Throughline is a conversational content management framework. It exposes a Payload CMS application as a constellation of MCP servers so marketers can operate the site through Claude rather than a traditional admin UI.
If you want a one-page mental model: read Architecture overview. If you want to ship something: jump to Scaffolding a project.
The docs follow the Diátaxis framework. Each section answers a different kind of question.
- Getting started — tutorials. Start here if you've never built a Throughline project. End-to-end, learn-by-doing, ~30 minutes from
pnpm createto "Claude editing a page." - Concepts — explanations. Read these to understand why the system is shaped the way it is. The trust boundary, plugin composition, design system contracts, event-driven workflows.
- Guides — how-tos. Specific tasks with concrete steps. Add a collection, theme an email, write a custom accessibility check.
- Reference — API reference for every published package. Look up types, options, exported functions.
- Operations — deployment, environment variables, observability, security model, the Phase 2 roadmap.
- Spec — the original phased build plan (
C0throughC14). Useful if you're contributing to the framework itself.
- Developers scaffolding a new project. Start with Scaffolding a project → First Claude connection → First publish.
- Developers customizing a running project. Read Architecture overview, then jump to the relevant guide or package reference.
- Design system authors. Read Design system contracts → Authoring component contracts.
- Engineering leads evaluating adoption. Read Architecture overview, The trust boundary, Security model, Deployment options.
- Edit pages through conversation. "Update the homepage hero to focus on the new climate program." Claude calls Payload MCP under the hood.
- Compose with a real design system. The Components MCP server reasons about your DS — when to use Hero vs SectionIntro, what variants fit which intent, what compositions break editorial rules.
- Publish with governance. The Publishing MCP server enforces accessibility, approval workflows, scheduled publishing, and embargo policies automatically. Direct
_statuswrites are blocked. - Approve from your inbox. Approvers receive emails with inline action buttons. No CMS login required to sign off on a change.
- Connect to anything. The Integrations MCP server's plugin architecture makes CRM, marketing automation, and analytics connections straightforward.
Pre-1.0. APIs will change before 1.0. Track progress in roadmap.md.
The original specs (under docs/spec/) refer to packages as @forumone/claude-cms-*. The actual published packages use throughline. Mentally substitute when reading the specs.