Step 0 — Extract and open START_HERE.html

If you downloaded Birkly as a zip file, do this before logging in to the admin:

1. Extract the zip to a folder (e.g. Documents/Birkly on your computer, or upload the contents to your web host).
2. Confirm you see START_HERE.html in the same folder as admin/, api/, and core/ — not still inside the zip, and not one folder too deep (e.g. Birkly/Birkly/).
3. Open START_HERE.html in your browser (double-click the file locally, or visit https://your-domain.com/START_HERE.html after upload).
4. Wait for the folder check to confirm you're in the right place.
5. Choose On your computer (local test with PHP) or On a web server (FTP/cloud), follow the short steps for your path, then click Start setup to open the admin onboarding wizard.

Example: You extract Birkly-1.0.zip to ~/Birkly, open START_HERE.html, pick On your computer, run ./start-server.sh in that folder, then click Start setup — the browser opens the admin wizard at http://localhost:8080/admin/ with local install hints.

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Step 1 — Log in

Open your Birkly address in the browser. It usually looks like:

• https://your-domain.com/admin

or

• http://localhost:8080/admin (if you’re running Birkly locally).

Enter your email and password. If no admin account exists yet, the onboarding wizard asks you to create one first. Otherwise, an administrator must create one for you or send you an invite (you’ll receive a link to set your password).

Example: If your CMS is at https://cms.mycompany.com, you go to https://cms.mycompany.com/admin and sign in. After login you’ll see the Dashboard (overview) and the sidebar with Content, Media, Settings, etc.

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Step 2 — Complete the setup wizard (first time only)

The first time you (or anyone) use the installation, you may see the onboarding wizard (especially if you arrived via START_HERE). It will ask for:

• Project name — For the admin panel only (sidebar label, browser tab). It does not set your website’s public title or URL.
• Use case (optional) — Blog, business site, shop, docs, or developer project; may include demo content you can keep or remove.
• Marketplace (optional) — A pointer to install official plugins (Commerce, Events, etc.) from Plugins → Marketplace.
• Connect AI (optional) — A short BYOAI flow; you can always skip and return later under Settings.

You can skip any step. After that, the Dashboard and sidebar are your starting point. A short setup checklist on the Dashboard shows essential next steps (collection, entry, marketplace plugin; Connect AI only if you skipped it in the wizard).

Example: You might enter “Acme Blog” as the project name, pick the blog use case, skip AI for now, and land on the Dashboard with a checklist prompting you to create your first collection.

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Step 3 — Create a collection

Collections are the types of content you manage (e.g. “Blog posts,” “Products,” “Team members”). You create each type once and then add as many entries as you need.

1. In the sidebar, click Content.
2. Click Create collection (or New collection).
3. Give it a name that editors will see (e.g. “Blog posts,” “Services”).
4. Add fields—the pieces of information each entry will have. For each field you choose a label (what appears in the form) and a type (what kind of data).

Example — A “Blog posts” collection:

| Field label | Type | Purpose | |----------------|---------|----------------------------------| | Title | Text | Post title | | Content | Editor | Main body (rich text) | | Excerpt | Textarea| Short summary | | Publication date | Date | When the post was published | | Featured image | Media | One image for the post | | Tags | Tags | Optional tags |

1. In the collection’s Settings (or Configuration) tab, leave Entry method as “Admin only” unless you want to accept submissions from your website (e.g. a contact form).
2. Save the collection.

After saving, you’ll see the new collection in the Content list. Click it to open it and add entries.

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Step 4 — Add entries

An entry is one item in a collection (one blog post, one product, one team member).

1. Open the collection (e.g. “Blog posts”) from the Content area.
2. Click New entry (or Add entry).
3. Fill in each field:

- Title — Type the post title. - Content — Use the editor to write the body (bold, lists, links, images as needed). - Publication date — Pick the date (and time if the field allows). - Featured image — Click to open the Media Library, pick or upload an image. - Any other fields you added (e.g. Excerpt, Tags).

1. Slug — This becomes the URL-friendly part (e.g. my-first-post). It’s often filled in automatically from the title; you can change it if you want a different URL.
2. Status — Choose Draft (saved but not visible on the site) or Published (visible). Use Save or Save & Publish.
3. Click Save.

Example: You create an entry with title “Welcome to our blog,” content “This is our first post…,” date “2025-02-05,” and slug welcome-to-our-blog. You set status to Published and save. That entry is now stored and will appear when your website loads blog posts from Birkly (once the site is connected).

Repeat for more entries. You can edit or delete entries anytime from the collection’s entry list.

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Step 5 — Connect your website

So far the content lives only in the admin. To show it on your actual website:

1. Add the Birkly client script to your HTML. One script tag is enough; it should point to your Birkly address.
2. In your HTML, use placeholders where you want content (e.g. “show the title here,” “list all blog posts”). The client script loads the content from Birkly and fills those placeholders when someone visits the page.

Example (minimal):

In your page’s HTML you might have something like:

• A placeholder for a single post’s title and body (e.g. on a “post” page that shows one article).
• A placeholder that means “list the latest 5 blog posts” (e.g. on your homepage).

Your developer or host can add the exact script tag and placeholder syntax (Birkly uses a simple templating language). Once that’s in place, when you publish or edit an entry in the admin, the live site will show the updated content (either immediately when the page loads or after a refresh, depending on how the site is built).

From here you can add more collections (e.g. “Products,” “Team”), upload more media, invite other users, or explore Settings and Help in the admin.