Introduction
Core Concepts
Brease CMS is organized around a set of core entities. Understanding how they relate is essential before building with brease-next.
Team
An organizational unit that owns sites. Each team has members with roles (owner, admin, editor). When you sign up, a team is created automatically.
Site
A web project belonging to a team. Each site has a name, a production domain, and a preview domain. A site contains one or more environments.
Environment
A deployment context within a site (e.g., main, staging). Environments scope all content: pages, sections, collections, navigations, redirects, media, and locales. Each environment has a UUID used for API access.
Environments are fully independent
Content in the main environment is completely separate from staging. You can build and preview changes in staging without affecting production.
Locale
A language/region code (e.g., en, sk, de-AT). Each environment can have multiple locales, with one marked as the default. All content — page sections, collection entries, navigation items — is stored per locale.
Page
A URL route within an environment. Each page has:
- slug: the URL path (e.g.,
/about,/services/consulting) - SEO metadata: metaTitle, metaDescription, openGraph, twitterCard, canonicalUrl, structuredData
- sections: ordered content blocks (see below)
- indexing: toggle to control search engine indexing
- customCode: HTML/JS injection into the page head or body
Section
A reusable content structure (schema) defined in the Editor. A section has a matrix of rows and slots — each slot holds an Element with a type and key.
The section's key is what maps to a React component in brease-next's sectionMap. For example, a section with key hero maps to sectionMap.hero.
Sections can be Global — shared across multiple pages with the same content.
Element
A typed content field within a section or collection. Each element has a unique key within its parent and one of 14+ types: String, Long Text, Rich Text, Integer, Decimal, Boolean, DateTime, Media, Link, Collection, Reference, Option, List, JSON, Location.
See Element Types Reference for the full list.
Collection
Like a Section, but designed for repeatable data. You define the structure once (with elements), then create many Entries. Think: partner logos, FAQs, team members.
Entry
A single record in a Collection. Each entry has:
- name: identification
- status: published or unpublished
- visibility: hidden or shown
- ordering: drag-and-drop reordering
- per-locale element content: the actual data, scoped by locale
Template
An ordered bundle of Sections. A template defines "this page has Hero, then Content, then CTA." Used to standardize page layouts across your site.
Page Type
Combines a Template with Reference fields (page-level data). When you assign a Page Type to a new page, its template sections are pre-populated and reference fields become available as page-level data.
Navigation
A named container of navigation items, scoped per environment and localized per locale. Items can be:
- page: internal link to a page
- url: external URL
- media: link to a media file
- group: a dropdown container with nested children
Items support arbitrary nesting for multi-level menus.
Redirect
A source/destination URL pair with a type:
- 301: permanent redirect
- 302: temporary redirect
- 307: temporary, preserves HTTP method
- 308: permanent, preserves HTTP method
Media
Uploaded files with automatic responsive variants: sm, md, lg, xl, 2xl, hd, and original. Supports images, video, audio, and documents.
Editor vs Builder vs Manager
This is the most important distinction in Brease.
| Tool | Purpose | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Editor | Define section and collection schemas (the structure) | Create sections with rows, slots, and elements. Define collections with element fields. This is where you design what content looks like. |
| Builder | Fill in page section content (the data per page) | Select a page, then populate its section elements with actual content — text, images, links, etc. |
| Manager | Fill in collection entry content (the data per entry) | Browse a collection, create entries, and fill in their element fields with data. |
Think of it this way
The Editor is the architect (designs the blueprint). The Builder is the interior designer (decorates each room/page). The Manager is the librarian (manages the catalog/collection of entries).