Headless WordPress + Astro

This is WordPress.
You’d never guess, right?

Every word you read comes from an ordinary WordPress. The face —the design, the speed, every pixel— we build on the outside. That’s headless.

How it’s built Read the guide
Architecture

Two pieces that talk over HTTP.

The trick is to separate what is said from how it looks. WordPress holds the content; the front end decides the experience.

  1. The brain

    WordPress, stripped bare

    No theme, no page builders. It just manages content: posts, custom fields, media. What it does best.

  2. The bridge

    The REST API

    Exposes everything at /wp-json as clean JSON, nothing to install. A custom endpoint serves the home in a single call.

  3. The face

    Astro out front

    Fetches the content at build time and generates pure HTML. Fast, accessible and with a design no template can hold back.

What WordPress returns
GET /wp-json/…/landing 

  "title": "WordPress isn’t the problem…",
  "kicker": "Manifiesto",
  "accent": "#6366f1"
Rendered · 0 JS
Manifiesto

WordPress isn’t the problem. The theme is.

6 min read
What the visitor sees
The guide

Seven pieces to build your own.

Each card is a WordPress post. The colour, the label and the reading time come from custom fields in the CMS.

The trick

Why it doesn’t smell like WordPress
(nor like a template, nor like AI).

Design

Zero themes. Every pixel is a decision.

No theme holding anything back. Typography, rhythm, colour and motion are designed from scratch, like any premium product. The result looks like no WordPress because, from the outside, it isn’t one.

Performance
0KB of JS by default

Astro generates static HTML. The page loads before the user blinks.

For whoever edits

The WordPress dashboard, untouched.

The client keeps writing where they already know how. No new learning curve.

Security

Minimal attack surface.

WordPress isn’t even exposed: the world only sees static HTML served from the edge.

Future-proof

Swap the front end without touching the content.

Tomorrow you want React, or a native app, or a full redesign. The content doesn’t move: it lives in WordPress and is served over an API. You design the new face and you’re done.

The proof

Fast? Not quite. Better.

No promises: these are Lighthouse (Google) metrics on the build of this very page. A powerful CMS behind it doesn’t cost a single millisecond out front.

100
Performance
100
Accessibility
100
Best Practices
100
SEO
0.5s
First Contentful Paint First content painted
0.5s
Largest Contentful Paint Main element visible
0ms
Total Blocking Time Blocking time
0
Cumulative Layout Shift Visual stability
0 KB External JavaScript6.4 KB Full page (gzip)0 Third-party requests Lighthouse 12.8.2 · desktop · July 2026
Living guide

What if your agent builds it?

This guide isn’t just to read. It ships as a skill: an instruction file you hand to your AI agent and it already knows how to stand all of this up —Local, the REST bridge, the front end and the deploy— guiding you step by step.

Give your agent everything it needs
  1. 01

    Install the skill

    The skill lives in a public repo (not in WordPress). One command and your agent has it.

    bash 
    npx skills add HombreFeliz/wp-wow
  2. 02

    Give it the brief

    With the skill installed, hand it this prompt and let it guide you step by step.

    prompt 
    Build a headless WordPress with a premium Astro front end following the wp-wow skill. Start by spinning up the CMS locally and checking that /wp-json responds, and explain each step to me as you go.
FAQ

What you usually wonder.

Is this really WordPress?

Yes, 100%. All the content you see — text, articles, these very questions — comes out of a bog-standard WordPress through its API. The only difference is that we put the front end on the outside, with Astro.

Do I need to know how to code to build something like this?

To edit the content, no: you use the same old WordPress dashboard. To build the technical side you do need a bit of code, but the guide walks you through it step by step, and you can lean on the skill so your AI agent does it with you.

Can I carry on editing the content as usual?

Exactly. The WordPress editor stays untouched. You write, hit publish, and the front end rebuilds itself. No new learning curve for whoever’s doing the writing.

If I update WordPress, will the content be wiped?

No. An update only changes the core; your database and your media aren’t touched. The only real risk shows up in containers without persistent volumes, and that’s sorted by separating core and state. I cover it in full in the deploy chapter of the guide.

Can I use my current WordPress without migrating anything?

Yes. That’s precisely one of the joys of it: the content stays where it is and you just put a new face in front of it. There’s no data migration.

Doesn’t SEO suffer by going through an API?

Quite the opposite. The front end is static HTML served from the edge — blisteringly fast, with metadata and structured data properly in place. Google (and AI agents) read it better than they read many a classic WordPress.

How much does it cost to run this in production?

The WordPress runs on a normal PHP host (from a few euros a month) and the static front end can be served for free on Vercel, Netlify or Cloudflare Pages. It’s a cheap architecture to maintain.

What now?

Build it yourself
or have me build it?

If you’d rather build it yourself, the step-by-step guide is here. And if you’d prefer I build it, tell me about your project and let’s talk.