portal/docs/content-reference.md

# Content reference

A content repo is the site. This is everything it may say.

```
site.yaml                 branding, language, mail
aggregates.yaml           the state machine of every bucket
needs.yaml                what the site is for (read by iris, never by portal)
questions/
  index.yaml              the front page, served at /
  about.yaml              served at /about
  review/
    _section.yaml         applies to everything under /review
    index.yaml            served at /review
    [record].yaml         serves /review/<anything>
```

Nothing here is required except a `questions/` tree with something in
it. Portal's lint refuses content it cannot serve honestly, at boot,
on every hot reload, and in CI through `iris check`.

## site.yaml

```yaml
title: Vestmark kommune          # the browser title and the header
wordmark: /site/logo.svg         # an image instead of the title
wordmark_invert: true            # flip it in dark mode
wordmark_height: 2.4             # rem
lang: no                         # the interface language: en or no
stylesheet: /site/theme.css      # served same-origin from the repo
favicon: /site/icon.svg
hero: { kind: module, module: hero.js }   # or { kind: plain }
mail:
  from: Vestmark kommune <post@vestmark.example>
  reply_to: post@vestmark.example
  invite: { subject: "...", body: "..." }   # rewords the built-in invite mail
```

`mail.from` is required as soon as any state declares a mail.

Any text a person reads (`name`, `description`, `label`,
`placeholder`, a mail's `subject` and `body`, `consequence`,
`encouragements`) may be a list instead of one string: one entry per
[storyline](storylines.md), all lists the same length.

## A question

One YAML file is one page.

```yaml
id: /apply              # defaults to the file's path
name: Apply to build
description: What we need from you.
qualifies: case_officers        # a Kanidm group may open this page
requires_chain: /start          # or: an answer they must already have given
followup: true                  # keep it out of the nav until earned
responsible: { name: Solveig, contact: post@vestmark.example }
# or a group's: no account is made for the inbox, and any signed-in
# member of the group may suggest a change to the page
responsible: { name: The board, contact: board@vestmark.example, group: board }
event:                          # this page announces an occasion
  starts: 2026-10-14T18:00
  duration: 2h
  place: The town hall
place:                          # this page is about somewhere
  lat: 59.8938
  lon: 11.0332
  zoom: 15
  name: The town hall
alternatives: [ ... ]
```

`qualifies`, `requires_chain` and `responsible` are inherited from the
nearest `_section.yaml`. `event` makes a page an occasion with a time;
`place` makes it a place, drawing a still map under the question and
opening any `type: location` field on the page there rather than on
the whole world.

### Pictures across the page

`slideshow` lays a strip of pictures under the question, the full
width of the screen: every picture as tall as the strip and as wide as
its own shape, swiped or arrowed through, its caption over its foot.

```yaml
slideshow:
  max_height: 60               # svh; 60 unless set, between 20 and 100
  slides:
    - image: images/built/01.webp     # a path in the content repo, or https://
      caption: The canteen at the theatre, renewed
      width: 3207                     # the picture's own size, optional:
      height: 1400                    # holds its place before it has loaded
```

Pictures in the content repo are served from this origin under
`/site/`; `webp`, `avif` and `jpeg` may be kept by the browser for an
hour. Keep them web-sized: around 1400 pixels tall is plenty.

## An alternative

One choice. Never two actions behind one heading: if two things can be
done, they are two alternatives.

```yaml
alternatives:
  - name: Send the drawings
    description: We answer within twelve weeks.
    action: /sent                  # the page to go to; /shape/{field} templates
    record_as: applications        # the bucket the answer lands in
    disabled: false
    consequence: [What happens next]
    encouragements: [It takes two minutes]
    images: [/site/drawing.png]
    features: [ ... ]
```

Three things an alternative may do instead of, or beside, recording an
answer:

```yaml
    self_transition:               # the person moves their own record
      bucket: applications
      to: complete
      from: [open, incomplete]     # defaults to the initial state alone
      label: Send them
    invite: { group: case_officers }   # onboard someone into Kanidm
```

`self_transition.from` is what keeps a person in dialogue with their
case: an applicant written to for a missing drawing answers from
`incomplete`, and may withdraw from wherever the case has got to.
Omitted, it is the initial state alone, which is what a one-shot
unsubscribe link means. Each state listed becomes its own access rule,
and the lint refuses a `from -> to` the state machine does not declare.

An `invite` needs a required `name` and `email` on the same
alternative, and the inviting group must be allowed to invite that
group by the policy.

## A feature

What an alternative offers, explained. A feature that is only layout
is a feature wasted: each one says something true about the choice.

```yaml
    features:
      - name: What you need
        description: The case number from the letter.
        icon: document
        color: "#8ec2c0"
        requirements: [ ... ]      # form fields
        resource: { ... }          # live data
```

## A requirement (a form field)

```yaml
        requirements:
          - name: email            # snake_case; this is the stored key
            label: Your email
            placeholder: you@example.no
            type: email
            optional: false
            value: "{key}"         # a preset; a dynamic page's segment fills it
```

`value: "{user.email}"` or `"{user.name}"` is the signed-in person's
own, and a field it fills is carried rather than asked: someone the
site knows is not asked who they are. A visitor gets the field, empty.

`type` is one of:

| type | what it is |
|---|---|
| `text` | the default |
| `email`, `tel`, `date`, `number`, … | anything else is passed straight through as the HTML input type |
| `textarea` | several lines |
| `prosekit` | a rich-text editor |
| `select` | one choice, or `multiple: true` for any number |
| `file` | an upload, with `accept:` and `multiple:` |
| `location` | a pin on a map, stored as `{lat, lon, zoom}` |
| `record` | the record this one belongs to |
| `gesture`, `voice` | a drawn stroke or a recording, through a redoal relay |
| `hidden` | a carrier value, no label row |
| `module` | a widget the content repo ships |

A `select` takes either inline `options: [...]` or a `resource:` to
draw them from, with `id_field:` naming each item's stable id.

A field may load its value from a resource when a sibling changes:

```yaml
          - name: contents
            type: textarea
            bind:
              field: path          # the sibling to watch
              resource: { source: { kind: url, url: "https://git.example/raw/{path}" } }
```

### type: record

How one case belongs to another — an objection to the application it
objects to, an appeal to the decision it appeals.

```yaml
          - name: case
            type: record
            of: applications       # the bucket the other record is in
            value: "{key}"         # arrives on the link, on a dynamic page
```

Nobody types one of these: the stored value is the parent's record id,
which is a chain hash. It arrives the way it was given out, so the
field carries rather than asks, and renders hidden. A submission
naming a record that is not there is refused, so a reference in a
stored record is one that resolved at least once.

The other half is a listing that asks for the children:

```yaml
        resource:
          source: { kind: kv, bucket: objections }
          requires_group: case_officers
          where: { field: case, equals: "{key}" }
```

And the way there from a list: `link` puts a link on every listed
record to a page about it, with `{id}` for the record's id and
`{field}` for any of its fields. A notice on a public board links to
`/notices/{id}`, the dynamic page `/notices/[key]` whose form carries
the notice's id back in with `value: "{key}"`:

```yaml
        resource:
          source: { kind: kv, bucket: notices }
          public: true
          link: { to: "/notices/{id}", label: I can lend or borrow this }
```

## A resource

Live data, declared by content and read by the server. What a resource
reads is never a client-supplied parameter.

```yaml
        resource:
          source: { kind: kv, bucket: applications }
          key: abc123              # one record instead of the list
          public: true             # or requires_group: case_officers
          states: [approved, refused]      # only these; empty means all
          where: { field: case, equals: "{key}" }
          jq: ".[] | {name, url: .html_url}"
          empty: Nothing decided yet.
          link: { to: "/notices/{id}", label: Answer this }   # a page per record
          transitions:             # the desk's buttons
            - { from: complete, to: on_hearing, label: Send it out }
```

`source.kind` is one of `kv`, `gitea_starred`,
`gitea_releases`, `url`.

A spec with neither `public: true` nor `requires_group` is
unreachable: reads fail closed, and mutations always need a group
whatever `public` says.

`where: { field: email, equals: "{user.email}" }` is "my cases": the
records carrying the signed-in person's own address, read from the
session. A file on such a record is theirs alone to open.

A record that carries a picture (a `type: file` field holding a JPEG,
PNG, WebP, AVIF or GIF) is shown rather than read when the list has no
`transitions`: a card with the picture on top, the first field as its
heading, and the other fields under it, with no field names, state or
time. The cards appear in the order the records were put up. That is
how a site shows the people who work there, or a gallery of what it
has built. On a desk, the same picture is a thumbnail that opens.
`accept: image/jpeg,image/png,image/webp` on the field makes a phone
send a JPEG whatever it keeps its photos as. What the person wrote is shown as
markdown on stricter rules than the site's own: paragraphs, line
breaks as typed, lists, emphasis and links to https, mailto or tel
(marked `nofollow ugc`); no images, no raw HTML.

`states` and `where` narrow a listing. They matter most for a register
that is public by law — public about what was decided, not about what
was withdrawn — while the desk working the same bucket is a different
spec and still sees all of it. A record that has no such field never
matches: "everything that did not say" is not something a page can ask
for by accident.

## needs.yaml

What the site is for, as a checkable spec: who wants what, which
bucket the answer must land in, which group carries it to a finished
state. The runtime never reads it. `iris check` proves the site meets
it, and `iris replay` runs cases through the real engine.