Areca Docs

Glossary

Definitions of the terms used across Areca, from agency admin and client to snapshot, step-up verification and site token.

These are the terms used across the CMS, the site SDK and self-hosting documentation. Each term links to the page where it is explained in full. Where the CMS UI uses a different name, the definition says so.

A

  • Activity: The log of content, people and release actions for a site. Owners see a site's activity, and agency admins see activity across the instance.
  • Agency admin: A person who manages the agency's whole Areca instance: clients, sites, content types, branding, AI settings and agency-wide access. Agency admins must use two-factor authentication.
  • Agency workspace: The area for agency admins, reached from the workspace switcher. It holds clients, agency-wide people, branding, activity and AI settings.
  • Connected app: An AI app, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor, that you approved to work on one site as you, with your current role. It signs in through the browser and can be disconnected at any time. It stops working after 90 days without use.
  • AI key: A personal key that lets a script or an app work on one site as you, with your current role. It is shown once, expires after a set time and can be revoked at any time. Keys start with areca_mcp_.
  • Archived: An entry state. The entry stays in the CMS but is left out of the website at the next release.
  • Asset: A file in the Library, such as an image or PDF. Assets have public URLs.

C

  • Client: The organisation an agency builds websites for. A client has one or more sites, a shared Library and its own people.
  • Client editor: A person with the Editor role for a client. Editors write and edit drafts, preview entries and upload files, but cannot mark entries ready, go live or manage people.
  • Client owner: A person with the Owner role for a client. Owners approve content, schedule entries, go live, roll back releases and manage the client's people.
  • Cloudflare: One of the two deployment providers that Areca uses to build and deploy production websites, as Cloudflare Pages projects or Workers with Workers Builds. Each client connects its own Cloudflare account with an API token.
  • Collection: A content type on a site, such as Articles or Team members. It has fields and a route on the website. The CMS UI calls it a content type.
  • Content type: The name the CMS UI uses for a collection.

D

  • Deployment target: The application or project on Dokploy or Cloudflare that serves a production site, together with its health check URL. Set under the site's Settings › Deployment.
  • Demo mode: A site publishing mode for local trials. Go live creates a demo release that a local build can pull, but nothing is deployed and the site is never production live.
  • Draft: The latest saved version of an entry. Saving changes the draft, and the draft is visible only in the CMS and in preview.
  • Dokploy: One of the two deployment providers that Areca uses to build and deploy production websites. The other is Cloudflare. Each client connects its own Dokploy instance.

E

  • Entry: One item in a collection, such as a single article. An entry has fields, a slug and versions.

F

  • Field type: The kind of value a field holds, such as text, rich text, image, date or reference.

G

  • Go live: The action that creates a release. It packages every ready change on a site into a snapshot, builds and deploys the website, and checks that it is healthy.

H

  • Health check: A request the CMS makes to the website after a deployment. The website must report the publication ID it was built from, otherwise the release fails.

L

  • Library: The file store for a client. Every site of the client uses the same Library.
  • Live: The state of a version that is part of the current production release. A ready entry is not live until a release that includes it succeeds.

M

  • Manifest: The schema description of a website's collections and fields. A developer publishes it with areca manifest push, and the CMS uses it to build the editing forms.
  • Mark as ready: The owner action that approves the current draft of an entry for the next release. Ready does not publish anything by itself.
  • Connector URL: The per-site address, /api/mcp/<site-slug>, that AI apps call to read and write a site. Connected apps sign in to it with OAuth. The /api/mcp address accepts personal keys. Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the standard these apps use.

P

  • Preview: A way to see an entry's draft on the website before it is published.
  • Preview token: A signed, short-lived token in a preview link. It grants read access to one draft and expires after one hour.
  • Production mode: The default site publishing mode. Go live deploys the website and counts the release as live only after the health check passes.
  • Publication ID: The identifier of one release. The website reports it in its health check and in the manifest of the snapshot it was built from.

R

  • Ready: The state of an entry whose draft an owner has approved with Mark as ready. Ready content goes into the next release.
  • Recovery codes: One-time codes that sign in to an account when the authenticator app is unavailable. They are shown once when two-factor authentication is turned on.
  • Release: One publication of a whole site, with its snapshot, build steps, logs and status. Each Go live creates a release.
  • Rollback: Going back to an earlier release that was live. The CMS builds that release's saved snapshot again. Drafts are not affected.
  • Rich text: A formatted text field. The SDK provides helpers to render it on the website.

S

  • Schedule: The action that makes an approved version go live at a chosen time. The version is frozen when you schedule it.
  • Schema: The content model of a site: its collections and their fields. Developers define it in areca.config.ts, and areca manifest push sends it to the CMS as the site's manifest.
  • Schema token: A secret used by a developer to push the content model with areca manifest push. It must never be part of a website build. Also called the schema-write token.
  • Setup token: A one-time token that protects the first-run page for creating the first admin.
  • Site: One website inside a client. A site has its own collections, entries, deployment target and tokens.
  • Site key: The slug that identifies a site in the CMS and in the website's areca.config.ts. It is set when the site is created.
  • Site token: A secret that lets a website read its published content. The build uses it for areca pull. The CMS stores only a hash, so the token is shown once. If you lose it, rotate it.
  • Slug: The last part of an entry's web address, such as spring-launch. Each slug is unique within its content type.
  • Snapshot: The frozen, complete copy of a site's published content that a release contains. Snapshots never change after creation.
  • Step-up verification: A fresh authenticator code that some sensitive actions require, even when you are already signed in. It is valid for ten minutes after you enter it.

T

  • Two-factor authentication: A second sign-in step that asks for a code from an authenticator app. It is required for agency admins.

W

  • Workspace: The view you are working in: the agency workspace or a single site. You switch between them from the workspace switcher.

How Areca works

The data model, entry statuses, releases, the go-live pipeline and how websites read content, explained once for everyone.

Troubleshooting

Find the fix for common sign-in, editing, go-live, SDK, preview and deployment problems, organised by what you see.

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