Core Concepts

Understanding these key concepts will help you get the most out of DCS.

Sites

A site is a website managed through DCS. Each site has:

• A unique slug (e.g., my-company-website)
• An associated GitHub repository containing the source code
• Azure Static Web Apps resources for hosting (development and production)
• Text overrides for real-time content editing
• SEO metadata for search optimization

Site Types

DCS supports different site architectures:

Type	Description	Example
VitePress	Documentation-style sites with markdown	Company blogs, docs
Vue SPA	Single-page applications	Web apps, dashboards
Static	Pre-rendered HTML sites	Marketing sites

Companies

Sites belong to companies in DCS. A company represents an organization that owns one or more sites.

Company Roles

Role	Permissions
Owner	Full access, billing, user management
Admin	Site management, dev requests, content
Editor	Content editing, blog management
Viewer	Read-only access to analytics

Text Keys

Text keys are identifiers for editable text regions on your site. They follow a hierarchical naming convention:

{page}.{section}.{element}

Examples:

• home.hero.title — The main heading on the home page
• about.team.description — Team description on the about page
• footer.copyright — Copyright text in the footer

Text Overrides

When you edit text in the portal, you create a text override. The site fetches these overrides at runtime and displays them instead of the default text.

Default Text (in code) → Text Override (from API) → Displayed Text

Change Lifecycle

Content changes in DCS follow a defined lifecycle:

saved → pending → committed → released

Status	Description	Revertible
Saved	Edit created in portal	Discard anytime
Pending	Awaiting commit to code	Discard or commit
Committed	Merged to release branch	Revert via rollback
Released	Live in production	Revert via rollback

Development Requests

When changes require code modifications, you create a development request. These are analyzed by AI to determine the best approach:

Request Types

Type	Description	Automation
Text Override	Simple text changes	Consolidated in build
Widget Config	Configuration changes	Automated via Copilot
New Widget	New UI component	Automated via Copilot
New Page	New page creation	Automated via Copilot
Layout Change	Structural changes	Automated via Copilot

Automation Flow

Request → Intent Analysis → GitHub Issue → Copilot → PR → Review → Deploy

Release Branches

DCS uses release branches to manage deployments:

main (production)
  └── release/1.2.0 (development)
        └── copilot/feature-123 (automated work)

• main — Production code, always stable
• release/X.Y.Z — Development version being worked on
• copilot/ — Branches created by automation

Semantic Versioning

Sites follow semantic versioning:

• MAJOR (1.0.0) — Breaking changes
• MINOR (1.1.0) — New features
• PATCH (1.1.1) — Bug fixes, text changes

Deployment Environments

Each site has multiple environments:

Environment	Purpose	URL Pattern
Production	Live site	example.com
Development	Preview changes	dev.example.com
Draft	Per-PR previews	pr-123.example.com

Deployment Flow

Code Change → Build → Deploy to Dev → Review → Approve → Deploy to Production

APIs

DCS provides several APIs for site integration:

Text Content API

Fetch text overrides for a site:

GET /api/sites/{siteId}/text-content

SEO API

Fetch SEO metadata for a page:

GET /api/sites/{siteId}/seo/{pageSlug}

Blog API

Fetch blog posts:

GET /api/sites/{siteId}/blog/posts

Integration Points

The useTextContent Composable

For Vue/VitePress sites, this composable provides text override functionality:

const { t, isLoading } = useTextContent()

// t(key, defaultValue) returns the override or default
const title = t('page.title', 'Default Title')

GitHub Webhooks

DCS listens for GitHub events to:

• Track PR status for development requests
• Trigger deployments on branch updates
• Update request status when PRs merge

Azure Integration

DCS integrates with Azure for:

• Static Web Apps hosting
• Blob storage for assets
• Table storage for data
• Authentication via Entra ID

Next Steps

Now that you understand the concepts:

• Portal Guide — Learn to use the management interface
• Site Configuration — Set up your site integration
• API Reference — Explore the technical APIs