{"slug": "install-underpeaks-core-a-free-self-hosted-headless-cms-for-flutter-and-next-js", "title": "Install Underpeaks Core: A Free, Self-Hosted Headless CMS for Flutter and Next.js", "summary": "A solo developer released Underpeaks Core, a free, open-source, self-hosted headless CMS that lets users define a data model once and generate working Flutter and Next.js apps from it via the underpeaks-nxf CLI. The system is compiled rather than AI-generated, so the same model always produces the same code, and it ships with a backend, content editor and REST API. Installation runs through git clone and npm, with an in-browser installer handling environment variables and license setup.", "body_md": "If you've ever built the same app for web and mobile, you know the tax: two codebases, two sets of backend glue code, and one data model you keep in sync by hand. Change a field, update it in both places, miss one, ship a bug.\n\nUnderpeaks Core is a free, open-source, self-hosted headless CMS built to get rid of that. You define your data model once, and it gives you a backend, a content editor and a REST API. It can also generate working Flutter and Next.js apps from the same model. It's compiled, not AI-generated, so the same model always gives you the same code.\n\nThe video above shows the whole install. Here's the written version, so you can follow along or come back to it.\n\n```\ngit clone https://github.com/underpeaks/underpeaks-core.git\ncd underpeaks-core\nnpm install\nnpm run dev\n```\n\nOpen `http://localhost:3000`. On a fresh install you're taken straight to the installer.\n\nYou don't write any environment variables by hand. The installer does it for you:\n\n`.env` for you)\nWhen it's done, you're sent to the sign-in page.\n\nUse the admin email and password you just created.\n\nThe first time you sign in, Core asks for a license key:\n\nThen you land in the console.\n\n| Section | What it does | \n|---|---|\n| Shared Models | Define your data models | \n| Pages | Build pages from your models | \n| Menu | Control the admin sidebar | \n| Navigator | Connect pages to each other | \n| Theme | Colours and branding | \n| Storage | Upload and manage media | \n| Users | Manage who can access your instance | \n| Settings | Project name, license key, SMTP, API keys | \n\nA good first move is to create a model and attach it to a page. The admin views for it show up straight away.\n\n```\nnpm install -g underpeaks-nxf\nnxf login\nnxf generate flutter   # or: nxf generate nextjs\n```\n\n`nxf login` opens your browser to connect the CLI to your account. After that, `generate` gives you a real project you own, with models, an API client and auth flows included.\n\n`.env.local` match your database exactly.\nIf you get stuck, tell me which step and which database you used. I'm a solo developer and I read every comment.\n\nThe next video in the series is Core vs Studio, the free self-hosted version compared with the hosted one. After that, we create your first model.\n\nCore is free and open source: [GitHub](https://github.com/underpeaks/underpeaks-core?utm_source=devto&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=install-core).\n\nWhich database are you planning to run it on?", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/install-underpeaks-core-a-free-self-hosted-headless-cms-for-flutter-and-next-js", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/under_peaks/install-underpeaks-core-a-free-self-hosted-headless-cms-for-flutter-and-nextjs-1al0", "published_at": "2026-10-06 08:13:39+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-06 08:17:47.247366+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["developer-tools"], "entities": ["Underpeaks Core", "Underpeaks", "Flutter", "Next.js", "GitHub", "underpeaks-nxf"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/install-underpeaks-core-a-free-self-hosted-headless-cms-for-flutter-and-next-js", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/install-underpeaks-core-a-free-self-hosted-headless-cms-for-flutter-and-next-js.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/install-underpeaks-core-a-free-self-hosted-headless-cms-for-flutter-and-next-js.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/install-underpeaks-core-a-free-self-hosted-headless-cms-for-flutter-and-next-js.jsonld"}}