Managed at Admin → Settings. Stored in config/site.json. These values control the identity, typography, SEO, email delivery, footer, social links, and several opt-in UI features of your site.

{
  "identity": {
    "title": "My Site",                        // Browser tab title and OG title
    "tagline": "Fast. Flexible. Beautiful.",   // Short strapline shown in hero/footer
    "description": "A site built with Domma CMS.",
    "logo": "/assets/logo.svg",                // Path to logo image
    "favicon": "/assets/favicon.svg",          // Shown in browser tab
    "url": "https://mysite.example.com"        // Canonical base URL (no trailing slash)
  },

  "typography": {
    "headingFont": "Inter",                    // Google Font name or 'system'
    "bodyFont": "Inter"                        // Applied to body text
  },

  "seo": {
    "googleAnalytics": "G-XXXXXXXXXX",         // GA4 measurement ID (leave blank to disable)
    "sitemapEnabled": true,                    // Auto-generates /sitemap.xml on build
    "robotsTxt": "User-agent: *\nAllow: /"    // Written verbatim to /robots.txt
  },

  "smtp": {
    "host": "smtp.gmail.com",                  // SMTP server hostname
    "port": 587,                               // 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (SSL)
    "user": "you@example.com",                 // SMTP username
    "password": "your-app-password",           // SMTP password or app-specific password
    "from": "noreply@mysite.example.com"       // From address for outbound emails
  },

  "footer": {
    "copyright": "© 2026 My Site. All rights reserved.",
    "links": [
      { "text": "Privacy Policy", "url": "/privacy" },
      { "text": "Terms of Service", "url": "/terms" }
    ]
  },

  "social": {
    "twitter": "https://x.com/myhandle",
    "github": "https://github.com/myorg",
    "linkedin": "https://linkedin.com/company/myorg",
    "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@mychannel"
  },

  "backToTop": {
    "enabled": true,
    "position": "fixed-right"                 // fixed-right | fixed-left
  },

  "cookies": {
    "enabled": true,
    "message": "We use cookies to improve your experience.",
    "acceptButtonText": "Got it",
    "policyUrl": "/privacy#cookies"
  },

  "breadcrumbs": {
    "enabled": true,
    "separator": "/"                           // Any character or HTML entity
  }
}

Managed at Admin → Navigation. Stored in config/navigation.json. Defines the top navbar brand, link items, optional dropdown groups, visual variant, and action slots (e.g. theme selector).

{
  "brand": { "text": "My Site", "url": "/" },
  "items": [
    { "text": "Home", "url": "/" },
    { "text": "Blog", "url": "/blog" },
    { "text": "About", "url": "/about" },
    {
      "text": "More",
      "items": [
        { "text": "Contact", "url": "/contact" },
        { "text": "FAQ", "url": "/faq" }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "variant": "dark",
  "actions": [{ "type": "theme-selector" }]
}

Managed in config/layouts.json. A layout preset controls which chrome (navbar, sidebar, footer, breadcrumbs) wraps a page's content.

Per-page override — add a layout key to the page's frontmatter:

---
title: My Landing Page
layout: minimal
---

Custom layouts can be added to layouts.json and referenced by any page.

Domma CMS uses the Domma theme system with 24 built-in themes — 12 families, each with a dark and light variant. Set the active theme at Admin → Settings → Appearance. The default is charcoal-dark.

Any page can override the site-wide theme using a theme key in its frontmatter. Only that page is affected — all other pages continue to use the site default.

---
title: My Landing Page
theme: ocean-dark
layout: landing
---

This is particularly useful for:

• Seasonal pages — e.g. apply christmas-dark to a holiday promotion page
• Campaign pages — match a campaign's brand palette without changing the site theme
• Varied section aesthetics — give distinct visual identity to different areas of a site
• Landing pages — pair with layout: landing for fully custom entry points

The bundled Theme Roller plugin adds a visual theme customisation tool, accessible from the admin toolbar. It lets you fine-tune any theme without touching CSS source files.

Capabilities

• Live preview — changes are applied instantly in the browser, no reload required
• CSS variable overrides — tweak colours, spacing, radius, and typography tokens
• Export custom theme — download your overrides as a standalone CSS file
• Apply site-wide or per-page — exported CSS can be placed in config/custom.css or scoped with a page selector

Enable the plugin in config/plugins.json:

{ "slug": "theme-roller", "enabled": true }

Once enabled, a Theme Roller button appears in the admin toolbar on every public page when you are logged in.

Server-level configuration is stored in a .env file at the project root. The CMS server reads this file via dotenv on startup. Never commit .env to version control.

PORT=4096
NODE_ENV=production
JWT_SECRET=auto-generated-by-setup

# Database (Pro only)
MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/domma-cms

# SMTP (also configurable via Admin → Settings)
SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=you@example.com
SMTP_PASS=your-app-password
SMTP_FROM=noreply@yourdomain.com

Authentication behaviour is controlled by the auth key in config/site.json. These settings govern registration, session lifetimes, and brute-force protection.

{
  "auth": {
    "allowRegistration": false,         // Disable public sign-up (invite-only sites)
    "requireEmailVerification": false,  // Send verification email before login allowed
    "sessionTimeout": "7d",             // Sliding session window (e.g. 1h, 24h, 7d)
    "accessTokenExpiry": "15m",         // JWT access token lifetime
    "passwordMinLength": 8,             // Minimum characters for new passwords
    "maxLoginAttempts": 5,              // Failed attempts before lockout
    "lockoutDuration": "15m"            // How long a locked account remains locked
  }
}

Inject additional CSS into every public page without modifying Domma's source files. This is the recommended way to apply brand-specific overrides.

How it works

• Navigate to Admin → Settings → Custom CSS and paste your rules into the editor.
• The content is saved to config/custom.css and served as a static file.
• It is loaded after the theme CSS on every public page, giving it full specificity over theme variables.
• The admin panel is not affected — custom CSS applies only to the public-facing site.

Example overrides

/* Override primary brand colour */
:root {
    --color-primary: #e63946;
}

/* Custom heading font weight */
h1, h2, h3 {
    font-weight: 800;
}

/* Hide the back-to-top button on the homepage */
body.page-home .back-to-top {
    display: none;
}

For larger style overrides, consider creating a dedicated stylesheet and linking it via a custom layout rather than accumulating rules in custom.css.