> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.websitestudio.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# WebsiteStudio Tech Stack and Architecture Overview

> WebsiteStudio is a platform runs on plain PHP with SQLite — no frameworks, no Composer. Learn the WebsiteStudio internals, generated site structure, and key architectural decisions.

### The generated website

These are the files your visitors see. WebsiteStudio generates them; you can also edit them directly.

```text theme={null}
your-site/
├── index.php           # Homepage
├── about.php           # About page (and any other pages)
├── submit.php          # Form handler
├── mcp.php             # MCP server endpoint
├── _partials/          # Shared includes (header, nav, footer, schema)
├── assets/
│   ├── css/            # style.css (design tokens) + tailwind.css
│   ├── js/             # Vanilla JavaScript (no frameworks)
│   ├── images/         # Uploaded images
│   ├── data/           # Structured data (JSON)
│   ├── icons/          # Lucide SVG icons (hydrated from <i data-lucide> placeholders)
│   └── library/        # Built-in image library
├── sitemap.xml         # Generated on publish
├── robots.txt          # Generated on publish
└── llms.txt            # AI discovery map
```

## Why no framework

Frameworks add layers. Every layer is a surface for bugs, version conflicts, and compatibility issues across hosting environments. A framework dependency would either lock out hosting environments or require maintaining compatibility shims for each one.

The same logic applies to the generated websites. No React, no Vue, no npm. The output is HTML, CSS, PHP, and vanilla JavaScript.

## Key architectural decisions

**SQLite over MySQL.** One file, zero configuration, included in every installation. No database server to set up, no connection strings, no user management.

**Server-side Tailwind compiler.** WebsiteStudio compiles Tailwind CSS on the server — no Node.js required at runtime. The AI generates HTML with Tailwind utility classes, and the compiler produces a minimal CSS file containing only the utilities actually used. This runs automatically on every generation and publish.

**Streaming AI responses.** WebsiteStudio streams the AI provider's response in real time. As the model generates each file, the Studio writes it to disk and updates the preview immediately.