Content reference

A content repo is the site. This is everything it may say.

site.yaml                 branding, language, mail
aggregates.yaml           the state machine of every bucket
needs.yaml                what the site is for (read by iris, never by portal)
questions/
  index.yaml              the front page, served at /
  about.yaml              served at /about
  review/
    _section.yaml         applies to everything under /review
    index.yaml            served at /review
    [record].yaml         serves /review/<anything>

Nothing here is required except a questions/ tree with something in it. Portal’s lint refuses content it cannot serve honestly, at boot, on every hot reload, and in CI through iris check.

site.yaml

title: Vestmark kommune          # the browser title and the header
wordmark: /site/logo.svg         # an image instead of the title
wordmark_invert: true            # flip it in dark mode
wordmark_height: 2.4             # rem
lang: no                         # the interface language: en or no
stylesheet: /site/theme.css      # served same-origin from the repo
favicon: /site/icon.svg
hero: { kind: module, module: hero.js }   # or { kind: plain }
mail:
  from: Vestmark kommune <post@vestmark.example>
  reply_to: post@vestmark.example
  invite: { subject: "...", body: "..." }   # rewords the built-in invite mail

mail.from is required as soon as any state declares a mail.

Any text a person reads (name, description, label, placeholder, a mail’s subject and body, consequence, encouragements) may be a list instead of one string: one entry per storyline, all lists the same length.

A question

One YAML file is one page.

id: /apply              # defaults to the file's path
name: Apply to build
description: What we need from you.
qualifies: case_officers        # a Kanidm group may open this page
requires_chain: /start          # or: an answer they must already have given
followup: true                  # keep it out of the nav until earned
responsible: { name: Solveig, contact: post@vestmark.example }
# or a group's: no account is made for the inbox, and any signed-in
# member of the group may suggest a change to the page
responsible: { name: The board, contact: board@vestmark.example, group: board }
event:                          # this page announces an occasion
  starts: 2026-10-14T18:00
  duration: 2h
  place: The town hall
place:                          # this page is about somewhere
  lat: 59.8938
  lon: 11.0332
  zoom: 15
  name: The town hall
alternatives: [ ... ]

qualifies, requires_chain and responsible are inherited from the nearest _section.yaml. event makes a page an occasion with a time; place makes it a place, drawing a still map under the question and opening any type: location field on the page there rather than on the whole world.

An alternative

One choice. Never two actions behind one heading: if two things can be done, they are two alternatives.

alternatives:
  - name: Send the drawings
    description: We answer within twelve weeks.
    action: /sent                  # the page to go to; /shape/{field} templates
    record_as: applications        # the bucket the answer lands in
    disabled: false
    consequence: [What happens next]
    encouragements: [It takes two minutes]
    images: [/site/drawing.png]
    features: [ ... ]

Three things an alternative may do instead of, or beside, recording an answer:

    self_transition:               # the person moves their own record
      bucket: applications
      to: complete
      from: [open, incomplete]     # defaults to the initial state alone
      label: Send them
    invite: { group: case_officers }   # onboard someone into Kanidm

self_transition.from is what keeps a person in dialogue with their case: an applicant written to for a missing drawing answers from incomplete, and may withdraw from wherever the case has got to. Omitted, it is the initial state alone, which is what a one-shot unsubscribe link means. Each state listed becomes its own access rule, and the lint refuses a from -> to the state machine does not declare.

An invite needs a required name and email on the same alternative, and the inviting group must be allowed to invite that group by the policy.

A feature

What an alternative offers, explained. A feature that is only layout is a feature wasted: each one says something true about the choice.

    features:
      - name: What you need
        description: The case number from the letter.
        icon: document
        color: "#8ec2c0"
        requirements: [ ... ]      # form fields
        resource: { ... }          # live data

A requirement (a form field)

        requirements:
          - name: email            # snake_case; this is the stored key
            label: Your email
            placeholder: you@example.no
            type: email
            optional: false
            value: "{key}"         # a preset; a dynamic page's segment fills it

value: "{user.email}" or "{user.name}" is the signed-in person’s own, and a field it fills is carried rather than asked: someone the site knows is not asked who they are. A visitor gets the field, empty.

type is one of:

A select takes either inline options: [...] or a resource: to draw them from, with id_field: naming each item’s stable id.

A field may load its value from a resource when a sibling changes:

          - name: contents
            type: textarea
            bind:
              field: path          # the sibling to watch
              resource: { source: { kind: url, url: "https://git.example/raw/{path}" } }

type: record

How one case belongs to another — an objection to the application it objects to, an appeal to the decision it appeals.

          - name: case
            type: record
            of: applications       # the bucket the other record is in
            value: "{key}"         # arrives on the link, on a dynamic page

Nobody types one of these: the stored value is the parent’s record id, which is a chain hash. It arrives the way it was given out, so the field carries rather than asks, and renders hidden. A submission naming a record that is not there is refused, so a reference in a stored record is one that resolved at least once.

The other half is a listing that asks for the children:

        resource:
          source: { kind: kv, bucket: objections }
          requires_group: case_officers
          where: { field: case, equals: "{key}" }

And the way there from a list: link puts a link on every listed record to a page about it, with {id} for the record’s id and {field} for any of its fields. A notice on a public board links to /notices/{id}, the dynamic page /notices/[key] whose form carries the notice’s id back in with value: "{key}":

        resource:
          source: { kind: kv, bucket: notices }
          public: true
          link: { to: "/notices/{id}", label: I can lend or borrow this }

A resource

Live data, declared by content and read by the server. What a resource reads is never a client-supplied parameter.

        resource:
          source: { kind: kv, bucket: applications }
          key: abc123              # one record instead of the list
          public: true             # or requires_group: case_officers
          states: [approved, refused]      # only these; empty means all
          where: { field: case, equals: "{key}" }
          jq: ".[] | {name, url: .html_url}"
          empty: Nothing decided yet.
          link: { to: "/notices/{id}", label: Answer this }   # a page per record
          transitions:             # the desk's buttons
            - { from: complete, to: on_hearing, label: Send it out }

source.kind is one of kv, gitea_starred, gitea_releases, url.

A spec with neither public: true nor requires_group is unreachable: reads fail closed, and mutations always need a group whatever public says.

states and where narrow a listing. They matter most for a register that is public by law — public about what was decided, not about what was withdrawn — while the desk working the same bucket is a different spec and still sees all of it. A record that has no such field never matches: “everything that did not say” is not something a page can ask for by accident.

needs.yaml

What the site is for, as a checkable spec: who wants what, which bucket the answer must land in, which group carries it to a finished state. The runtime never reads it. iris check proves the site meets it, and iris replay runs cases through the real engine.