Content schemas

Studio uses Astro’s content collection system with Zod schemas to define the structure of your content. Schemas drive the editing forms, validation rules, and default values automatically — meaning your type definitions become the single source of truth for how content is authored and validated across the platform.

How schemas work

Content lives in src/content/{collection}/ as Markdown or MDX files with YAML frontmatter. Each collection has a Zod schema defined in src/content/config.ts that describes the shape of that frontmatter. Studio extracts these schemas at project load time and uses them to generate form fields for both the visual editor and the entry editor.

This means there is no separate CMS configuration to maintain. When you update your Zod schema, Studio automatically reflects those changes in the editing interface — new fields appear, removed fields disappear, and validation rules update instantly.

Viewing schemas

Navigate to Schema from the Studio sidebar to see an overview of every content collection in your project. The schema view displays:

Detail	Description
Field count	The number of fields defined in the collection’s Zod schema
Entry count	How many content entries exist in the collection
Data directory path	The file system path where the collection’s content files are stored

Use the grid and list view toggle in the top-right corner to switch between a card layout and a compact table layout, depending on how many collections your project contains.

Creating a collection

To create a new content collection:

1. Click Create Collection from the schema view.
2. Enter a collection name. Studio auto-slugs the name to lowercase (for example, “Blog Posts” becomes blog-posts).
3. Optionally copy fields from an existing collection to use as a starting point.
4. Click Create to confirm.

Studio performs three actions when a collection is created:

• Updates src/content/config.ts with the new collection definition and its Zod schema
• Creates the data directory at src/content/{collection}/
• Scaffolds an Astro page template so the collection is immediately renderable in your site

Field types

Studio supports the following Zod field types, each mapped to a purpose-built form control:

Type	Form control	Example use
string	Text input	Page title, author name, description
number	Number input	Sort order, rating, word count
boolean	Checkbox	Draft status, featured flag, visibility toggle
date	Date/time picker	Publish date, last modified, event start
enum	Dropdown	Category selection, status level, content type
tags	Tag input (array of strings)	Post tags, keywords, related topics
image	Media picker	Hero image, thumbnail, author avatar
array	Dynamic list	Related links, footnotes, changelog entries
object	Nested field group	SEO metadata, social card settings, author details

Note

The tags type is a convenience mapping for z.array(z.string()). Studio renders it as a tag input rather than a generic array editor, giving authors a more intuitive interface for managing lists of short text values.

Editing a schema

Open any collection from the schema view to launch the Schema Editor. From here you can:

• Add fields — Choose a field type and configure its name, label, and validation rules.
• Remove fields — Delete fields that are no longer needed. Existing entries retain the data in their frontmatter until the files are updated.
• Reorder fields — Drag fields to change the order they appear in the editing form.
• Change types — Switch a field’s type (for example, from string to enum) and Studio updates the form control accordingly.
• Toggle required — Mark fields as required or optional. Required fields show validation errors if left empty.
• Set defaults — Define default values that pre-populate when authors create new entries.
• Define enum options — For enum fields, specify the list of allowed values that appear in the dropdown.

When you click Save, Studio writes the updated Zod schema back to src/content/config.ts and regenerates the editing forms for that collection.

Example schema

A typical src/content/config.ts file looks like this:

import { defineCollection, z } from 'astro:content';

const blog = defineCollection({
  schema: z.object({
    title: z.string(),
    date: z.date(),
    draft: z.boolean().default(true),
    tags: z.array(z.string()).default([]),
    image: z.string().optional(),
    category: z.enum(['tutorial', 'news', 'opinion']),
  })
});

export const collections = { blog };

This schema produces a form with six fields: a text input for the title, a date picker for the date, a checkbox for draft status (defaulting to checked), a tag input for tags, a media picker for the optional image, and a dropdown for category with three choices.

Tip

For complex schemas, generate a quant.studio.json file using the Quant runtime CLI for 100% accurate schema extraction. Studio falls back to regex-based parsing of config.ts when this file is not present, which may not fully resolve advanced Zod patterns such as discriminated unions or deeply nested transforms.

Next steps

• Visual editor — Learn how to edit content inline with live preview and click-to-edit annotations
• Content management — Create, organise, and manage entries across your content collections