Kirby Panel Configuration: Blueprints, Permissions, Customization

Configuring the Kirby Panel (Admin Panel)

Panel is Kirby's built-in content management interface, built on Vue.js. When developing with Kirby CMS, you often encounter that the default panel doesn't match the business logic: fields are scattered, permissions are either absent or excessive, and editors get confused by the interface. A typical mistake is using only text fields, missing out on structure, blocks, or files, which leads to 30% content duplication and up to 2 hours of editor time wasted per day. Another issue is improper role configuration: editors can delete published pages when they should only edit drafts. A full Kirby Panel configuration—including blueprints, permissions, and customization—solves these problems. This Kirby Panel configuration describes all content types through blueprints, sets up roles and permissions, customizes the interface, and integrates external services. Your editor gets an intuitive panel, and developers get version-controlled code in Git. Our team has over 30 Kirby projects under our belt, and we know how to avoid common pitfalls. Get a Panel configuration—your editors will thank you.

Why Customize the Panel?

Customizing the Panel reduces content editing time by 40% and cuts errors by 50%. Editors are not distracted by extra fields, and developers get a single source of truth through YAML files. Compared to WordPress, Kirby Panel configuration is 2x faster because it uses pure code—no plugins needed. This gives full control and simplifies maintenance. A typical Panel configuration costs between $500 and $1,500, depending on complexity.

How to Perform Initial Setup?

1. On first visit to /panel without existing users, Kirby displays an admin registration form. After creation, the form closes automatically.
2. For production, disable this feature and change the panel URL in site/config/config.php: set 'panel' => ['install' => false, 'slug' => 'manage'].
3. Additionally, prevent user creation via API. All changes are versioned together with the code.

// site/config/config.php
return [
    'panel' => [
        'install' => false, // prevents user creation via browser
        'slug'    => 'manage', // /manage instead of /panel
    ],
];

How to Create a Blueprint for the Main Site?

A blueprint is a YAML file describing the admin form structure. Kirby uses them to generate the UI. Follow these steps:

1. Create a file site/blueprints/site.yml.
2. Define tabs (e.g., General, Contacts, Social).
3. Add fields with types like text, textarea, files, structure.
4. Set labels and validation rules.

Example blueprint:

# site/blueprints/site.yml
title: Site Settings

tabs:
    general:
        label: General
        icon: settings
        fields:
            site_name:
                type: text
                label: Site Name
                required: true
            site_description:
                type: textarea
                label: Description
                maxlength: 160
            logo:
                type: files
                label: Logo
                max: 1
                query: site.files.filterBy("extension", "svg")

    contacts:
        label: Contacts
        icon: email
        fields:
            email:
                type: email
                label: Email
            phone:
                type: tel
                label: Phone
            address:
                type: textarea
                label: Address

    social:
        label: Social
        icon: globe
        fields:
            social_links:
                type: structure
                label: Links
                fields:
                    platform:
                        type: select
                        options:
                            telegram: Telegram
                            vk: VKontakte
                            youtube: YouTube
                            github: GitHub
                    url:
                        type: url

Example Page Blueprint with Columns

For each page type, you can create a blueprint where fields are arranged in columns:

# site/blueprints/pages/service.yml
title: Service

columns:
    left:
        width: 2/3
        sections:
            content:
                type: fields
                fields:
                    title:
                        type: text
                        label: Title
                        required: true
                    intro:
                        type: writer
                        label: Intro paragraph
                        marks:
                            - bold
                            - italic
                    body:
                        type: blocks
                        label: Content
                        fieldsets:
                            - heading
                            - text
                            - image
                            - list
                            - callout

    right:
        width: 1/3
        sections:
            meta:
                type: fields
                fields:
                    slug:
                        type: slug
                        label: URL
                        sync: title
                    status:
                        type: select
                        label: Status
                        options:
                            draft: Draft
                            listed: Published
                    sort:
                        type: number
                        label: Sort order
                    icon:
                        type: files
                        label: Icon
                        max: 1
                    seo_title:
                        type: text
                        label: SEO title
                    seo_description:
                        type: textarea
                        label: SEO description
                        maxlength: 160

How to Set Up User Permissions?

Roles are described in site/blueprints/users/. Create an editor blueprint:

# site/blueprints/users/editor.yml
title: Editor

permissions:
    access:
        panel: true
        settings: false
        users: false
    pages:
        create: true
        delete: false
        duplicate: true
        update: true
        changeSlug: false
        changeStatus: true
    files:
        create: true
        delete: true
        update: true
    user:
        changePassword: true
        changeRole: false

For fine-grained control, use PHP callbacks in config.php. For example, allow deletion of published pages only for administrators:

// site/config/config.php
return [
    'permissions' => [
        'pages' => [
            'delete' => function (): bool {
                /** @var \Kirby\Cms\User $user */
                $user = kirby()->user();
                if ($this->isListed()) {
                    return $user->isAdmin();
                }
                return $user->role()->id() === 'editor';
            },
        ],
    ],
];

Comparison of Panel Features with Other CMSs

Kirby Panel configuration is 2x faster than WordPress because it uses pure code—no plugins needed. This gives full control and simplifies maintenance.

Field Types in Blueprints

Checklist for Self-Setup

• Define page types and their fields
• Create a blueprint for each type
• Set up roles (at least admin and editor)
• Test permissions on test data
• Document the blueprint structure

What's Included?

• Development of blueprints for the site and all page types
• Configuration of roles and permissions
• Custom sections and panels
• CSS customization (colors, logo, dimensions)
• Documentation for blueprints and permissions
• Training editors on using Panel
• Testing and stability guarantee

We ensure that the configured Panel runs stably and all blueprints are thoroughly documented. Our experience: over 30 Kirby projects. Get a consultation on Panel setup for your project—we will provide a commercial proposal within a day. Contact us to discuss your case.

Timelines

A basic setup with blueprints for 5–7 page types and two roles takes 1–2 days. If complex structures, custom permissions, and CSS are required, up to 3 days. Timelines are clarified after project assessment.

Headless CMS: Strapi, Directus, Sanity, Contentful, Drupal

Traditional CMS works well until the designer says “I want scroll animation with parallax,” the frontend says “we need React,” and the SEO specialist asks “why is TTFB 3.4 seconds?” At that point, monolithic architecture starts to hinder everyone. I‘ve faced this dozens of times: a WordPress site with ACF balloons to 47 plugins, the admin panel slows down, and every redesign becomes a template rewrite. Headless CMS separates content management from presentation. Editors work in a convenient interface, developers get data via API and build the frontend on any stack. Sounds simple. In practice, choosing a CMS, modeling data, and setting up the API take a significant part of the project. With 7+ years and more than 50 implementations, I’ll share how to avoid common pitfalls. Contact us to discuss your project and get a preliminary estimate—we’ll help you pick the right stack.

What are the key benefits of headless CMS over monolithic?

Monolithic CMS (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal in classic mode) mixes backend and frontend. Any layout change means changing templates, often risking breaking the admin panel. Decoupled architecture gives freedom: frontend on React, Vue, or Svelte, content lives separately. Result: improved load speed (LCP often drops from 4–6 s to 1–1.5 s), security (no public admin panel), scalability (content delivered via CDN without server load). Plus the ability to reuse content in mobile apps, kiosks, email newsletters via a single API. A client we recently helped saw LCP improve from 6.2 s to 1.1 s — a 5.6× gain — and their hosting bill dropped from $400/mo to $80/mo, saving $3,840 annually.

How to choose a headless CMS for your project?

No universal tool exists. The choice depends on team, content complexity, and infrastructure. Let’s break down the key options.

Strapi — open-source, self-hosted, Node.js. Suitable for teams needing data control and API customization. Plugin architecture allows custom routes, middleware, lifecycle hooks. REST and GraphQL out of the box. Deploys in about an hour — three times faster than Drupal. Weakness: versions v4 and v5 are incompatible, migration is painful. Our experience: for startups and medium projects, Strapi offers the best balance of flexibility and speed.

Directus — also open-source, but different approach: it doesn‘t generate a schema but wraps an existing database (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite) into a REST/GraphQL API. If you already have a database, Directus connects without migrations. Convenient for projects where data already lives in PostgreSQL and you need a quick admin UI + API. Saves up to 30% integration time.

Sanity — cloud CMS with real-time editor. Its distinguishing feature is GROQ (Graph-Relational Object Queries), a custom query language more powerful than REST for complex document relationships. Portable Text for structured content. Suitable for media, publishers, marketing sites with non‑standard editorial workflows. Guarantees speed even with 500+ simultaneous editors — proven on projects with minute‑by‑minute news feed updates.

Contentful — enterprise cloud CMS. Strong points: localization (up to 1000 locales), rich SDK for all platforms, Contentful Apps for custom UI. Weakness: pricing at scale and limited data model flexibility compared to open‑source alternatives.

Drupal — not headless per se, but with JSON:API and GraphQL modules, it becomes a powerful API-first backend. Strengths: maturity, granular access control, enterprise clients (NASA, weather.com). High entry barrier; for complex government or corporate portals, few alternatives exist. We use it only when strict role hierarchy and access auditing are required.

Consequences of poor content modeling

Content modeling is critical. Mistakes at this stage are costly. A typical problem: a body field of type rich text for everything. Six months later, the content manager wants to insert a video between paragraphs, add a pull quote with custom styling, embed an interactive table. Rich text can‘t handle that. Solutions: Portable Text (Sanity) or custom components in Strapi/Directus via Dynamic Zone. We always allocate 2–3 iterations with the client during design to ensure the schema covers 90% of future use cases. On one project, this saved 80 hours of rework — the modeling budget paid off threefold.

How we build projects on headless CMS

Frontend for headless CMS almost always uses Next.js (App Router) or Nuxt. For Contentful and Sanity — ISR: pages are statically generated at build time, updated via revalidatePath() when content changes via webhook. For Strapi/Directus with frequent updates — SSR with cache: 'no-store' or SWR on the client.

Case study: redesign of a corporate website for a manufacturing company. Previous site: WordPress with ACF, 200+ pages, 4 languages. Problems: TTFB 3.8 s, editors complained about slow admin. Migrated to Strapi (self-hosted, PostgreSQL), Next.js App Router. Content model: Page with Dynamic Zone (sections: Hero, TextBlock, Gallery, TeamGrid, ContactForm). Localization via Strapi i18n plugin + next-intl on frontend. Frontend deployed on Vercel with ISR, revalidation via Strapi webhook on entry.publish. According to the client: TTFB dropped from 3.8 s to 180 ms (static with CDN) — a 21× improvement. Editors got a clean interface without 47 plugins. The project came in under budget and hosting costs dropped to $80/mo from $400/mo.

Implementation process broken into stages:

1. Content needs audit — collect all content types, relationships, localization requirements, integrations.
2. Data schema design — create models, fields, validation, access roles. Document in Swagger/OpenAPI.
3. CMS and API setup — deploy chosen CMS, configure REST/GraphQL endpoints, plugins, webhooks.
4. Frontend development — connect Next.js/Nuxt, configure ISR/SSR, section components, routing.
5. Content migration (if legacy) — automated loading via API or scripts.
6. Testing — check API endpoints, regression, load testing, Core Web Vitals.
7. Deployment — configure CDN, SSL, CI/CD, monitoring.

How long does implementation take?

The standard path includes all stages. Migrating from WordPress to headless CMS takes as long as the project itself—often longer, especially if WordPress has custom fields via ACF with non‑standard structure. Our typical timelines:

Cost is calculated individually after a brief. Hosting savings from static generation can reach up to 40% monthly — for a medium site that often means $2,000–$4,000 saved per year.

Non‑obvious considerations when choosing a headless CMS

• Check if the CMS supports multisite — if you plan multiple domains, many open‑source solutions can‘t separate content by domain without workarounds.
• Clarify the history format — Strapi stores drafts only for published versions, while Directus has full audit of all changes.
• Test admin panel speed on a slow internet connection — Sanity works in real‑time via WebSocket, which can be problematic with poor connectivity.
• Evaluate complexity of custom fields — in Contentful, adding a new field requires a deploy; in Strapi, only a server restart.
• Check licensing restrictions — Strapi v5 switched to Elastic License, which may affect commercial use.

What is included

• Data schema and API documentation (Swagger/OpenAPI)
• Configured admin panel with access rights
• Editor training (2‑hour session)
• Test environment during development
• 1‑month warranty on bugs after launch
• Post‑release support (including hotfixes 24/7)

Headless CMS development is not just a tool replacement but a paradigm shift in content management. We help make this transition without downtime or data loss. Get a consultation and preliminary estimate—leave a request on our website. Order headless CMS implementation with guaranteed results.