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If your project doesn’t have a hiveku.cms.json file yet, the CMS panel can scaffold one for you with a single click. This guide walks through that first-time setup, what the scaffold creates, and how to customize it before you start adding entries.
You only need to initialize once per project. After that, adding new collections is a separate flow — see Add a New Collection.

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What “Initialize” Does

When you click Initialize CMS, Hiveku:
  1. Creates hiveku.cms.json at your project root
  2. Adds a default blog collection with sensible fields
  3. Creates the content/blog/ directory
  4. Writes one seed entry — welcome.mdx — so the collection isn’t empty
  5. Reloads the CMS panel pointing at the new collection
The whole thing takes a couple of seconds.

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Steps

1

Open your project in /v3

From the dashboard, click the project you want to set up.
2

Switch the right pane to CMS

The right pane has three tabs at the top — Preview, Code, CMS. Click CMS.Since there’s no manifest yet, you’ll see an empty state with a description of what the CMS does and an Initialize CMS button.
3

Click Initialize CMS

A confirmation dialog summarizes what will be created:
  • hiveku.cms.json at the project root
  • content/blog/ directory
  • One seed entry: content/blog/welcome.mdx
Click Create to proceed.
4

Confirm the file appeared in the file tree

Switch the right pane to Code briefly. You should see hiveku.cms.json at the root and a content/ folder containing blog/welcome.mdx. Switch back to CMS to keep working.
5

Inspect the default fields

The CMS panel now shows the Blog Posts collection with one entry (welcome). Click it to open the form.The default fields are:
  • title (string, required)
  • publishedAt (date)
  • status (select: draft / published)
  • tags (array of strings)
  • body (markdown, the post body)
These are a sensible starting point for most blogs. You can change them at any time.
6

Edit the seed entry (optional)

The seed entry has placeholder content. Edit the title, body, and any other fields, then click Save. The preview updates with the new content.

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What the Scaffold Creates

The scaffold writes a manifest with a single collection. Here’s the literal output: 
{
  "version": 1,
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "blog",
      "name": "Blog Posts",
      "path": "content/blog",
      "format": "mdx",
      "slugFrom": "filename",
      "fields": [
        { "name": "title", "type": "string", "required": true },
        { "name": "publishedAt", "type": "date" },
        { "name": "status", "type": "select", "options": ["draft", "published"], "default": "draft" },
        { "name": "tags", "type": "array", "items": "string" },
        { "name": "body", "type": "markdown", "isBody": true }
      ],
      "routePattern": "/blog/{slug}",
      "defaultSort": "publishedAt desc"
    }
  ],
  "webhooks": []
}
And the seed entry: 
---
title: "Welcome to your CMS"
publishedAt: "2026-04-25"
status: "published"
tags: ["welcome"]
---

This is your first CMS entry. Edit me, or delete me and create a new one.

You can write Markdown here. Images, headings, lists, links — they all work.

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Customize Before Going Further

A few common tweaks people make right after initialization:

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Add an excerpt field

Useful for blog index pages that show a teaser per post: 
Ask the AI: "Add an excerpt field (multiline string, max 280 chars) to the blog collection."

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Add an author reference

If your blog has multiple authors, create an authors collection and reference it from the blog: 
Ask the AI: "Add an authors collection with name, bio, and avatar. Then add an
author reference field to the blog collection, required."

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Rename body to content

Personal preference — the field name shows up in MDX frontmatter for every entry, so make it match your style.

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Replace the default seed entry

If you don’t want the placeholder welcome post, delete it from the entry list and create your real first post.

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Initializing Without the UI

You can also initialize from the AI chat: 
Set up a CMS for this project. I want a blog collection and a separate
authors collection. Authors should have name, bio, avatar, and a Twitter
URL. Blog posts reference authors.
The AI will scaffold the manifest, create the directories, and (optionally) seed both collections — and may infer additional fields based on what your existing site looks like.

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Verifying the Setup

A quick checklist after initialization:
Open the right pane, set it to CMS mode. The collection picker should list Blog Posts (or whatever you set up).
Click the welcome entry. The Live Preview should navigate to /blog/welcome and show the rendered post.If the preview shows a 404, your blog template hasn’t been wired up to read the CMS yet. Ask the AI: “My blog template at app/blog/[slug]/page.tsx isn’t reading from the CMS — fix it.”
Switch to Code mode. You should see hiveku.cms.json at the root and content/blog/welcome.mdx.
Edit the seed entry, save, then open the version history drawer. You should see the new save in the list — that confirms versioning is working.

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Troubleshooting

A hiveku.cms.json already exists in the project. Open the code editor to confirm. If you want a fresh scaffold, delete the existing manifest first (or back it up to a different name).
Rare, but possible if your project has an unusual structure. Open hiveku.cms.json in the code editor and check for typos or invalid JSON. The error banner in the CMS panel points at the offending field.
Your blog template doesn’t exist yet, or doesn’t read from the CMS. The scaffold creates the manifest and entry but doesn’t generate React components — see “My blog template isn’t wired up” in the AI chat for an automated fix.
Delete hiveku.cms.json and the content/ directory from the code editor, then click Initialize CMS again.
Deleting the manifest and content directory removes all entries. If you have content you want to keep, snapshot the project first.

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What’s Next?

Add a Collection

Add more collections beyond the default blog

Migrate a Site

Move hardcoded content into the CMS

Editing Content

Day-to-day use of the CMS panel

The Manifest

Full reference for hiveku.cms.json