---
title: "Rigel CMS documentation"
url: "https://rigelcms.dev/docs"
description: "Install and configure the Rigel CMS release candidate for an Astro website."
---

Rigel CMS is a Git-based content editor for Astro sites. Developers declare the content model and build the website templates. Editors change content in the browser and save it explicitly.

These guides target `@rigel-cms/rigel@1.0.0-rc.1`, a release candidate, not a stable 1.0 release. See the [RC1 changelog](/changelog/v1.0.0-rc.1/) for the release scope. Features that require unreleased code are labeled separately.

## Start here

-   [Getting started](/docs/getting-started/): install Rigel and make a page editable.
-   [Configuration](/docs/configuration/): choose content folders, backends and defaults.
-   [Content model](/docs/content-model/): declare pages, shared records and article collections.
-   [Preview](/docs/preview/): bind fields to your templates and configure draft and live destinations.
-   [Media](/docs/media/): upload files locally and reuse assets in content.
-   [GitHub publishing](/docs/github-publishing/): connect a repository, save to drafts and publish reviewed changes.

## How content reaches the website

In local mode, Save writes content files through the Astro development server. It does not make a Git commit. In GitHub mode, Save commits to a shared workspace branch, `drafts` by default. Publish reviews that branch and can squash merge a pull request into `main`.

Your deployment pipeline still builds and deploys the website. Saving a draft or merging a pull request is not evidence that a deployment has finished.

The editor preview uses prepared HTML with explicit field bindings. It can patch unsaved content without rebuilding the site, but it does not run the website’s interactive scripts. Rigel does not turn arbitrary Astro components or existing Markdown collections into editable content automatically.

Documentation

On this page