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This is an EmDash site -- a CMS built on Astro with a full admin UI.

Commands

pnpm dev              # Start the Astro dev server
npx emdash types      # Regenerate TypeScript types from a running site

The admin UI is at http://localhost:4321/_emdash/admin.

Key Files

File Purpose
astro.config.mjs Astro config with emdash() integration, database, and storage
src/live.config.ts EmDash loader registration (boilerplate -- don't modify)
seed/seed.json Schema definition + demo content (collections, fields, taxonomies, menus, widgets)
emdash-env.d.ts Generated types for collections (auto-regenerated on dev server start)
src/layouts/Base.astro Base layout with EmDash wiring (menus, search, page contributions)
src/pages/ Astro pages -- all server-rendered

Skills

Agent skills are in .agents/skills/. Load them when working on specific tasks:

  • building-emdash-site -- Querying content, rendering Portable Text, schema design, seed files, site features (menus, widgets, search, SEO, comments, bylines). Start here.
  • creating-plugins -- Building EmDash plugins with hooks, storage, admin UI, API routes, and Portable Text block types.
  • emdash-cli -- CLI commands for content management, seeding, type generation, and visual editing flow.

Documentation

The EmDash docs are available as an MCP server at https://docs.emdashcms.com/mcp. When you need to verify an API, hook, config option, field type, or pattern, call search_docs against the live documentation rather than relying on training-data recall. The docs reflect current behaviour; assumptions may not.

This template ships with .mcp.json, .cursor/mcp.json, and .vscode/mcp.json so Claude Code, Cursor, and VS Code auto-discover the docs server. Other tools (OpenCode, Windsurf, etc.) need a manual one-time setup -- see docs.emdashcms.com/docs-mcp.

Rules

  • All content pages must be server-rendered (output: "server"). No getStaticPaths() for CMS content.
  • Image fields are objects ({ src, alt }), not strings. Use <Image image={...} /> from "emdash/ui".
  • entry.id is the slug (for URLs). entry.data.id is the database ULID (for API calls like getEntryTerms).
  • Always call Astro.cache.set(cacheHint) on pages that query content.
  • Taxonomy names in queries must match the seed's "name" field exactly (e.g., "category" not "categories").

This Template

A portfolio for showcasing creative work. Editorial, near-monochrome, with photography as the main visual interest. Designed for designers, photographers, illustrators, studios, and other people whose work speaks for itself when laid out with generous whitespace.

The design is intentionally restrained. Don't pile on colour, gradients, or decoration -- the work is the decoration.

Pages

Page Path What it shows
Home / Centred serif title + tagline, "Selected Work" grid
Work index /work Heading + summary, tag filter chips, full grid
Project detail /work/[slug] Project meta line, big serif title, summary, featured image, Portable Text body, optional gallery, URL
About /about Page content (Portable Text)
Contact /contact Form + email / location / social column

Schema

  • projects collection: title, featured_image, client, year, summary (text), content (Portable Text), gallery (json -- optional array of { url, alt? } records, see below), url.
  • pages collection: title, content (Portable Text). Used for /about.
  • Taxonomies: category, tag. Used for filtering on the work index.
  • Single primary menu.

Site settings have title and tagline -- both render on the home page (title as the centred serif heading, tagline as italic subtitle).

The gallery field on projects is a JSON field, not an EmDash image field. It expects a literal array of { url: string, alt?: string } records (a flat external URL plus optional alt text), and is rendered as-is by src/pages/work/[slug].astro. Do NOT confuse it with EmDash image fields like featured_image, which take { id, provider, alt } objects from the media library. If you need media-library images in a gallery in the future, the right fix is to change the field type and renderer together.

Visual character

Typography is the design. The display face is Playfair Display (serif) on the --font-heading CSS variable; the body face is the system sans stack on --font-body. The serif is used for the site title, hero titles, project titles, page titles, and contact column labels. Everything else is the sans. Serif weight is calm on purpose (--font-weight-heading and --font-weight-display both default to 500).

The brand colour is barely visible by design -- the only saturated colour on the page should be inside images. The default --color-brand (#7c3aed) is used sparingly for link hover and focus states.

Whitespace is generous. Sections breathe. Don't fight that.

Customisation

Design tokens live in src/styles/tokens.css with their default values. To restyle the site, override tokens in src/styles/theme.css -- declarations there are unlayered, so they always beat the @layer base defaults. Don't edit tokens.css or Base.astro for visual changes.

Colours are defined with light-dark(<light>, <dark>), so each token carries both modes. Overriding with a plain colour changes light and dark at once; use light-dark() in the override to keep them distinct. There is no separate dark palette to maintain.

The display face is configured in astro.config.mjs under fonts: (the Astro Fonts API). To change it, swap the name: for any Google Fonts serif and keep cssVariable: "--font-heading". Good pairings: Cormorant Garamond, Fraunces, EB Garamond, DM Serif Display. The body face (--font-body) is a plain token in tokens.css -- system sans, deliberately quiet; override it in theme.css only if you have a reason.

CSS variables worth knowing (see tokens.css for the full list):

  • --color-brand, --color-on-brand, --color-brand-ring -- the single accent, used very sparingly
  • --color-bg, --color-surface, --color-text, --color-muted, --color-border -- neutral palette
  • --color-danger -- form errors
  • --font-heading (Fonts API entry in astro.config.mjs), --font-body (token)
  • --font-weight-heading / --font-weight-display (both 500) -- raise for a heavier serif voice
  • --font-size-4xl -- the size of the homepage title and project titles
  • --max-width (720px), --wide-width (1200px) -- column widths

What not to do

  • Don't introduce gradients, drop shadows on cards, or coloured section backgrounds. The template's voice is calm and editorial; those break it.
  • Don't change --font-body to a display font. Two display faces fight each other.
  • Don't add more than one accent colour.
  • Don't write generic copy like "Welcome to my portfolio" or "Crafting beautiful experiences". The work should speak; the words should be specific (a client name, a discipline, a year).
  • Don't pack the home page with every project. The "Selected Work" framing is intentional -- 3-6 is plenty.
  • Don't add a gallery of small thumbnails on the home page. Use one strong image per project; the gallery field renders on the project detail page only.