---
title: "Introduction to Adapto CMS"
url: "https://adaptocms.com/docs/introduction/"
source: adaptocms.com
---

# Introduction to Adapto CMS

## What is Adapto CMS?

Adapto CMS is a modern, headless content management system built for developers who need a powerful, flexible, and predictable content backend. Unlike traditional CMS platforms that bundle a front-end, Adapto CMS delivers your content through a clean, framework-agnostic REST API — letting you build your presentation layer with any technology: Astro, Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Remix, or plain HTML.

### Key Features

-   **Custom Collections** — Define flexible data structures for any type of content beyond articles and pages.
-   **Built-in Internationalization** — First-class multi-language support with unlimited locales across all content types.
-   **Integrated Media CDN** — Built-in file storage with automatic CDN distribution and URL-based image transforms.
-   **Micro Copy Management** — Manage UI strings and short translatable text snippets directly in the CMS.
-   **Full-Text Search** — Search across articles, pages, and collections from a single endpoint.
-   **Transparent Pricing** — All features included on every plan. No per-seat charges, no per-locale add-ons, no feature gates.

## About the Public API

The Adapto CMS Public API provides **read-only** access to your published content. It is designed for use in your front-end applications, static site generators, and any client that needs to consume content.

All public endpoints are prefixed with `/public` and require an **API key** for authentication (not a user bearer token). This makes them safe to call from client-side code or build processes without exposing user credentials.

### Base URL

[`https://public-api.adaptocms.com`](https://public-api.adaptocms.com)

### Available Resources

Resource

Description

Documentation

Articles

Blog posts, news, and long-form content

[Articles API](https://adaptocms.com/docs/articles-api)

Pages

Static pages with hierarchical structure

[Pages API](https://adaptocms.com/docs/pages-api)

Categories

Hierarchical taxonomy for organizing articles

[Categories API](https://adaptocms.com/docs/categories-api)

Custom Collections

User-defined content types with flexible schemas

[Custom Collections API](https://adaptocms.com/docs/custom-collections-api)

Micro Copy

Key-value translation strings for UI text

[Micro Copy API](https://adaptocms.com/docs/micro-copy-api)

Search

Full-text search across all content types

[Search API](https://adaptocms.com/docs/search-api)

Languages

List of available content languages

[Languages API](https://adaptocms.com/docs/available-languages-api)

## Quick Start

To get started with the Adapto CMS Public API:

1.  **Get your API key** from the Adapto CMS dashboard under your tenant settings.
2.  **Set the request header** `x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY` on every request.
3.  **Make your first request:**

curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR\_API\_KEY" \\  
[`https://public-api.adaptocms.com/v1/articles?language=en&limit=5`](https://public-api.adaptocms.com/v1/articles?language=en&limit=5)

This returns a paginated list of your published English articles. See [Authentication](https://adaptocms.com/docs/authentication) and [Pagination & Filtering](https://adaptocms.com/docs/pagination-and-filtering) for details.