Many clients touch their site with their fingertips, afraid of breaking everything. An intimidating back office, obscure fields, a preview that lies. I do not think they are wrong: on plenty of sites that fear is well founded, and one badly filled field is enough to bring a page down.

Editing on the site

With Sveltia, you edit the site on the site. Logged in, you click a title, you correct it, it saves. « Publish » writes a git commit, the build starts again, it is live. What you see while editing is exactly what will be published. No preview that lies, no mystery field, no parallel interface to learn. The first time, you look for the catch. There is none.

The content belongs to you too

Every change is a versioned text file. Nothing is lost, everything can be found again, you go back with one click. The content is not held prisoner in a proprietary database: it is Markdown, readable in ten years, exportable in a second. Owning your site also means owning your words.

The queue of versions and the one step back A horizontal axis with an arrow to the right, dotted on its left portion then solid. Five small rectangles of the same size stand on it side by side, each filled with three thin strokes standing for a text file. The last one on the right is drawn with a heavier stroke and carries the words « it is live » above it; the one before it is drawn in the accent colour. Below the axis, an accent bracket leaves the last rectangle, goes down, runs back to the left and rises with an arrow onto the one before it; the label « you go back with one click » sits to its left. EVERY CHANGE IS A VERSIONED TEXT FILE EVERYTHING CAN BE FOUND AGAIN it is live you go back with one click
No version overwrites the one before it: going back is a move, not a repair.

One single truth

The CMS and the pages read the same files. No synchronisation coming loose, no preview version diverging from the live one. One source, versioned, for editing as much as for display. The solidity of static, without the rigidity: nothing moves without a reason, but everything can move with one click.

The editing loop and the source its two ends share Four boxes of the same size lined up from left to right and joined by arrows: you click a title, a git commit, the build starts, it is live. Under the row, an accent band runs the whole width of the drawing and carries the words « the same files ». Two accent strokes rise from that band up to the first and the last box, each ending in an arrow; the left stroke is labelled « the CMS », the right one « the pages ». EDITING ON THE SITE NO PREVIEW THAT LIES you click a title a git commit the build starts it is live the same files the CMS the pages FOR EDITING AS MUCH AS FOR DISPLAY
The two ends of the chain do not synchronise, they read the same file.

A site nobody dares change ends up frozen, then lying. Mine is edited without apprehension, because a wrong click breaks nothing. And a site you dare touch is a site that stays alive.