Astro Weekly #92

Astro 5.12 lands with TOML support, smoother Netlify dev, scaling Astro sites with a monorepo, basic Astro auth walkthrough

Author

Nathan Lawson
July 20, 2025

Hello, Astronauts!

Astro 5.12 is here with some quality-of-life boosts including TOML support in content loaders and a smoother local dev experience on Netlify.

This week, we’re also diving into how a monorepo approach can help scale multi-brand sites without the chaos, plus a handy guide to adding basic auth to your Astro app for dev or staging environments.

Let’s dive in! 🚀

What’s new with Astro 🗞️

Fresh features, updates, and announcements. The latest from Astro HQ!

Now serving Netlify... locally brewed

Astro 5.12 brings more content formats 📄

Astro 5.12 introduces native TOML support, major improvements to the Netlify dev experience, and a new experimental setting for handling environment variables.

Here’s what’s new in Astro 5.12:

  • 🧾 TOML support for content loaders: Use .toml files in content collections just like Markdown or JSON—no extra setup required.

  • 🌐 Improved Netlify dev experience: Get access to Netlify Images, Blobs, redirects, and environment variables right in astro dev.

  • 🧪 Raw environment values: Disable automatic type coercion in import.meta.env with a new experimental flag for more precise control.

To upgrade, run npx @astrojs/upgrade, or check the full Astro 5.12 release post for more details.

Astro Boosters 🚀

Fueling the mission — brought to you by this week’s sponsor.

Prototype quicker than ever before with Tailscan

The ultimate tool for Tailwind CSS 🔍

Tailscan is the ultimate tool for Tailwind CSS. Build, design, and debug your Tailwind website visually with Tailscan, right within the browser.

Speed up your workflow and prototype quicker than ever before with Tailscan Devtools—an expansion of Tailscan that tightly integrates with browser devtools.

Astro Community 🧑‍🚀

Spotlight on what’s shining in the Astroverse.

Fifty brands. One repo. Zero panic.

Scaling Astro sites with a monorepo 🧗

Mojtaba Seyedi joins DatoCMS to share how he tackled the chaos of multi-brand websites using a monorepo Astro setup—one codebase, one CMS, many outputs.

From streamlined content modeling to shared UI components and editor-friendly workflows, it’s a practical look at scaling fast without sacrificing structure or sanity.

Auth so basic

Protect routes in Astro with basic auth 🔐

Rishi Raj Jain walks through adding simple HTTP basic authentication to your Astro site using middleware. Perfect for hiding staging sites or client work-in-progress.

The guide covers protecting specific routes, validating credentials, and using environment variables for added security, all without overcomplicating your setup.

Spotted in the Astroverse 🪐

A few standout posts from the community that grabbed my attention!

If you have something awesome you’d like to share with the Astro community, you can reach me at [email protected] or via DM on X

Blazing-fast Astro themes ⚡

Launch your own link-in-bio within minutes

Self-host your links in style with Linkk 🔗

Linkk is a clean, link-in-bio template built with Astro. Perfect for developers and creators who want a self-hosted alternative to Linktree.

Astro on X 🛰️

Tuning in to the Astro frequency on X!

Astro Showcase 🤩

Fresh from the launchpad: Astro sites worth a look!

Cash App Brand Guidelines

At its core, Cash App is a brand that thrives on the tension between structuring order and explosive freedom.

design.cash.app

Unilever Global

At Unilever we meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.

www.unilever.com

That’s a wrap for this week!

Got a clever solution, helpful guide, or cool Astro project in the works? I’d love to feature it. Drop me a line at [email protected] or send a DM on X.

Until next time, keep things lean and your builds clean.

– Nathan 🧑‍🚀