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DatoCMS

INFRA · APIS
Velocity0.0

DatoCMS is trading admin theming freedom for a guaranteed readability floor.

headless-cmsaccessibilityadmin-themingdeprecationsdeveloper-tooling
◆Current state
The dated feed has been quiet since late April, when the CLI work landed — npx datocms running without setup, and OAuth-based project linking. The live change is undated in this feed: from 25 August, new projects lose the custom admin palette and get only the monochromatic system, which derives every colour from one hue at WCAG AA contrast. Existing projects keep what they have. April also raised the Developer Plan CMA limit, added a plugin scaffold to the starter kits, and turned on antivirus scanning for every Media Area upload.
◆Where it's heading
The pattern across this window is DatoCMS narrowing the decisions it hands users, and doing it deliberately. Antivirus scanning became automatic rather than optional; the CLI stopped requiring setup; and now admin theming stops being freeform for new projects because editors reported that freeform produced unreadable interfaces. Each of those removes a configuration surface and replaces it with a guaranteed outcome, which is a defensible direction for a CMS whose users are editors rather than the developers who set the project up. The agent-facing work — the Remote MCP Server and Agent Skills — sits on the same axis, giving models a fixed interface rather than a configurable one.
◆Prediction
Expect the monochromatic system to eventually reach existing projects too, since a quality bar that applies only to new ones leaves the reported problem in place wherever it already exists. When that happens, or whether it will, is not stated here.

◆Recent moves

  1. 4mo ago

    CLI: `npx datocms` now Just Works

    The npx datocms CLI now runs without the setup steps that used to precede it. One of several entries clearing the friction between a developer and a working project - the groundwork that made the later agent and MCP access practical.

    View source ↗
  2. 4mo ago

    CMA limit raised for Developer Plan

    The Content Management API limit goes up for Developer Plan projects. A quota change rather than a feature, but it lands on the plan tier where programmatic use starts.

    View source ↗
  3. 5mo ago

    CLI: Easier (and safer) project linking with OAuth

    Project linking moves to OAuth, replacing copy-pasted API tokens with a browser flow. It removes a credential-handling step that every new project used to require, and it is safer by default rather than by configuration.

    View source ↗
  4. 5mo ago

    Starter kits now ship with a plugin scaffold

    Starter kits ship with a plugin scaffold, so extending the CMS starts from a working template instead of a blank directory. It is a small push on the plugin ecosystem that the sidebar-tab fix later made more visible to editors.

    View source ↗
  5. 5mo ago

    Automatic antivirus scanning for all Media Area uploads

    ⚡ SPARK

    Every Media Area upload is scanned automatically, with infected files quarantined and purged from the CDN, status badges in the dashboard, a meta.antivirus field on the CMA, and webhooks on status change. It is the anchor of the media-hardening thread that asset permissions and the media editor continue.

    View source ↗
  6. 5mo ago

    Configurable `hue` property on Visual Editing

    A configurable hue property on Visual Editing overlays. Cosmetic, though it arrives at the start of the Visual Editing run that later extended into sidebar previews.

    View source ↗