Website Development on Pico CMS
Pico is a minimalist flat-file CMS on PHP. Content is stored in Markdown files, templates are written in Twig, configuration in YAML. The core consists of thousands of PHP lines, without ORM, without abstraction layers, without admin interface. This makes Pico predictable and extremely easy to maintain.
When Pico is the Right Choice
Pico suits projects where simplicity matters more than functionality: library documentation, developer portfolio, product landing, personal blog, static API for JAMstack. Deploys in 5 minutes, works on any PHP hosting.
Pico is not suitable for sites with user content, complex access rights, or large volumes of structured data.
Site Structure
mysite/
content/ # Markdown content (like pages/ in Grav)
index.md # main page → /
about.md # → /about
services/
index.md # → /services
web-dev.md # → /services/web-dev
blog/
index.md
2024-11-post.md
themes/
my-theme/ # active theme
plugins/ # plugins
config/
config.yml
lib/ # Pico core (don't touch)
vendor/
index.php
Page Frontmatter
---
Title: Web Development
Description: Full-cycle website creation using modern technologies
Author: Team
Date: 2024-11-01
Robots: index,follow
Template: service
Tags: web, php, frontend
---
## Web Development
Page text in **Markdown**.
Navigation and Structure
Pico automatically forms pages array in Twig — all site pages:
{# First-level navigation #}
{% for page in pages if page.id|split('/')|length == 1 and not page.hidden %}
<a href="{{ page.url }}"
class="{{ current_page.id == page.id ? 'active' : '' }}">
{{ page.title }}
</a>
{% endfor %}
Configuration
# config/config.yml
site_title: My Site
base_url: https://mysite.com
theme: my-theme
date_format: d.m.Y
timezone: Europe/Minsk
rewrite_url: true
pages_order:
by: alpha # alpha | date | meta
asc: true
content_dir: content/
content_ext: .md
Typical Pico Projects
| Type | Templates | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Landing | 1–2 | 3–7 days |
| Portfolio | 3–5 | 1–2 weeks |
| Blog/docs | 4–6 | 1–2 weeks |
| Corporate card | 4–7 | 1–3 weeks |