CMS Upgrade, Unit management, CSS Variables, … Ideas ideas ideas

[eliasu]

Hi,

Great things you're building here — really impressive for an none-alpha release. This could be huge.
I just wanted to share some ideas with you guys, maybe that helps.

A little about me: I'm a web developer and designer, and I work extensively with Webflow. So naturally, I see a lot of parallels and potential. I just played around with Instatic for a bit, and a few things came to mind. Some of these features might already exist and I just haven't found them yet — apologies in advance if that's the case.

1. CMS Field Types
The CMS needs a robust set of field types. A wide selection of standard fields is essential — think plain text, rich text, image, video, link, color, number, date/time, switch/boolean, reference, multi-reference, file, and so on. Webflow's CMS is actually fairly well-equipped in this regard, with one major exception: it still doesn't support repeater fields. Repeaters are a must-have — they unlock so much flexibility (nested lists, FAQ sections, feature grids, multi-step content) without forcing users to create separate collections for every small data structure.

Beyond field types, collection creation itself needs to be fast and intuitive. Field labels, help text, and validation options should be easy to configure. Today, almost anything is technically possible — the real challenge is building products that our clients (and their content teams) can actually use with confidence.

2. CSS Units Beyond Pixels
Right now, being limited to px is a significant constraint. There needs to be support for rem, em, %, vw, vh, and ideally ch, svh/dvh, and other modern units. Webflow (and similar tools) solve this elegantly: you click the small "px" badge next to any value input, and a dropdown lets you switch units freely. This is especially critical for font sizes — they should be set in rem by default to respect user accessibility settings and scale properly across breakpoints.

3. CSS Variables & Variable Modes
Webflow introduced a "Variables Panel," and it's great— especially in combination with variable modes. Modes let you define different sets of values for the same variable depending on context (e.g., light/dark theme, brand A/brand B, compact/comfortable spacing). This makes it incredibly powerful for building custom design systems directly inside the tool, without writing code. Figma's variable modes work on exactly the same principle, so there's strong conceptual alignment between design and development tools here. Even if a full variables panel isn't the first priority, having this on the roadmap would be huge.

4. Component Props
Components need richer prop support. It should be possible to expose and bind more types of props — not just visibility toggles or text overrides, but numeric values, color values, spacing, variable modes, asset swaps, and ideally any CSS property. The more granular the prop system, the more reusable and flexible components become — which is the whole point. Think of it as bridging the gap between a static template and a truly composable design system.

5. Component Variants
Variant support for components would be incredibly powerful. The ability to define named variants of a component (e.g., "primary," "secondary," "outline" for a button, or "default," "compact," "featured" for a card) — and switch between them per instance — is what takes a visual builder from "page builder" to "design system tool." Combined with strong props, this would put Instatic in a league that very few no-code tools have reached.

Keep up the great work — really excited to see where this goes.