User Guide

This user guide covers the core concepts of Automad's essential features, content editing, and page creation. To begin, visit /dashboard on your site and sign in with your credentials, then follow the pages sequentially to understand what you can accomplish and how.

The Dashboard

The dashboard is the central administration area of an Automad site. It provides everything you need to manage content and pages, adjust site-wide settings, invite other users to collaborate, and install or update themes to shape the look and behavior of your site.

Previews & In-Page Editing

When browsing your site while signed in, you can preview all unpublished changes by clicking the little eye icon in the page settings. A blue toggle in the floating dock at the bottom of the page lets you switch into the In-Page edit mode, where editable areas are highlighted. Click the Edit button on any highlighted area to make changes directly on the page.

The dock also provides quick access to the dashboard and the current page's settings, content, customizations, and files. You can move it out of the way as needed, and use it to publish page drafts instantly.

What's Next in This Guide

You're ready to explore deeper! The following pages will walk you through the key concepts that make Automad powerful.

In Automad, changes made to content fields — such as blocks or settings — are saved automatically. These changes are stored as drafts. Signed-in users can see and edit drafts at any time, while public visitors only see content that has been published. This makes it easy to work on content over a longer period without exposing unfinished pages to your visitors.

Global Defaults

One of Automad’s core ideas is the concept of global defaults. Many fields can be set either globally or individually for each page. When a page is displayed, Automad first checks the page itself for a value. If nothing is set there, it falls back to the global data.

Blocks are small, self-contained pieces of content such as text paragraphs, headings, galleries, slideshows, and more. You can also add dynamic content like Pagelists, Filelists, or custom snippets. The block editor offers an intuitive editing experience and lets users freely compose a page from multiple blocks.

Layouts in Automad are created using the Layout Section block. They can be added anywhere on a page and can contain other Layout Sections, allowing you to create complex, nested designs. Sections can also be set to stretch to the full width of the content area or page. Watch the short videos on this page to see these features in action.

Components in Automad are reusable, static compilations of blocks that let you create consistent sections across your site without having to rebuild them each time. They are ideal for content such as call-to-action elements, card grids, address blocks, or any combination of snippets that should appear in multiple places.

Images play an essential role in the web and any form of digital presence. Automad provides image galleries and slideshows as blocks that can be added to any block editor field. These blocks make it easy to manage and display image collections in versatile ways, from structured galleries to responsive slideshows.

Pagelists & Tags

A pagelist is essentially a curated selection of pages that are rendered using a shared template. Each page in the selection is iterated and displayed in a consistent way, which makes pagelists suitable for many common use cases. They can power a simple navigation, but they work just as well for more visual layouts, such as a portfolio grid or blog where each entry shows a preview, title, or other page-specific information.

AI Assisted Writing

Automad provides optional integrations with OpenAI and Claude APIs to assist with writing, transforming, and translating text-based content. Once you have configured an AI provider, you can access assistance through the prompt box in the bottom right corner.

Open Graph & Favicons

Automad takes care of most metadata and icon-related details automatically, so pages are ready for browsers, devices, and social platforms right from the start. Without any configuration, sensible defaults are generated for things like page titles, descriptions, icons, and social previews. At the same time, Automad keeps everything transparent and flexible, making it easy to customize or override individual parts whenever more control is needed.

Multilingual Sites

in case your target group of visitors is spread all over the world and you need to provide your content in different languages, Automad's build in language router lets you easily server different content base on a visitor's locale. Follow the steps outlined on this page to convert your site into multilingual web presence.

Getting Started Publishing