---
title: "Lightning as Headless CMS"
date: "2019-05-14T13:03:51+00:00"
summary:
image:
type: "article"
url: "/acquia-cloud-platform/help/89721-lightning-headless-cms"
id: "136d9138-b00b-488d-9a7b-f702ab95b401"
---

[Acquia Headless Lightning](https://dev.acquia.com/acquia-headless-lightning) provides an API-first back-end content repository that allows for easy ingestion by front-end applications.

Front-end developers requiring a headless CMS or decoupled CMS have immediate access to a cloud-hosted content repository service for development, delivering, and production.

Headless Lighting builds on the [Acquia Lightning](https://github.com/acquia/lightning-project#get-started) distribution and configures the basic tool set provided by the contrib modules selected and implemented in Lightning's [Content API](http://lightning.acquia.com/blog/using-content-api).

![Flowchart showing the relationship between front-end applications (Drupal, Native, JavaScript) and back-end services (Node.js, Web services, Content Service, Continuous Delivery).](https://acquia.widen.net/content/57d680fe-75e0-461e-966a-ee544edd3dde/web/url_58dc50f8df6a846d95d6f8222d804ee8.png)

Acquia Headless Lightning advantages for front-end developers:
--------------------------------------------------------------

*   It makes the user environment more intuitive for non-Drupalists, and more logical for all developers using Drupal primarily as a content repository.
*   It is more opinionated about and examples of how an external / front-end application should authenticate against and consume the Content API.

**Features:**
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### JSON Content Module

Presentation layer that hides or redirects users from content rendered by the Drupal application.

### User Environment

Configures user interface opinions on the administrative back-end, making it intuitive to create and manage content without the need to understand how the Drupal-based CMS will render it.

### User Interface Sub-components

UI sub-components consolidate links and add relevant descriptions to common administrative tasks central to using Drupal as a decoupled backend:

*   Access Components: Consolidates API configuration and access.
*   Content Model Component: Consolidates configuring content types and related entities.

### Built on Acquia Lightning, Eases Upgrades

Acquia Headless Lightning is built on Drupal and extends the Lightning distribution. That means you can create a sub-profile of Headless Lightning - just like Headless Lightning is a sub-profile of Lightning itself. It also means that front-end applications built with Headless Lightning will get all of the features of and updates to Drupal and Lightning along with update paths.

### Node.js Service

Use the Acquia Cloud Node.js Service with Headless Lightning as the decoupled content repository while connecting Node.js code with front-end presentation frameworks such as React, Angular, and Ember.

### Download:

[GitHub](https://github.com/acquia/headless-lightning#headless-lightning) for Acquia Headless Lightning.