose the project initialization directory.

2. Frontend Framework

Select your preferred framework. For this tutorial: Nextjs

3. CMS Deployment Mode

You can either:

• Connect to a managed cloud instance of dotCMS

• Spin up a local dotCMS instance using Docker (recommended for development)

Choose Local with Docker.

The CLI will:

• Validate Docker installation

• Check port availability

• Pull CMS Docker images (if not cached)

• Start CMS containers

Discover CLI Options with --help

The @dotcms/create-app CLI exposes multiple configuration flags for automation and scripting.

To view all supported options, run:

npx @dotcms/create-app --help

What the CLI Configures Automatically

The CLI handles multiple complex tasks behind the scenes:

• CMS Docker container orchestration

• API authentication token retrieval

• Demo site provisioning

• Universal Visual Editor (UVE) configuration

• Next.js project scaffolding

• Dependency installation

Step 2: Configure Environment Variables

Create an .env file:

touch .env

Paste the generated variables into the file.

Step 3: Run the Next.js Headless App

npm run dev

Open:

http://localhost:3000

Access the CMS Admin Interface

http://localhost:8082/admin

Default credentials:

Email: admin@cms.com

Password: admin

Conclusion

With @dotcms/create-app, you can render real content in minutes and skip manual CMS setup.

Join the Developer Community

👉 community.dotcms.com