Documentation

Everything you need to get Atelier running and serving your first tenant site.

Get Started

๐Ÿš€

Quick Start

Sign up, create your site, upload your media, and publish your first page โ€” live in under 10 minutes, no credit card required.

Read Guide โ†’
๐ŸŽจ

Brand & Theme

Set colors, fonts, and upload your logo. Changes cascade across every page instantly โ€” no republishing needed.

Read Guide โ†’
๐Ÿ“

Page Builder

Add and arrange content blocks โ€” Hero, Carousel, Rich Text, Services Grid, Testimonial, CTA, Contact Form, and more.

Read Guide โ†’
๐ŸŒ

Custom Domain

Connect your own domain name. Atelier provisions a free TLS certificate automatically once your DNS records resolve.

Read Guide โ†’

Quick Start

We'll build a portfolio site for Mia Solano, a freelance illustrator โ€” use her setup as a template for your own.

Atelier is currently in early access. Self-service sign-up is coming soon. In the meantime, contact us to request access and we'll provision your account manually.
  • Sign up
  • Create site
  • Build
  • Publish

1. Get access

  1. Contact us to request an account โ€” include your name and intended use case
  2. We'll provision a Starter tenant for you and email your login credentials
  3. Head to yoursite.ateliercms.com/admin/login and sign in
  4. Change your password immediately under Settings โ†’ Account
Starter plan includes 10 pages, 20 blog posts, and 1 GB of media storage. No credit card required.

2. Create your first site

After signing in you land on the Sites dashboard. Click + New Site and fill in the setup form:

Field Example Notes
Site name Mia Solano Design Shown in the browser tab and admin header
Subdomain mia-solano Your instant free address: mia-solano.ateliercms.com
Site type Portfolio / Creative Seeds appropriate theme defaults

Atelier provisions your site in seconds. You can connect a custom domain any time under Settings โ†’ Domain.

3. Set your brand

Go to Admin โ†’ Settings โ†’ Theme. Changes cascade across every page instantly โ€” no republishing needed.

Setting Mia's value
Primary color #1a1a1a (near-black)
Accent color #e8d5b7 (warm cream)
Background #fafaf8 (off-white)
Heading font Playfair Display
Body font DM Sans

Under Settings โ†’ Theme โ†’ Logo, upload a PNG or SVG. Until you do, your site name displays as text โ€” nothing breaks.

4. Upload your media

Go to Admin โ†’ Media and click Upload Files. All images on your site come from here โ€” upload first, then pull into pages.

What Format Max size
Portfolio pieces (6โ€“10 images) JPEG or WebP 8 MB each
Process shots / sketches PNG or JPEG 8 MB each
Profile / about photo JPEG 4 MB

After each upload click the image and fill in the alt text field. This is required for accessibility and helps search engines understand your work.

5. Build a portfolio page

Go to Admin โ†’ Pages โ†’ + New Page. Set the title to Portfolio โ€” the slug auto-fills as portfolio. Then click + Add Block and build this sequence:

Block 1 โ€” Hero

Heading: Work ยท Subheading: Illustration ยท Branding ยท Editorial ยท Alignment: Center

Block 2 โ€” Carousel

Choose 6โ€“8 images from your Media Library. Set aspect ratio 4:3, captions to Overlay, auto-advance Off. Drag thumbnails to reorder. Renders as a touch-swipeable scroll-snap strip โ€” no third-party library.

Block 3 โ€” Rich Text

Write a 2โ€“3 sentence artist statement. Select a line and click Block Quote to style it as a pull-quote.

Block 4 โ€” CTA

Heading: Let's work together ยท Body: Available for commissions and editorial briefs. ยท Button: Get in touch โ†’ /contact

Drag any block by its handle (โ ฟ) to reorder. When you're happy, click Publish.

6. Set up navigation

Go to Admin โ†’ Settings โ†’ Navigation and click + Add Link for each item. The nav bar updates instantly โ€” no republishing required.

Label URL Order
Portfolio /portfolio 1
About /about 2
Contact /contact 3

7. Create a contact page

First, build the form. Go to Admin โ†’ Forms โ†’ + New Form:

  • Form name: Hire Enquiry
  • Notification email: your address
  • Fields: Name (text, required), Email (email, required), Project type (dropdown), Message (textarea, required)

Then create the page. Go to Admin โ†’ Pages โ†’ + New Page, slug contact, and add two blocks:

  • Hero โ€” heading Say hello, subheading I read every message.
  • Contact Form โ€” select Hire Enquiry from the dropdown

Click Publish. Submissions arrive at your notification email with all field values included.

8. Preview before publishing

Click Preview (top bar, next to Publish) on any unpublished page to see the exact public view. The preview link works without logging in โ€” share it with a client for sign-off.

9. Connect a custom domain

  1. Go to Admin โ†’ Settings โ†’ Domain
  2. Enter your domain name โ€” e.g. miasolano.com
  3. Add the two DNS records Atelier displays at your registrar:
@    โ†’  38.15.196.190
www  โ†’  mia-solano.ateliercms.com

Click Verify. Atelier polls DNS automatically and issues a free TLS certificate once records resolve. You'll get a confirmation email โ€” typically 5โ€“30 minutes after adding the records.

What's Next?

Goal Where to go
Write about your process Admin โ†’ Blog โ†’ + New Post
Build an About page Admin โ†’ Pages โ†’ + New Page
Upload more work Admin โ†’ Media โ†’ Upload Files
Change brand colors or fonts Admin โ†’ Settings โ†’ Theme
Review contact form submissions Admin โ†’ Forms โ†’ form name โ†’ Submissions
Add a second site Sites Dashboard โ†’ + New Site

Ready to log in?

The seed script created an admin user โ€” head to the admin panel to start building.

Go to Admin โ†’