Admin Guide Overview

The Forja admin dashboard is a React-based single-page application that gives you full control over your sites, content, media, and settings. It is accessible at /dashboard in production and at localhost:3000 during local development.

Accessing the Dashboard

Open your browser and navigate to the dashboard URL. If you are not signed in, you will be redirected to the login page at /dashboard/login. Once authenticated via Clerk, you land on the home dashboard.

Layout

The admin interface follows a standard three-zone layout:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Top bar: site selector, search, theme toggle, profile  │
├──────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│          │                                              │
│ Sidebar  │              Main content area               │
│          │                                              │
│  - Home  │                                              │
│  - Sites │                                              │
│  - Blogs │                                              │
│  - Pages │                                              │
│  - ...   │                                              │
│          │                                              │
├──────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Status bar / footer                                    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Top Bar

The top bar contains:

• Site selector -- a dropdown that lets you switch between the sites you manage. Most content operations are scoped to the currently selected site.
• Command palette trigger -- click the search icon or press Cmd+K (macOS) / Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) to open the command palette for quick navigation.
• Theme toggle -- switch between dark and light mode. Your preference is persisted in local storage.
• Language switcher -- change the admin UI language. This does not affect your content locales.
• Notifications bell -- shows unread notification count. Click to view and manage notifications.
• Profile avatar -- click to access your profile page or sign out.

Sidebar Navigation

The sidebar organizes all features into logical groups:

Group	Pages
(ungrouped)	Dashboard
Content	Blogs, Pages, Documents, Legal, Portfolio, Media
(ungrouped)	My Drafts, Trash (admin only)
Structure	Navigation, Taxonomy, Social Links, Redirects
(ungrouped)	Analytics (when enabled)
Administration (admin+)	Members, Site Settings, Webhooks, API Keys, Activity

The sidebar is collapsible. On smaller screens it automatically collapses to icon-only mode.

Main Content Area

The main content area renders the page you selected from the sidebar. Most pages follow a list-detail pattern: a table or grid listing records on the left, and a detail/edit view when you select or create a record.

Site Context

Forja is a multi-site CMS. Before you can manage content, you need to select a site from the site selector in the top bar. All content operations (blogs, pages, media, navigation, etc.) are scoped to the currently active site.

If you have not created any sites yet, the dashboard will guide you through the setup process.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+K / Ctrl+K	Open command palette

Theme Support

The dashboard supports both dark mode and light mode. Toggle between them using the sun/moon icon in the top bar. Your preference is saved and will persist across sessions.

Login Page

When you are not signed in, the dashboard redirects you to the login page. This page renders the Clerk sign-in widget, which supports email/password and social login (Google, GitHub, etc.). After successful authentication, you are redirected back to the dashboard.

If Clerk is not configured, the admin UI cannot authenticate users -- you can still access the API directly with API keys.

API Documentation Viewer

The backend serves interactive API documentation at /api-docs via Swagger UI. This is available without authentication and lets you explore every endpoint, try requests, and inspect response schemas directly in the browser.

Content Detail Pages

When you click into a specific blog post or page, you enter a detail editor with multiple tabs or sections:

• Blog detail -- the Tiptap block editor for writing content, plus sidebar panels for status, slug, featured image, category/tag assignment, excerpt, SEO metadata, and localization.
• Page detail -- a section-based editor where you add, reorder, and configure page sections (Hero, Features, CTA, etc.). Each section has its own title, text, image, and structured items.

These detail views are documented in their respective content guides: Blogs and Pages.

Next Steps

• Authentication -- learn about signing in, signing up, and role-based access.
• Dashboard -- explore the home dashboard and its widgets.
• Sites -- create and manage your sites.