Monorepo Structure | nextjs-cms Contributing

nextjs-cms/
├── apps/
│   ├── cms/                  ← the admin app (Next.js 16), and the source of the project template
│   └── docs/                 ← this documentation site
├── packages/
│   ├── nextjs-cms/           ← the core library + CLI (published: nextjs-cms)
│   ├── create-nextjs-cms/    ← the project scaffolder (published: create-nextjs-cms)
│   ├── translations/         ← extra admin UI languages (published: @nextjscms/translations)
│   └── cpanel-api/           ← shared cPanel client for the cPanel plugins
├── plugins/
│   ├── plugin-cache-revalidation/
│   ├── plugin-cpanel-dashboard/
│   ├── plugin-cpanel-emails/
│   └── plugin-google-analytics/
├── tooling/                  ← shared ESLint, Prettier, Tailwind, TypeScript configs
├── testing/                  ← integration-test database (docker-compose) and global setup
├── .changeset/               ← pending changesets
├── turbo.json
├── pnpm-workspace.yaml       ← workspaces + dependency catalog
└── vitest.config.ts          ← unit / component / integration projects

`packages/nextjs-cms`

The heart of the project. Compiled with tsc to dist/, exposed through subpath exports (nextjs-cms/core/fields, nextjs-cms/api/server, ...).

Folder	Responsibility	Read
`src/core/config`	Load, validate, merge, cache, and watch `cms.config.*`	Config Loading
`src/core/factories`	`SectionFactory` (load section files), `FieldFactory` (build form payloads)	Section Loading
`src/core/sections`	`simpleSection`, `hasItemsSection`, `categorySection` and their classes	Section Loading
`src/core/fields`	One file per field type: config schema, helper, class	Field System
`src/core/submit`	Create/edit/locale submission classes	Submit Pipeline
`src/core/helpers`	Conditional rules, watermark, backgrounds, `entityKind`/`is()`
`src/core/localization`	`resolveLocale`	Localization Internals
`src/core/security`	`escapeHTML`, rich-text sanitizer
`src/core/db`	`MysqlTableChecker` (introspection)	Schema Sync
`src/api`	tRPC routers, server actions, React client	API Layer
`src/auth`	JWT, refresh tokens, CSRF, `useSession`	Authentication
`src/db`	Drizzle client and the CMS system schema
`src/cli`	`nextjs-cms` commands and the schema generator	Schema Sync
`src/plugins`	Plugin types, `definePlugin`, loader, client context	Plugin Loader
`src/translations`	Base English dictionary, `getString`, language utils	Localization Internals
`src/validators`	Zod schemas used by the admin form for client-side validation	Field System
`src/logging`	Audit log events (`recordLog`)

`apps/cms`

The admin application and the reference project. Notable folders:

Path	What
`app/(auth)`	Login
`app/(rootLayout)`	Authenticated pages: `browse`, `new`, `edit`, `section` (simple), `categorized`, `admins`, `log`, `settings`, `dashboard`, and `(plugins)/[...slug]`
`app/api`	Route handlers: `submit/section/`, `photo`, `video`, `document`, `editor/photo`, `auth/`, `trpc/[trpc]`
`app/_trpc`	`createTRPCRouter()` instance (`api`, `HydrateClient`)
`components/form`	The generic form and one input component per field type (`inputs/*-form-input.tsx`)
`sections/`	Sample sections, including `__TESTS__` sections used by Playwright
`playwright/`	E2E output

Warning:

packages/create-nextjs-cms/templates/ is generated from apps/cms by the scaffolder's prebuild script (scripts/build.ts). Don't edit it; change apps/cms instead.

The create-nextjs-cms CLI: prompts (name, sample sections, database, git), copies the template, generates secrets, installs dependencies, and runs nextjs-cms --dev setup. Sample sections are written by src/lib/section-creators.ts.

`packages/translations`

Additional admin dictionaries (@nextjscms/translations/ar, ...). The English base dictionary lives in core at nextjs-cms/translations/base/en.

`plugins/*`

Each plugin is a package named @nextjscms/plugin-<slug> with define.ts (descriptor), index.ts (createPlugin), router.ts, server.tsx, and client/. See Plugin Loader and the developer guide Building Plugins.

`tooling/`

Shared configs consumed as workspace packages: ESLint, Prettier (@lzcms/prettier-config), Tailwind, and TypeScript base configs.

Dependency direction

apps/cms ─────▶ nextjs-cms ◀───── plugins/*
    │               ▲                 │
    └──▶ @nextjscms/translations      └──▶ @nextjscms/cpanel-api
create-nextjs-cms ──(copies)──▶ apps/cms template

nextjs-cms never imports from apps/ or plugins/.