The editor
This documents the editor-facing workflow in plain language - what someone managing content actually does, not the underlying code.
Page creation
From the page index (/inlay/pages), click New page. Give it a title - the only required field. A public path is optional: leave it blank for a page your application renders itself through its own route (see Embedded rendering), or fill it in (e.g. about/team) to have Inlay serve it publicly once published. The field beneath it shows the exact URL the page will publish at, reflecting whatever prefix your application has configured. You can also set a meta title, a meta description, and mark the page as your site's homepage.
If your developer has registered more than one Page type, choose one - it controls which blocks this page may contain and can't be changed after creation (see Page Definitions); with only the default type available, this field doesn't appear at all. Click Create page to open the new page's editor.
The page index itself lists every page, most recently updated first, with All / Draft / Published tabs above the table, a search box that filters by title, and a status badge next to each one - plus a distinct Homepage badge for whichever page is currently set as your site's root.
Layout
The editor is two panes, not three:
- The contextual panel (left) - shows the page's block tree by default, and switches to a selected block's settings when you're editing one. The two never share space; selecting a block replaces the tree rather than appearing alongside it. Drag its right edge to resize it, double-click the edge (or click the small arrow that appears on hover) to collapse it entirely, and your chosen width is remembered the next time you open the editor.
- Preview (right) - a real iframe showing the page as your own application would actually render it, given the dominant share of the editor's width - collapse the contextual panel for an edge-to-edge view. This is a visual composition tool built around the preview, not a settings form with a preview bolted on the side.
Page Settings
Click Page Settings in the header to edit the page itself - title, public path, homepage status, meta title, and meta description - separately from any block's settings. This replaces the tree in the contextual panel exactly like selecting a block does; it isn't a third, permanently-visible column, and the dominant preview pane is unaffected.
It's organised into three sections: General (title, the page's type if one is set, public path with its live effective-URL preview, and the homepage checkbox), Search metadata (meta title and description), and Publishing (the page's current status and when it was last published). A page's type is shown here for reference only - it was fixed at creation and can't be changed.
Click Save page settings to persist changes - unlike block settings, which save automatically as you type, page settings save as one explicit action, since a title/path/homepage change is a more deliberate edit than tweaking a block's field. Click ← Blocks to return to the tree.
Selecting a block
Click any block in the tree to select it - the panel swaps from the tree to that block's settings, showing its display name and a guessed instance label (e.g. Hero - "Welcome") so you can tell apart several blocks of the same type. Click ← Blocks at the top of the settings pane, or press Escape, to go back to the tree - the block you were editing stays highlighted there, so you always know where you left off.
Adding a block
Click + Add to open the block picker - a drawer sliding in from the same edge as the panel, with a search box already focused and every block this page's type allows below it, grouped under the category its developer assigned (or "Uncategorised" if none was set). If the page has no restrictions, that's every registered block; if it does, blocks the page's type doesn't allow simply don't appear, in the picker or in your recently-added row.
Type to filter by name or description instantly. Click a block's card to add it to the end of the page and select it immediately - the drawer closes and its settings appear in the panel, all showing the block's own defaults, since nothing has been edited yet.
Editing settings
Editing a field in the inspector saves automatically - there's no separate "save settings" step. Text fields save shortly after you stop typing; toggles, selects, and checkboxes save the moment you change them. A field that only makes sense in combination with another (for example, a "button label" field that only matters when "show button" is on) appears or disappears automatically as you change the field it depends on.
Only fields the block's developer actually exposed can ever be edited or saved here - there's no way to add a setting the block doesn't declare.
A block with a lot of settings can group them under named, collapsible headings, and - once there's more than one - into tabs across the top of the inspector (Content, Appearance, SEO, and so on). Both are entirely up to the developer who built the block; a simple block with a handful of settings shows them flat, with no extra structure to click through. A field can also carry a small badge (e.g. "New") next to its label, and a required field that's still empty shows a calm reminder rather than an alarming error - you're still composing the page, not submitting a form.
Reordering
Grab the grip handle on the left of any block row and drag it up or down to reorder the page. The reorder saves immediately; there's no separate confirmation step. Reordering is only available from the tree, so if you're currently editing a block's settings, go back first. If you'd rather not drag: focus a row (Tab, or the arrow keys), then use the keyboard shortcuts below - reordering with the keyboard never opens the row's settings, so you can stay in the tree the whole time.
A row marked Locked shows a lock icon instead of a drag handle and can't be reordered by keyboard either - its position is fixed by the page's type (see Page Definitions).
Duplicating
Hover a block row to reveal its action icons, and click the duplicate icon to insert an exact copy - same block, same settings - directly after it. The copy is selected automatically, and its settings replace the tree in the panel, so you can start editing it right away. Duplicating a Locked block is allowed - the copy is locked too.
Deleting
Hover a block row and click the delete icon, or press the Delete key while it's focused. You'll be asked to confirm, since this can't be undone from the editor - deleting removes it from the page's current draft immediately. Deleting the block you're currently editing (or another browser tab or session deleting it out from under you) safely returns the panel to the tree rather than leaving a settings pane open for a block that no longer exists.
A row marked Locked has no delete control at all. A row marked Required can still be deleted as long as another instance of the same block remains elsewhere on the page - deleting the last one is blocked, since the page's type requires at least one.
Instance labels
The tree identifies each block by its registered display name, plus a short instance detail guessed from its own settings - Hero - "Welcome" rather than a bare, indistinguishable hero repeated for every instance. The guess checks (in order) a setting named heading, title, name, or label, then falls back to the first short text setting declared - never a textarea, rich text, image, or structured field, so a list label can never surface long-form or sensitive content. A block can name a specific field explicitly instead of relying on the guess - see Instance labels.
Conditional settings
Some settings only make sense in combination with another - a "background colour" field that only matters when "background type" is set to "Colour", say. These appear and disappear instantly as you change the field they depend on, with a brief animation rather than a jump, and without reloading anything.
Preview
The preview pane on the right reloads automatically whenever anything about the page changes - adding, editing, reordering, duplicating, or deleting a block - dimming briefly while the new render loads rather than flashing blank. It always shows the page's current draft state, rendered through your application's own configured preview view (or a plain, clearly-labeled placeholder if none has been configured yet), so what you see is what a real visit to your site would render once published. A small address bar above the frame shows the page's resolved public URL (or "Not published" if it has no path yet) - a reminder that this is a real page, not a form preview.
Use Desktop / Tablet / Mobile above the preview to check how the page looks at different widths - this resizes the preview frame itself, not a simulated device, and your choice is remembered the next time you open the editor. The refresh icon reloads the preview immediately if you ever want to force a fresh render. A page with no blocks yet shows a quiet "Nothing here yet" mark inside the frame, so an empty preview never looks like a loading failure.
On a narrow browser window or a small screen, the editor switches to one panel at a time - an Edit / Preview control above the panel swaps between the tree-or-settings pane and the preview, rather than trying to fit both into unusably narrow columns.
Draft state
Every change you make in the editor writes to the page's draft immediately. Nothing you do here is visible to visitors of your live site until you explicitly publish - you can experiment, undo by hand, and leave a page half-edited without any risk to what's currently live. While a change is being saved, a brief "Saving…" indicator appears next to the page's status; the editor never leaves you guessing about whether an edit landed.
Publishing
Click Publish in the top bar. This takes a complete snapshot of the page's current draft - every block, in order, with every setting fully resolved - and makes it the page's new live, public version. The button shows "Publishing…" while the request is in flight, then a confirmation briefly appears. Publishing again later creates a new snapshot; it never overwrites or loses a previous one.
If the page doesn't satisfy its type's rules - a required block is missing, or a block on the page isn't allowed - a calm banner explains exactly what's wrong, in plain language, before you even click Publish, and the click itself won't succeed until it's corrected.
Keyboard shortcuts
- Block tree: Up/Down moves focus between blocks; Enter opens the focused one's settings; Alt+Up/Alt+Down reorders it (the same reorder a drag would perform) without opening it; Delete removes it (with the same confirmation as clicking the delete icon).
- Settings: Escape returns to the block tree, keeping the same block highlighted and focused there.
- Block picker: opens with the search box already focused; Up/Down highlights a result; Enter adds the highlighted one; Escape closes the picker before it would otherwise close the settings pane behind it.
- Contextual panel width: focus the divider between the panel and the preview, then Left/Right resizes it.
- Press ? anywhere in the editor (outside a text field) to open a reference card listing all of these, or click the keyboard icon in the header.
Revision history
Click History in the top bar - the panel switches to a list of every past publish, most recent first, in place of whatever it was showing. Click Restore next to an older one to bring the page's content back to exactly that state.
If it still satisfies the page's current type, restoring both updates the draft and publishes it immediately, creating a new revision labeled with which one it was restored from - restoring isn't a preview-only action, it takes effect on your live site right away, the same as clicking Publish. If the page's type has changed since that revision was published and the restored content no longer satisfies it, the content still lands in your draft, but nothing is published - the same standing violation banner as above explains what needs fixing before you can publish it.
The panel returns to the block tree afterwards, since a restore replaces every block on the page.