Schema Designer

The Schema Designer allows you to model your content structure visually. In Mincemeat, you define collections (like Posts or Products) and add specific fields to them.

Once your design is complete, publishing the schema creates and updates the underlying tables in your dedicated edge database.

Before you start

• You must be signed in to your Mincemeat account.
• You must have a CMS project. If you do not have one, click Add CMS Project in the Headless CMS Hub and follow the wizard to name and configure the project. See Creating a CMS Project for details.

Supported field types

You can customize your collections with the following field types:

Type	Purpose	Validation Rules
Text	Short string values (e.g., titles, names).	Min/max length, regex patterns.
Rich Text	Formatted HTML content (e.g., body copy).	Sanitized automatically on the server.
Number	Numeric values (integers or decimals).	Min/max values.
Boolean	True or false toggles.	None.
Date	ISO date/time picker.	Range limits.
Enum	Select from a predefined list of text options.	Allowed values list.
Media	Links to uploaded files in the Media Library.	Allowed MIME types.
Relation	Creates a reference link to entries in another collection.	Target collection.

The hybrid schema model

To allow you to add fields quickly without locking your database or slowing down requests, Mincemeat uses a Hybrid Schema design:

• Non-filterable fields: When you add standard fields, their values are saved inside a single JSON document block (data column). This makes adding or removing fields instantaneous—it does not touch your database tables directly.

• Filterable/Sortable fields: If you toggle Filterable (is_filterable: true) on a field, Mincemeat generates a database expression index for it during publishing:

  CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS idx_{collection}_{field} ON entries(collection, locale, json_extract(data, '$.{field}'));

  This ensures that when you filter or sort by this field in your API queries, the database uses an index rather than scanning every document.

Performance Warning

Only mark a field as Filterable if you intend to filter or sort by it in your API queries (e.g., a post's status, publish date, or slug). Adding too many filterable fields increases storage requirements and indexing overhead on write operations.

Steps: Create and publish a schema

Follow these steps to create a collection and define its fields:

Step 1: Create a collection

1. Open the Headless CMS Hub from the main sidebar.
2. Click Open Workspace on your project. You will automatically land on the Collections workspace tab.
3. In the left sidebar of the Collections view, select + New next to the Collections header.
4. You can choose to design a custom collection or select a Preset Template:
   • Preset Templates: Predefined content schemas for standard use cases (such as a Blog, Contact Form, or Job Listing). Selecting a preset automatically pre-seeds the collection with recommended fields.
5. Enter a Name (e.g., Blog Posts) and a Slug (e.g., posts). The slug is used in your REST API endpoints.
6. Select Create or Import.

Step 2: Add and manage fields

1. Select your collection from the left sidebar of the Collections tab.
2. In the top-right corner of the workspace pane, ensure the view toggle is set to Schema Designer (next to Entries and Permissions).
3. Select + Add Field.
4. Enter a field name, slug, and choose the Field Type.
5. In the field settings panel:
   • Configure validation rules (such as marking the field as required).
   • Toggle Filterable if you plan to search or sort by this field.
   • Toggle Localized if this field should support translated values for enabled project languages (i18n).
6. Select Save Field.
7. Repeat this process for any other fields you want to define.

Reordering and Editing Fields

• Reordering: You can drag and drop fields in the Schema Designer list to change their display order (order_index).
• Editing / Deletion: Click on any field name in the designer view to modify its validations, toggle search indexes, or permanently delete the field schema from draft status.

Step 3: Publish changes

Your schema changes are stored as a draft until you publish them.

1. Review your collection layouts and fields.
2. Select the Publish Schema button at the bottom of the left collections sidebar.
3. Mincemeat increments your project's active schema version, executes database DDL statements on your edge database, and invalidates global CDN caches.

What happens next

Once published:

• The REST API matches your new structure.
• You can begin creating content entries by toggling the workspace view to Entries, or manage access rules under the Permissions tab.
• Your public OpenAPI specification is automatically regenerated at:
  • Custom Subdomain: https://{project-slug}.cms.mincemeat.app/v1/openapi.json
  • Path Fallback: https://cms.mincemeat.app/v1/{project-slug}/openapi.json

Related

• Headless CMS Overview
• Creating a CMS Project
• Content management
• Query DSL reference