Pure PHP and SQLite. No Composer, no Node, no build step — ten modules in the box, deployed over FTP to any shared host you already pay for.
Most content systems rot from underneath. A package is abandoned, a runtime moves on, a build tool changes its config format, and a site that worked perfectly for years stops deploying. EchoHex removes that surface entirely.
Pure PHP and SQLite. No Composer, no npm, no bundler, no container. Upload the files and open the page — that is the whole deployment story.
Tables are created and altered on connection, guarded so they are safe to run every time. No migration files to sequence, no state to drift.
Built for ordinary shared hosting — cPanel, LiteSpeed, an FTP account. No platform to subscribe to and nothing that can price you out later.
Each module is a self-contained admin page and a helper file. They share the admin shell and nothing else, so adding one never destabilises the rest.
An on-page editor works against the real layout rather than a preview of it, so what you arrange is what ships. Content lives in the database, not in the markup, and survives a redesign.
The CMS shell is shared and the site content is not. A fix written once is packaged as a release and rolls out to every site on the channel.
A one-click updater checks the release server, backs up before it writes, replaces only CMS files and migrates the schema. Your content, uploads and configuration are never touched.
Prepared statements throughout. Uploads validated by extension and by real MIME type, stored with randomised names under a directory that refuses to execute anything. Secrets and the database sit outside version control by design.
The core stays exactly as described — pure PHP, nothing to install. AI sits in a separate, optional layer built on Grok, xAI's model. Leave it switched off and EchoHex is unchanged: no accounts, no outbound calls, no difference.
Nothing in the CMS depends on it. The zero-dependency promise covers the whole system, not the parts that happen to be offline today.
Add your own API key and requests go straight from your server to the model. No middleman, no per-seat markup, no usage passing through us.
Drafting and rewriting copy in the editor, alt text for the media library, summarising inbound inquiries. Assistance at the edges — never a layer between you and your own content.
Grok and xAI are trademarks of their respective owner. EchoHex is an independent Vonfal AI product, developed by Safehouse Lab, and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by xAI.
EchoHex runs the Safehouse Lab estate today. A public release is being prepared — licensing, the update channel and documentation are in progress.