Craft CMS 5 — Content Modeling

How to structure content in Craft CMS 5. Sections, entry types, fields, Matrix, relations, asset management, and strategic patterns for real projects.

This skill covers content architecture — what goes in the CP, how it's organized, and how templates access it. For extending Craft with PHP (plugins, modules, custom element types), see the craftcms skill.

Companion Skills — Always Load Together

When this skill triggers, also load:

• craft-site — Template architecture, component patterns, routing. Required when content decisions affect how templates render data.
• craft-twig-guidelines — Twig coding standards. Required when writing any Twig examples or template code alongside content modeling.
• ddev — All commands run through DDEV. Required for running project config commands, Craft CLI, and content migrations.

Documentation

• Entries: https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/reference/element-types/entries.html
• Sections: https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/reference/element-types/entries.html#sections
• Fields: https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/system/fields.html
• Field types: https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/reference/field-types/
• Matrix: https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/reference/field-types/matrix.html
• Relations: https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/system/relations.html
• Eager loading: https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/development/eager-loading.html
• Project config: https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/system/project-config.html

Use WebFetch on specific doc pages when a reference file doesn't cover enough detail.

The Craft 5 Mental Model

Everything is becoming an entry. Entry types are global (shared across sections and Matrix fields). Fields come from a global pool. This is the "entrification" of Craft — categories, tags, and globals are being unified into entries over a three-version arc:

• Craft 4.4 — entrify CLI commands added to convert categories, tags, and globals to entries
• Craft 5 — Creating new category groups, tag groups, or global sets is no longer possible in the CP. Existing ones continue to work. A unified "Content" section replaces the fragmented entries view. Custom entry index pages (5.9.0) solve the sidebar organization concern.
• Craft 6 — Categories, tags, and global sets will be removed entirely

For new projects, always use entries: Structure sections for hierarchical taxonomy, Channel sections for flat taxonomy, Singles for site-wide settings. For existing projects, migrate at your own pace using the entrify commands.

Three decisions define your content architecture:

1. Which section type organizes the content (Single, Channel, Structure)
2. Which entry types define its shape (global, reusable across contexts)
3. Which relation strategy connects content together (Entries fields, Matrix, CKEditor nested entries, or a combination)

CMS Editions

Craft CMS has four editions (Solo, Team, Pro, Enterprise) that affect content modeling. The key distinction: if any section needs per-group edit/view restrictions, you need Pro or Enterprise (user groups and permissions are Pro+ only). See references/users-and-permissions.md for the full editions table and permissions architecture.

Choose the edition before modeling — it determines whether you can scope content access by user group, which affects section and field architecture.

Section Type Decision

Need	Section Type	URI Example
One-off page (homepage, about, contact)	Single	__home__, about
Site-wide settings (footer, header config)	Single (no URI, preloadSingles)	—
Flat collection (blog, news, events)	Channel	blog/{slug}
Hierarchical pages (docs, services)	Structure	{parent.uri}/{slug}
Taxonomy (topics, categories)	Structure (replaces categories)	topics/{slug}
Flat tags	Channel (replaces tags)	—

Section Properties

Beyond the type, sections have settings that matter for content architecture:

• maxAuthors (default 1) — allows multiple authors per entry (new in 5.0.0). Set higher for collaborative content.
• enableVersioning (default true) — version history for entries
• defaultPlacement — 'beginning' or 'end' for new entries in structures
• previewTargets — array of {label, urlFormat} objects defining where entries can be previewed. Default: primary entry page. Add custom targets for headless frontends, staging URLs, or PDF previews.

Singles replace globals

Set preloadSingles => true in config/general.php to access singles as global Twig variables by handle — identical to the old globals behavior but with drafts, revisions, live preview, and scheduling.

{# With preloadSingles enabled #}
{{ siteSettings.footerText }}
{{ siteSettings.socialLinks.all() }}

Caveat: Singles always propagate to all sites. This is hard-coded.

Structure queries for navigation

{% set topLevel = craft.entries.section('pages').level(1).all() %}
{% set children = craft.entries.descendantOf(entry).descendantDist(1).all() %}
{% set breadcrumbs = craft.entries.ancestorOf(entry).all() %}
{% set siblings = craft.entries.siblingOf(entry).all() %}

Entry Types in Craft 5

Entry types are defined globally (Settings → Entry Types), then attached to sections and Matrix fields. One entry type can serve multiple contexts.

Key implications:

• Changing an entry type's field layout affects every section and Matrix field using it
• Fields come from the global pool — same field definition reused everywhere
• Per-context name/handle/description overrides available (5.6.0+) — useful when the same entry type serves different purposes in different sections
• The global pool demands careful field naming — use specific handles

Entry Type Visual Identity (Craft 5 new)

Entry types have visual properties that improve the editorial experience:

• icon — custom icon identifier, shown in entry type selectors and Matrix "+" menus
• color — one of 20 options (red, orange, amber, yellow, lime, green, emerald, teal, cyan, sky, blue, indigo, violet, purple, fuchsia, pink, rose, white, gray, black)
• description (5.8.0) — help text explaining what this entry type is for
• group (5.8.0) — collapsible grouping in section/Matrix entry type assignments
• uiLabelFormat (5.9.0) — customize the label shown in element indexes (default '{title}')
• hasTitleField / titleFormat — disable the title field and auto-generate from other fields
• showSlugField (5.0.0) / showStatusField (4.5.0) — hide slug or status from editors
• allowLineBreaksInTitles (5.9.0) — for long-form titles

These settings are configured in Settings → Entry Types and affect all contexts where the entry type is used.

Reserved handles — check every proposed field handle against this list

Craft has 83+ reserved handles across all element types via Field::RESERVED_HANDLES. Validation is case-insensitive. Using any of these as a custom field handle will cause a validation error or silent template collision where the native attribute shadows the custom field.

Before proposing any field handle in a content model, check it against the lists below. When a user asks for a field that matches a native attribute name, always use a domain-specific synonym. For example: user says "I need a title field" — the entry already has a native title, so use heading, headline, or pageTitle depending on context.

Most commonly collided (the ones you'll actually try to use):

Reserved	Use Instead	Why
title	heading, headline, label, pageTitle	Native element title
slug	urlSlug, handle	Native URL slug
status	state, phase, condition	Native element status
url	externalUrl, targetUrl, websiteUrl	Native element URL
link	targetLink, ctaLink, primaryLink	Native getLink() method
icon	entryIcon, menuIcon, featureIcon	Native element icon (5.0.0)
parent	parentEntry, parentItem, belongsTo	Native structure parent
children	childEntries, subItems, nestedItems	Native structure children
owner	entryOwner, ownerElement	Native nested entry owner
site	location, branch, region	Native site object
level	depth, tier, nestingLevel	Native structure level
ancestors	parentChain, breadcrumbEntries	Native structure ancestors
siblings	peerEntries, relatedSiblings	Native structure siblings
enabled	isActive, isPublished, isVisible	Native enabled/disabled state
language	locale, contentLanguage	Native site language
localized	translations, localizedVersions	Native localized entries query
next / prev	nextEntry / prevEntry	Native structure navigation
ref	reference, referenceCode	Native reference tag
type	entryType, category, variant	Native entry type
author / authors	writer, creator, contributor	Native entry author(s)
postDate	publishDate, releaseDate, goLiveDate	Native entry post date

Full list of reserved handles shared across ALL element types (from Field::RESERVED_HANDLES):

ancestors, archived, attributes, behaviors, canonical, children, contentTable, dateCreated, dateDeleted, dateLastMerged, dateUpdated, descendants, draftId, enabled, enabledForSite, error, errors, fieldLayoutId, fieldValue, fieldValues, firstSave, icon, id, language, level, lft, link, localized, next, nextSibling, owner, parent, parents, prev, prevSibling, ref, revisionId, rgt, root, searchScore, siblings, site, siteId, siteSettingsId, slug, sortOrder, status, structureId, title, trashed, uid, uri, url, viewMode

Additional per-element-type reserved handles:

Element Type	Additional Reserved
Entries	author, authorId, authorIds, authors, section, sectionId, type, postDate
Assets	alt, extension, filename, folder, height, kind, size, volume, width
Users	active, addresses, admin, affiliatedSiteId, email, firstName, friendlyName, fullName, groups, lastName, locked, name, password, pending, photo, suspended, username
Categories	group
Tags	group
Addresses	address, countryCode, fullName, latLong, organization, organizationTaxId

Also globally reserved (from HandleValidator::$baseReservedWords, applies to ALL handles): attribute, attributeLabels, attributeNames, attributes, dateCreated, dateUpdated, errors, false, fields, handle, id, n, name, no, rules, this, true, uid, y, yes

Field Instances — Reuse Over Duplication

Fields are defined once globally, then instanced into field layouts. Each instance can override four properties without affecting the global definition:

• Label — different display name per context
• Handle — different template handle per context (5.0.0+)
• Instructions — context-specific help text
• Required — required in one layout, optional in another

This means a single heroImage Assets field can be placed in a Blog Post, a Service Page, and a Project entry type — each with different labels ("Hero Image", "Banner", "Cover Photo") and different required settings. The field definition, type, and settings are shared.

The rule: reuse field definitions via instances. Only create a new field when the type or settings differ (e.g., different allowed volumes, different source restrictions, different character limits). Don't create blogHeroImage, serviceHeroImage, projectHeroImage — create one heroImage and instance it.

Multi-instance fields (most field types) can even appear multiple times in the same layout with different handles. Each instance stores its data independently, keyed by the layout element UID in the JSON content column.

Entrification — Migrating Legacy Content

CLI Commands

ddev craft entrify/categories <categoryGroupHandle>   # → Structure section
ddev craft entrify/tags <tagGroupHandle>               # → Channel section
ddev craft entrify/global-set <globalSetHandle>        # → Single section

All three accept --section and --entry-type to target an existing section/entry type instead of creating new ones. entrify/categories and entrify/tags also accept --author.

As of 5.9.0, these commands are interactive — the handle argument is optional.

What the commands do

• Convert the element type to entries
• Migrate all content and field data
• Convert Categories/Tags fields to Entries fields
• Preserve existing relations
• Assign newly created sections to appropriate entry index pages

Entries field for hierarchical selection

When replacing a Categories field with an Entries field, enable Maintain Hierarchy on the Entries field. This auto-selects ancestors when a nested entry is chosen — replicating the category field behavior.

Tags replacement caveat

For flat taxonomies where editors created terms on-the-fly, the on-the-fly creation UX is not yet available for Entries fields. This is the one area where the legacy Tags field still has a UX advantage. Use a Channel section and accept the two-step workflow (create entry separately, then relate it).

CKEditor vs Matrix vs Content Block

Three tools for structured content within an entry — choose based on editing experience:

• Matrix — reorderable blocks, page builders, data grids, media galleries. Multiple view modes (blocks, cards, cards-grid, index).
• CKEditor with nested entries — rich text with occasional structured content inline (image blocks, code blocks, CTAs). Natural writing flow.
• Content Block (5.8.0) — single non-repeatable nested entry for reusable field groups (SEO metadata, banner config).

For the full decision table, nested entry type patterns, and the CKEditor chunks rendering pattern, read references/content-patterns.md.

Common Pitfalls

• Over-using Matrix — if content needs its own URL, independent querying, or permissions, it should be a separate section with an Entries relation field, not a Matrix block.
• Vague or reserved field handles — image, text, link are too generic (and link is actually reserved). For every field handle in a content model, follow this check: (1) is the handle in the reserved list? If yes, use a synonym from the table. (2) Is the handle too generic for the global field pool? If yes, add domain context: featuredImage, bodyContent, primaryLink. (3) Don't over-specify — blogFeaturedImage creates a new field when you could instance featuredImage with a label override.
• Not planning multi-site from the start — propagation method, field translation methods, and site settings must be configured before content exists. Changing propagation later resaves all entries.
• Using categories/tags/globals in new projects — new creation is disabled in Craft 5 CP and they will be removed in Craft 6. Use entries instead.
• Forgetting preloadSingles — without it, singles aren't available as global variables and you need explicit queries.
• Matrix for everything — 15+ entry types in one Matrix field is a red flag. Deeply nested Matrix hits max_input_vars limits and degrades CP performance.
• Not using .eagerly() — every relational field access inside a loop should use .eagerly() to prevent N+1 queries.
• Editing project config YAML manually — let Craft manage config/project/. Use ddev craft project-config/rebuild to regenerate from DB if needed.
• Using database IDs in URI formats — IDs differ across environments. Use {slug}, {canonicalUid}, or custom fields.
• Not setting allowAdminChanges => false in production — without this, production schema changes won't sync back to dev.
• Ignoring entry type visual identity — editors navigate by icon, color, and description. Investing in these settings makes the CP usable as the content model grows.
• Not planning for CMS edition — if you need per-group content permissions, you need Pro or Enterprise. This affects section and field architecture.

Reference Files

Read the relevant reference file(s) for your task.

Task examples:

• "Plan a blog content architecture" → read content-patterns.md
• "Which field type should I use for X?" → read field-types.md
• "Set up relatedTo queries" → read relations-and-eager-loading.md
• "Configure Matrix with nested entries" → read field-types.md (Matrix section)
• "Plan a multi-site content model" → read content-patterns.md + propagation in SKILL.md
• "Set up users, groups, and permissions" → read users-and-permissions.md
• "Understand project config workflow" → this SKILL.md covers the essentials

Reference	Scope
references/field-types.md	All built-in field types: settings, Twig access patterns, query syntax, gotchas. Matrix configuration, view modes, nesting.
references/relations-and-eager-loading.md	relatedTo() shapes (4 forms), .with() eager loading, .eagerly() lazy eager loading, nested eager loading, native eager-loadable attributes.
references/content-patterns.md	Strategic patterns for blog, portfolio, multi-site corporate. Section/field/relation architecture per pattern. Entrification migration. CKEditor vs Matrix decisions.
references/users-and-permissions.md	Users, user groups, CMS editions, addresses, permissions architecture, field layout UI elements.

Propagation Methods (Multi-Site)

Available for channels and structures. Singles always propagate to all sites.

Method	Behavior
Only save to site created in	Entries exist in one site only
Same site group	Entries propagate within the same site group
Same language	Entries propagate to sites sharing the same language
All enabled sites	Entries exist in all enabled sites (default)
Let each entry choose	Per-entry control via Status sidebar

Matrix fields have their own propagation method, independent of the section's.

Field Translation Methods

Per-field setting controlling how values behave across sites:

Method	Behavior
Not translatable	Same value across all sites
Per site	Independent value per site
Per site group	Shared within site group, independent across groups
Per language	Shared across sites with same language
Custom	User-defined grouping key

Configure translation methods before populating content.

Project Config Essentials

All schema changes (sections, entry types, fields, volumes, transforms, sites, plugins, permissions) are stored as YAML in config/project/.

Workflow

1. Make CP changes in development environment
2. YAML auto-updates in config/project/
3. Commit to Git
4. Deploy to staging/production
5. Run ddev craft up (applies migrations + project config)

Rules

• Never manually edit YAML — let Craft manage it
• Always set allowAdminChanges => false in production
• Use UIDs (not IDs) — they're stable across environments
• After resolving Git merge conflicts in YAML: ddev craft project-config/touch then ddev craft project-config/apply
• Use $ENV_VAR syntax in YAML for environment-specific values
• After every project config change (whether editing project.yaml or any subfile in config/project/): run ddev craft project-config/touch to update the dateModified timestamp, then ddev craft up to apply. The CP auto-updates dateModified when changes are saved through the UI, but any change made outside the CP (Git pull, manual edit, merge conflict resolution, script) requires project-config/touch to signal that config has changed. Without it, craft up on other environments won't detect the change. This is a hard rule — never skip it.

How Craft Stores Content

Understanding the storage architecture helps make better content modeling decisions.

The Five-Table Model

Every element writes to multiple tables on save:

1. elements — Identity registry. Stores ID, element type, enabled/archived/soft-deleted flags, timestamps. Does NOT store content.
2. elements_sites — Per-site state. Stores URI, slug, per-site enabled status, and the content JSON column where all custom field values live.
3. Element-type table (entries, assets, users, etc.) — Type-specific attributes. For entries: section, type, author, postDate, expiryDate.
4. relations — Normalized source-to-target connections for relational fields. Enables bidirectional relatedTo() queries.
5. searchindex — Denormalized text projection for full-text search. Rebuildable from canonical data.

Field Values Are JSON Keyed by Instance UID

Custom field values are stored in elements_sites.content as JSON, keyed by the field layout element UID (not the field handle). This is why field instances work — the same field definition can appear multiple times in a layout with different handles, and each stores its data independently under its own instance UID.

This matters when:

• Debugging content in the database — look up the field layout element UID, not the handle
• Writing migrations that move field data — reference UIDs
• Understanding why renaming a field handle doesn't require a migration

Relations: Two Storage Layers

Relational fields store data in two places:

• JSON (elements_sites.content) — records which elements were selected and their order per field instance
• relations table — normalized source-to-target connections that power relatedTo() queries in both directions

This dual storage is why relatedTo() queries are fast (indexed relations table) while the field value on an element reflects the authoring context (JSON).

Nested Entries (Matrix) Are Full Elements

Matrix entries are not stored in a separate content table. They are first-class elements with their own rows in elements, elements_sites, and entries. Parent linkage is in elements_owners. This means nested entries support relations, drafts, permissions, and search indexing — but also explains why deeply nested Matrix fields are expensive (many rows written per save, max_input_vars limits on large forms).

Structures Use Nested Sets

Structure sections store hierarchy in structureelements using a nested set model (left/right boundary values). This makes ancestry and descendant queries very fast without recursion, but reordering large structures requires recalculating boundary values across many rows.

Drafts Reuse Unchanged Nested Entries

When a draft is created, unchanged nested entries are not duplicated — they are reused from the canonical element. Only when a nested entry is modified in the draft does it get its own derivative element row. This minimizes storage overhead but means draft creation time scales with the number of modified blocks, not total blocks.

Asset Volumes, Filesystems, and Transforms

The Three-Layer Model

1. Filesystem — the storage backend (local disk, S3, Google Cloud, Azure). Defined once with a handle, base URL, and settings. Plugins add cloud filesystems.
2. Volume — the content layer. References a filesystem, adds a field layout for asset metadata, and controls permissions. This is what editors see.
3. Image Transform — the processing layer. Named transforms (defined in Settings) or ad-hoc transforms (defined in templates). Can be stored on a separate filesystem from originals.

Filesystem Architecture Decisions

Approach	When to use
One filesystem, one volume	Simple projects. Local dev with a single uploads directory.
One filesystem, multiple volumes	When you want separate content buckets (Images, Documents, Videos) but all stored in the same S3 bucket. Each volume uses a unique subpath (e.g., images/, documents/).
Multiple filesystems, multiple volumes	When storage requirements differ — images on a CDN-optimized filesystem, documents on standard storage, private files on a non-public filesystem.
Separate transform filesystem	When you want transforms on a CDN or different storage tier. Set transformFs on the volume — originals stay on the primary filesystem.

Subpath rules: When volumes share a filesystem, each must have a unique first-level subpath directory. If Volume A uses images/, Volume B cannot use images/ or images/photos/ — but documents/ is fine.

Environment variables: Filesystem handles and subpaths support $ENV_VAR syntax via App::parseEnv(), so storage can differ between local/staging/production.

Volume Settings for Content Modeling

Each volume has its own field layout — this is where you add custom metadata fields for assets. Common patterns:

• Alternative Text (native field layout element) — always include for accessibility. Has its own translation method (altTranslationMethod) for multi-site.
• Title translation — titleTranslationMethod controls whether asset titles differ per site (default: per site).
• Custom fields — photographer credit, copyright notice, focal point, usage rights, expiry date.
• Reserved handles on volumes: alt, extension, filename, folder, height, kind, size, volume, width.

File type restrictions are set on the Assets field (per usage), not on the volume itself. The same volume can serve images in one field and documents in another.

Modeling Decisions

Question	Guidance
How many volumes?	One per logical content bucket. Separate images from documents from private files.
How many filesystems?	One per storage requirement. Dev uses local, production uses S3 — same volume handle, different filesystem per environment.
Should transforms use a separate filesystem?	Yes if you want transforms on a CDN or cheaper storage. Otherwise the primary filesystem works fine.
Do volumes need different field layouts?	Yes — photos need credit/copyright fields, documents need version/category fields.
How to handle multi-site asset metadata?	Set altTranslationMethod and titleTranslationMethod per volume. Most projects use "per site" for alt text (accessibility translations) and "not translatable" for filenames.

Image Transforms

{# Named transform (defined in Settings → Assets → Image Transforms) #}
<img src="{{ asset.getUrl('thumb') }}" alt="{{ asset.alt }}">

{# Ad-hoc transform #}
{% set transform = { width: 300, height: 200, mode: 'crop', format: 'webp' } %}
<img src="{{ asset.getUrl(transform) }}" alt="{{ asset.alt }}">

{# Srcset #}
{{ asset.getImg({ width: 300 }, ['1.5x', '2x', '3x']) }}

Transform modes: crop (default), fit, stretch, letterbox. Formats: jpg, png, webp, avif. The letterbox mode supports a fill color (4.4.0+). upscale control (4.4.0+) prevents small images from being enlarged.

Named vs ad-hoc: Use named transforms for consistent sizes reused across templates (hero, thumbnail, card). Use ad-hoc transforms for one-off sizes or when transforms need to be dynamic. Named transforms are stored in project config and sync across environments.