Themes

Installation

Themes define the look and the available templates of your site. They are distributed as packages and can be installed, updated and removed directly in the Packages section of the dashboard. Alternatively, you can manage them on the command line using Composer.

Using the Dashboard

The Packages section in the dashboard sidebar gives you an overview of two sources for themes: the public theme collection and your own repositories on GitHub or GitLab. Packages from both sources are installed on the server, so you don't need command line access.

Public Theme Packages

Under Public Theme Packages, you can browse a curated collection of free and open-source themes. Use the filter field to search for a package and click Install in order to add it to your site. Installed packages can be updated and removed using the buttons on their cards. When updates are available, the Update all button updates all packages at once.

Packages that are required by another installed package can't be removed until the other package is removed as well.

Private Repositories

Under Private Repositories, you can install themes from your own repositories that are hosted on GitHub or GitLab. This works for private as well as public repositories. Before adding a repository, you have to provide an access token for the platform, since the package manager uses the platform's API, even for public repositories.

  1. Click Authentication and enter a token. For GitHub, create a fine-grained access token with the Contents: Read permission. For GitLab, create a personal access token with the read_api scope and change the GitLab URL in case you use a self-hosted instance.
  2. Click Add package, select the platform and enter the package name in the form of vendor/package, the repository URL and the branch.
  3. Click Install. The package is installed and appears in the list of repositories.

The tokens only need read access and should not have any other permissions. They are stored on the server and can be encrypted with your own key. Use Delete credentials in the menu next to the Authentication button in order to remove all tokens. Each repository card has buttons for updating the package to the latest commit of its branch and for removing it.

Activating a Theme

Installing a theme doesn't change your site yet. In order to use a new theme for the whole site, open Global Data and Files, select the theme in the Settings section and save. The templates of all installed themes are also listed in the template selection of each page, so individual pages can use a different theme than the rest of the site. This follows the concept of global defaults.

Using Composer

Automad uses Composer to manage packages. The dashboard runs Composer internally on the composer.json file in the Automad base directory. In case you have shell access and Composer installed, you can manage the same packages on the command line instead. Run the following command in the base directory in order to install a package:

composer require vendor/package

In order to update all installed packages, use:

composer update

A package can be removed with composer remove vendor/package. Since the dashboard and the command line share the same composer.json file, packages that are installed with Composer also show up in the dashboard and vice versa. Packages are always installed into the packages directory.

Building Your Own Theme

In case you want to create a theme yourself, take a look at the Themes chapter of the Developer Guide. The Packages page explains how a theme is packaged, how it can be installed manually during development and how it can be published.

User Accounts Console
Getting Started
Automad is a PHP application that runs on most standard web servers. The system requirements are intentionally minimal, and you can choose between several installation options depending on your setup. Alternatively you can also try out a live demo first.
Packages
All themes and extensions are distributed as packages. A package is simply a directory inside the packages directory of an Automad installation that contains a composer.json file. A single package can contain one or more themes, extensions, block templates and snippets at the same time. Automad uses Composer as dependency manager. Therefore releasing a package basically works the same as for any other Composer package.
System Guide
Automad is a flat-file content management system that stores all content in JSON formatted files rather than relying on a database. This approach minimizes administrative overhead and eliminates the need for complex setup procedures.
Email Configuration
Automad requires proper email configuration on your server to send transactional emails using PHP. These emails are sent for user invitations, password resets, and when using the mail block on a page.