CMS Overview - Kardow

The Kardow CMS is a generic, schema-validated content store. Use it any time your tenant site needs a list of structured items — sponsors, courses, team members, classifieds, recipes — without standing up a new database table.

How it fits together

┌──────────────────────────┐         ┌────────────────────────────┐
│ Your site / template     │ ──get── │ /api/organization/cms/{slug}│  public read (cached 60s)
│ (template-2 platform.cms)│ ──post─▶│ /api/organization/cms/.../submit│ public submit (free or paid)
└──────────────────────────┘         └────────────────────────────┘
              │                                       │
              ▼                                       ▼
┌──────────────────────────┐         ┌────────────────────────────┐
│ Dashboard / AI editor    │ ──auth─▶│ /api/platform/cms/*         │  org-scoped CRUD
│ (Bearer token)           │         └────────────────────────────┘
└──────────────────────────┘
              │
              ▼
┌──────────────────────────┐         ┌────────────────────────────┐
│ External app / Zapier    │ ─x-api─▶│ /api/external/cms/*         │  programmatic CRUD
│ (x-api-key)              │         └────────────────────────────┘
└──────────────────────────┘

Three building blocks

Collection — a named bucket plus a schema. e.g. sponsors, courses, events.
Item — one JSON row inside a collection, validated against the schema. Has a status (draft / pending_review / published / expired / archived) and optional expires_at.
Payment plan with purpose: 'cms_item' — links a checkout flow to a collection so paying customers can submit an item that gets automatically inserted on payment.

When to use the CMS

You want to…	Use…
Show a curated list of partners	A `private` collection edited from the dashboard.
Let visitors apply for a directory listing for free	`allow_public_submit: true`, `moderation: 'manual'`.
Sell sponsorship slots that auto-publish on payment	A `cms_item` payment plan.
Sync content from an external CMS (Notion, Airtable…)	The `x-api-key` external endpoints.

Continue with the Build a sponsors page walkthrough, or jump to the API reference.