The NextBlock Journal
The NextBlock Journal: Performance, DX, and Visual Editing
Practical guides, architecture deep dives, and editor workflows from the NextBlock team. Pick a topic below or jump straight to the latest posts.
Latest Deep Dives
How NextBlock™ Works: A Look Under the Hood
Under the hood of the monorepo, block registry, and editor stack that power NextBlock.
How to Install NextBlock: Every Setup Option Explained
Every way to install NextBlock — one-click cloud deploy, CLI scaffold, git clone, self-hosted Docker, or your AI coding agent — with copy-paste steps for each.
NextBlock™ Commerce: Multi-Currency, Automatic Tax & Beyond
Storefront architecture, checkout flows, and premium commerce capabilities inside NextBlock.
Connect Claude to NextBlock CMS via MCP, from Cursor or Claude Code
Register /api/mcp in Claude Code or Cursor and let your own AI subscription read the schema, draft layouts, and manage pages in NextBlock.
How Updating NextBlock Works: One Command for Every Install
However you installed NextBlock — one-click Vercel, the CLI, Docker or a git clone — a single npm run update brings the code, the dependencies and the database schema forward together.
NextBlock Cortex AI Guide
A practical guide to Cortex AI: block-aware AI in the NextBlock editor with your own OpenRouter key, plus an MCP server for your AI app.
What the NextBlock Journal Covers
Every post is tested on a live site before it is published, and each one includes the full technical reasoning and diagrams. Start with the topic that matches where you are.
Getting started
Setup, every way
Walkthroughs for a one-click Vercel deploy, the npm create nextblock CLI (local Docker, or your own Supabase project with optional Cloudflare R2), and a git clone. You can also let Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex install NextBlock and build the site for you. Each guide gives you clear, tested steps, so a fresh site is live in minutes rather than days.
Read the setup guide →Architecture and performance
How the engine works
Deep dives into fast page rendering, clean CSS delivery, image optimization, and safe database migrations. Learn how NextBlock keeps a 100% Lighthouse score while giving writers a rich block editor.
Look under the hood →E-commerce workflows
From catalog to checkout
Practical patterns for multi-currency pricing, automated tax sync, stock tracking, and provider-aware checkout with Stripe and Freemius, all managed from the same block editor.
Read the commerce guide →Cortex AI and MCP
AI that writes blocks, not code
How to generate structured layouts with Cortex AI, connect Claude Code or Cursor to your site over MCP, and speed up translation work. The CMS is free, and Cortex AI starts with a 30-day trial and no credit card.
Connect your AI →Every guide reads in under ten minutes. Code samples come from sites already in production, and every screenshot comes from the real CMS interface, so what you see here is what you get.
Have a topic you want covered, or a case study to share? Join the community on GitHub Discussions. We welcome questions, ideas, and pull requests from all builders, and we update this collection with every release.