Content overrides (Tier 2)

Author a core.site.v1 record to override the L0 identity card's content slots — name, mission, links, Connect button. The spl site family wraps the lifecycle; the record shape is portable.

Tier 2 is the record-driven layer of the instance site. You author a core.site.v1 record on the th_site thread and the renderer applies its content slots on top of the L0 default. The spl site family wraps the verb shapes; the underlying record is the same one a fleet seed script or a backup restore would emit.

The shape

A site record carries the operator's DID as owner, a lifecycle flag, and an optional content object. Slots are optional — leave a slot absent to keep the L0 default for that field.

{
  "kind": "core.site.v1",
  "schema_version": "1.0.0",
  "lifecycle": "published",
  "owner": "did:sync:user:alice",
  "content": {
    "name": "Acme Research Lab",
    "kind_label": "Coordination Instance",
    "heading": "A working Syncropel instance for the Acme research team.",
    "subheading": "All artifacts are records. Browse the capabilities below.",
    "links": [
      { "label": "Internal handbook", "href": "/w/handbook" },
      { "label": "GitHub", "href": "https://github.com/acme", "external": true },
      { "label": "Status", "href": "/health", "indicator": "live" }
    ],
    "connect": { "label": "Connect", "href": "https://syncropel.com/connect?url=https%3A%2F%2Facme.syncropel.app" },
    "did_display": true
  },
  "theme": {
    "accent": "#c2410c"
  }
}

`content` slots

Every field is optional. Slot-by-slot fall-through to the L0 default means partial overrides are first-class — you can set just the name and leave everything else at the default.

Slot	Type	What it overrides	L0 default
`name`	string ≤ 128	The large serif heading + `<title>`	"A Syncropel Instance"
`kind_label`	string ≤ 64	The small mono uppercase label under the name	"Syncropel Instance"
`heading`	string ≤ 500	The mission paragraph (serif, lead)	A one-line description of the coordination model
`subheading`	string ≤ 500	The about paragraph (sans, muted)	(none)
`logo_ref`	string	Replace the generative glyph (`asset:<id>`, `https://...`, or `file:<name>`)	Generative glyph derived from instance DID
`links`	array, ≤ 6	Replace the 6 default link cards	About, Docs, Get started, Capabilities, GitHub, Status
`connect`	object	Custom Connect button label + target, or `{"hidden": true}` to drop it	Connect → Studio for this instance
`did_display`	bool	Show / hide the DID copy footer	`true`

Link card shape

Each entry in links is a small object. The renderer encodes external links with a ↗ glyph and target="_blank" automatically when external: true.

{
  "label": "Status",
  "href": "/health",
  "external": false,
  "indicator": "live"
}

The indicator field accepts "live" today, which surfaces a small animated green dot next to the label — used for status surfaces. Other indicators may land in later versions.

`theme` (status note)

The theme.accent field is part of the v1.0 record schema, but in v0.50.0 the renderer does not yet thread theme overrides from the record into the inline :root block. Setting theme.accent via record is currently a no-op visually. The accent override IS reachable today via the Tier 3 filesystem overlay's theme.css. The record-side wiring is tracked as a follow-up and will land in a patch release without changing the record shape.

The `spl site` family

The CLI wraps the record lifecycle. Every verb emits or queries records; there is no separate state file.

Initialise a draft

spl site init

Creates an empty core.site.v1 draft record on th_site for your operator DID. Fails if a draft already exists — pass --force to overwrite. A draft is invisible to GET /; the L0 default keeps serving until you publish.

Inspect what you have

spl site show              # shows the draft if any, else the published record
spl site show --published  # forces the published view
spl site show --json       # JSON shape for scripting / piping

Patch content slots

spl site set --name "Acme Research Lab"
spl site set --kind-label "Coordination Instance"
spl site set --heading "A working Syncropel instance for the Acme team."
spl site set --subheading "All artifacts are records. Browse the capabilities below."
spl site set --did-display true

set is a patch — flags you don't pass leave the corresponding slot unchanged. To clear a slot and fall back to the L0 default, use --unset:

spl site set --unset heading           # clear one slot
spl site set --unset name kind_label   # clear several at once

Manage the links grid

# Append a link (max 6 total replace the L0 defaults)
spl site link add --label "Status" --href "/health" --indicator live
spl site link add --label "GitHub" --href "https://github.com/acme" --external
spl site link add --label "Internal handbook" --href "/w/handbook"

# Remove the Nth link (0-indexed)
spl site link remove 2

# Clear all overrides — fall back to the L0 default 6 links
spl site link clear

Manage the Connect button

# Custom Connect button label + target
spl site connect set --label "Open in Studio" --href "https://syncropel.com/connect?url=https%3A%2F%2Facme.syncropel.app"

# Hide the Connect button entirely
spl site connect hide

# Clear the override — restore the default Connect → Studio
spl site connect unset

Theme accent

spl site theme --accent "#c2410c"   # set the accent (record-side; see status note above)
spl site theme --unset              # clear the override

Preview before publishing

spl site preview                              # writes /tmp/spl-site-preview.html
spl site preview --out ./preview.html         # custom output path
spl site preview --out ./preview.html --published  # preview the published version

Opens nothing — the verb only writes the file. Open it in your browser to verify the look before promoting the draft.

Publish

spl site publish

Promotes the current draft to lifecycle: "published". The next GET / serves it. Publishing emits a new record (with a higher clock than the existing published record), so the old version stays in the record log — walking th_site shows the full history of edits.

What the record log looks like

After a typical authoring session, the th_site thread carries one or two records per content version:

th_site
├── PUT  clock=0   lifecycle=draft       (spl site init)
├── PUT  clock=1   lifecycle=draft       (spl site set --name ...)
├── PUT  clock=2   lifecycle=draft       (spl site set --heading ...)
├── PUT  clock=3   lifecycle=published   (spl site publish)
├── PUT  clock=4   lifecycle=draft       (next iteration)
└── PUT  clock=5   lifecycle=published   (spl site publish again)

Walking the thread:

spl thread records th_site -o json | jq '.records[] | {clock, lifecycle: .body.lifecycle}'

To revert to an earlier published version, copy that record's body, emit it again with a fresh clock. There is no destructive rewrite — every change is an append.

Fleet seeding

For instances provisioned from a blueprint or scripted from a fleet runbook, the record is what you check in. Keep your core.site.v1 document in version control alongside your provisioning scripts, then POST it through /v1/records with the operator's DID as actor as a post-provision step. Because the record is content-addressed, the same file produces the same site on every instance you seed it into — which makes a checked-in site record the simplest way to keep a fleet's landing pages consistent.