SkyCMS Documentation

Documentation source for SkyCMS — a multi-tenant ASP.NET Core content management system with four visual editors (WYSIWYG, drag-and-drop page builder, code editor, image editor), multi-cloud storage, pluggable identity providers, and static-site publishing.

Published at: docs.sky-cms.com

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Documentation Structure

The site is organized by audience role so readers find content relevant to their work:

Folder	Audience	Topics	Description
getting-started/	Everyone	3	What is SkyCMS, key concepts, quick start
for-editors/	Editors, Authors	30	Content creation, all four editors, blogging, publishing, collaboration, file management
for-site-builders/	Site Builders	7	Layouts, templates, pages, widgets, style guides
for-developers/	Developers	18	Architecture, APIs, multi-tenancy, EF Core cross-provider, middleware pipeline
installation/	Administrators	14	Setup wizard (6 steps), Azure/AWS/Docker/Cloudflare deployment, local dev
configuration/	Administrators	7+	Database, storage, CDN, email providers, multi-tenancy, proxy settings
deployment/	DevOps	8	Cloud hosting, CI/CD pipelines, Docker, demo deployment, licensing
reference/	All	9	Feature catalog, changelog, FAQ, glossary, troubleshooting, templates

Catalog Overview

The Feature Catalog provides a comprehensive inventory of all 56 documented features across 8 categories, with jump-to navigation and cross-reference links to the relevant documentation pages.

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Quick Links

• Getting Started — Quick Start
• Installation Overview
• Feature Catalog
• FAQ
• Troubleshooting
• Glossary
• Changelog

Developer Entry Points

• Developer Index
• Architecture Overview
• Website Launch Workflow
• API Reference
• AI Context Pack

AI Ingestion Shortcut

For AI assistants, retrieval systems, or prompt grounding, start with AI Context Pack. It summarizes canonical SkyCMS terminology, disambiguation rules, and the most authoritative docs to consult next.

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Building the Docs Site Locally

The MkDocs configuration lives in the parent SkyCMS repo at mkdocs.yml, which references this content via docs_dir.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• pip

Setup

pip install mkdocs-material

Serve Locally

From the SkyCMS repo root (not this repo):

cd /path/to/SkyCMS
mkdocs serve

Then open http://127.0.0.1:8000 in your browser.

Note: The mkdocs.yml nav references a legacy Docs/ folder structure. Some paths in the nav may differ from the folder layout in this repo. See Deployment for how the published site is built.

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Contributing

File Placement

Place new documentation based on the target audience:

If the reader is a...	Put it in...
Content editor or author	for-editors/
Site builder working with layouts/templates	for-site-builders/
Developer extending or integrating SkyCMS	for-developers/
Administrator installing or configuring	installation/ or configuration/
DevOps engineer deploying or managing CI/CD	deployment/

Metadata Convention

Use YAML frontmatter at the top of every new or materially revised documentation file. This gives MkDocs, search, and AI ingestion a stable, parseable metadata block.

Canonical schema reference:

• Documentation Metadata Schema v1

---
canonical_title: Page Builder
description: Visual drag-and-drop composition in SkyCMS using GrapesJS.
doc_type: How-to
product_area: editing
user_intent: build-pages-with-page-builder
audience:
  - Content Editors
  - Site Builders
difficulty: intermediate
version: current
status: active
owner: docs-platform
last_reviewed: 2026-04-27
entities:
  - page-builder
  - layers-panel
keywords:
  - grapesjs
  - drag and drop
  - visual editor
---

Field	Purpose
canonical_title	Canonical page title used by search and AI context extraction
description	One-sentence summary for search snippets and retrieval
audience	Intended readers, as a YAML list
doc_type	How-to, Explanation, Reference, or Tutorial
product_area	Product surface such as editing, deployment, configuration, architecture
user_intent	Primary reader goal as a concise slug
difficulty	beginner, intermediate, or advanced
version	Version scope such as current or a release range
status	draft, active, deprecated, or archived
owner	Team or individual accountable for page correctness
last_reviewed	Review date in yyyy-mm-dd format
entities	Canonical SkyCMS concepts covered by the page
keywords	Synonyms, aliases, and common search phrases

Optional fields may be added when helpful, such as source, aliases, related_topics, or tags.

Legacy HTML comments may be retained for internal provenance, but they should not replace YAML frontmatter on new or substantially updated pages.

Quality Gates

Before opening or updating a PR, run:

./.tmp-link-check.ps1
./scripts/validate-doc-metadata.ps1

CI enforces these checks on changed Markdown files via the Docs Quality Gates workflow.

File Naming

• Use lowercase with hyphens: url-management.md, blog-architecture.md
• Use index.md for section landing pages
• Use overview.md for high-level introductions to a topic area

Feature Catalog

When adding or updating documentation for a SkyCMS feature, also update the corresponding section in the Feature Catalog and check the Documentation Gaps tracker.

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Writing Standards

• Be role-focused — Write for the audience specified in the frontmatter. Editors don't need implementation details; developers don't need UI walkthroughs.
• Link, don't duplicate — Reference existing pages rather than repeating content. Use the feature catalog as a cross-reference hub.
• Use tables for structured data — Configuration options, parameters, comparison matrices.
• Include code examples — Use fenced code blocks with language identifiers (csharp, bash, powershell, yaml, json).
• Add "See Also" sections — End pages with links to related documentation.

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Known Editor Diagnostics

• mkdocs.yml uses MkDocs Material/PyMdown custom YAML tags for emoji configuration:

  • !!python/name:material.extensions.emoji.twemoji
  • !!python/name:material.extensions.emoji.to_svg

• Some generic YAML validators report unresolved-tag warnings for these lines.

• This is expected and does not indicate a build or runtime issue for MkDocs.

• Workspace mitigation is configured in .vscode/settings.json using yaml.customTags.

Mermaid runtime dependency policy

• Mermaid rendering uses vendored local assets, not a CDN.
• Runtime script path: assets/javascripts/vendor/mermaid.min.js
• Initializer path: assets/javascripts/mermaid-init.js
• mkdocs.yml references these local files via extra_javascript.

Mermaid authoring conventions

• Prefer one primary diagram per page section, with one optional secondary diagram when it explains a materially different flow.
• Use the shared theme init block already established in the docs so diagrams stay visually consistent.
• Prefer flowchart for topology, ownership, or decision maps; sequenceDiagram for request, event, or collaboration timelines; stateDiagram-v2 for lifecycle behavior.
• Indent Mermaid blocks with spaces, not tabs, to avoid markdownlint MD010 failures.
• Add or update entries in for-developers/architecture-diagram-catalog.md when a Mermaid diagram becomes a durable navigation aid.
• Validate changes with diagnostics and ./.tmp-link-check.ps1 after editing pages that add new anchors or catalog links.

Example theme preamble:

%%{init: {"theme":"base","themeVariables":{"primaryColor":"#eef6ff","primaryTextColor":"#0f172a","primaryBorderColor":"#2563eb","lineColor":"#334155","secondaryColor":"#f8fafc","tertiaryColor":"#ffffff","fontFamily":"Segoe UI, Arial, sans-serif"}}}%%
flowchart LR
  Start[Author diagram] --> Catalog[Update diagram catalog if needed]

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Deployment

Documentation is automatically deployed when changes are pushed to the Docs/** path in the SkyCMS repo:

1. The deploy-docs-cloudflare.yml GitHub Actions workflow triggers
2. MkDocs builds the static site
3. Pre-deployment link validation runs
4. Built files are uploaded to Cloudflare R2
5. Post-deployment link validation confirms the live site

See CI/CD Pipelines for full pipeline documentation.

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License

See Licensing & Distribution.