What is the CloudCannon configuration file?

Last modified: October 14th, 2024

As of October 2024, this documentation is only applicable to Sites using Unified Configuration. For Sites that have not migrated to Unified Configuration, please read the documentation on our non-unified documentation website.

The CloudCannon configuration file is the heart of your CloudCannon experience. As the name implies, the CloudCannon configuration file contains all the configuration for your Site. This includes the appearance and functionality of your app navigation, schemas, files, inputs, and structures.

Your configuration file allows you to make CloudCannon your own, customizing your app experience for you and your team members.

After syncing your Site files, creating your CloudCannon configuration file should be the first thing you do. CloudCannon will prompt you to create a configuration file if it detects you don't have one. A popup will appear in your Site Navigation.

A screenshot of the Site Navigation popup shows the Return to setup button.

CloudCannon supports the following configuration file types:

  • cloudcannon.config.json
  • cloudcannon.config.yaml
  • cloudcannon.config.yml

By default, CloudCannon assumes your configuration file is in the root folder of your Git repository, however you can define a custom configuration file path if your file is within a nested folder.

CloudCannon preferentially uses configuration from files with a custom configuration path. If you have not defined a custom filepath, then CloudCannon will use the configuration defined in the first file in the root directory, searching in alphabetical order.

You can open your CloudCannon configuration file in the Data Editor or the Source Editor. To open your CloudCannon configuration file, navigate to the Editing page under Site Settings and click the Edit your configuration file button.

A screenshot of the Editing page in Site Settings shows the Edit your configuration file button.

The configuration cascade#

The CloudCannon configuration file is the first level in the configuration cascade, which means any configuration defined here will affect all the files on your Site. This makes it a great place to configure the default appearance and behavior you want. You can add more specific configuration at other levels of the cascade.

For more information, please read our documentation on the configuration cascade.

The source folder#

The first key you should define in your CloudCannon configuration file is source. This key determines the source folder for your website's files relative to the root of your Git repository. Your Collections are configured relative to your source folder. This is useful if you have multiple websites nested in a single repository.

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