Explanations. Why the system is shaped this way, what the tradeoffs are, what mental model to bring when you read the code.
These pages don't tell you how to do anything. They tell you what's happening so the how docs make sense.
- Architecture overview — the one-page mental model. Read this first.
- Plugin composition — every package is a Payload plugin; how they discover each other and order matters.
- The trust boundary — why the Publishing server is the only sanctioned path to "published," and what that buys you.
- Design system contracts — the manifest, the rules engine, why Claude needs a contract instead of just a component list.
- Event-driven workflows — why Inngest is the integration boundary and what it lets you do that direct calls don't.
- Client-agnostic core — the two-track architecture. What goes in core, what stays in your client project.