---
title: Introduction
position: 0
---
# Introduction
Netlify CMS is an open source content management system for your Git workflow that enables you to provide editors with friendly UI and intuitive workflow. You can use it with any static site generator to create faster, more flexible web projects. Content is stored in your Git repository alongside your code for easier versioning, multi-channel publishing, and the option to handle content updates directly in Git.
At its core, Netlify CMS is an open-source React app that acts as a wrapper for the Git workflow, using the GitHub API. This provides many advantages, including:
* **Fast, web-based UI:** with rich-text editing, real-time preview, and drag-and-drop media uploads.
* **Platform agnostic:** works with most static site generators.
* **Easy installation:** add two files to your site and hook up the backend by including in your build process or linking to our CDN.
* **Modern authentication:** using GitHub and JSON web tokens.
* **Flexible content types:** specify an unlimited number of content types with custom fields.
* **Fully extensible:** create custom-styled previews, UI widgets, and editor plugins.
# Core Concepts
## The Admin Interface
The admin interface is a single-page app with the entry point stored in a static `/admin` folder you add to the root of your site. You can include it with a simple `index.html` file that loads the necessary CSS and JS files from a CDN:
``` html
Content Manager
```
The JS is also available via npm and can be integrated into your regular build process.
### Editorial Workflow
Netlify CMS has an optional [editorial workflow](/docs/editorial-workflow) that translates common Git commands into familiar language in a simple UI:
Actions in Netlify UI ... | Perform these Git actions
--- | ---
Save draft | Commits to a new branch, and opens a pull request
Edit draft | Pushes another commit to the draft branch/pull request
Approve and publish draft | Merges pull request and deletes branch
## Configuration
All configuration is handled in a single `config.yml` file, also stored in the `/admin` folder. A simple version might look like this:
``` yaml
backend:
name: github
repo: owner/repo # Path to your Github repository
branch: master # Branch to update (master by default)
media_folder: "img/uploads" # Folder where user uploaded files should go
collections: # A list of collections the CMS should be able to edit
- name: "post" # Used in routes, e.g., /admin/collections/:slug/edit
label: "Post" # Used in the UI, e.g., "New Post"
folder: "_posts" # The path to the folder where the documents are stored
create: true # Allow users to create new documents in this collection
fields: # The fields each document in this collection have
- {label: "Title", name: "title", widget: "string", tagname: "h1"}
- {label: "Body", name: "body", widget: "markdown"}
- {label: "Foo", name: "foo", widget: "foo"}
- {label: "Publish Date", name: "date", widget: "datetime"}
```
### Backend
Because Netlify CMS is a wrapper for the GitHub API, the "backend" is a repo stored on GitHub. *(Using a different Git host? File a [feature request](https://github.com/netlify/netlify-cms/issues), or [help us add it](https://github.com/netlify/netlify-cms/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md)!)* For authentication, you can connect to GitHub using Netlify’s [Authentication Provider feature](https://www.netlify.com/docs/authentication-providers), or you can roll your own.
### Collections
All content managed by Netlify CMS is organized in Collections (groups of files), such as:
* blog posts
* portfolio samples
* product listings
* podcast episodes
You point to where the files are stored, and specify the fields that define them. The `body` field typically stores the main text of a file, while any other fields are included at the top of the document in the front matter. They can be required, optional, or hidden, and can have preset defaults.
### Widgets
Widgets define the data type and interface for entry fields. Netlify CMS comes with several built-in [widgets](/docs/widgets).
## Customization
Netlify CMS exposes a `window.CMS` global object that you can use to register custom widgets, previews, and editor plugins. The available methods are:
* `registerPreviewStyle`: register a custom stylesheet to match the editor preview pane to your site style.
* `registerPreviewTemplate`: registers a template to determine how fields are displayed in the preview, customizable for each collection.
* `registerWidget`: registers a custom widget.
* `registerEditorComponent`: adds a block component to the Markdown editor.