A form instead of a config file

Configurator

The configurator is a questionnaire that sets up your site. You fill in the site name and domain, the reference data (contacts, address, who you are and what you do), pick a theme and how you will publish, and the configurator fits the structure to your project: it writes the settings file, the build workflow and the scripts for you.

Every field has a hint, some have a short video. You can come back and change any answer later: the configurator reads the same file it writes.

Open it

1
Create a site

heron new my-site -y takes the latest HERON image, and the image creates the site folder: content structure, demo pages and a theme.
Get started
2
Start the configurator

cd my-site && heron setup . opens the questionnaire at localhost:8000. Run it from the site folder: anywhere else it tells you where the site is.
3
Fill it in

Go through the groups below and save. The answers land in site.yaml and the files listed further down.

What it asks

Nine groups. Only the first two are needed to start; the rest can wait until you publish. Every field has a hint, and a changed field is marked: you see what it was and can undo it.

Site and domains

The name of the site and two addresses: the working one and a service one. No domain yet? Leave the placeholder and change it before you publish.

Site name: The header, page titles, search result captions and the file for AI are built from it: Smith Dental.
Working domain: The address where the working version of the site will live, for example smith-dental.com. Visitors and search engines see it.
Service domain: For tests and checks, for example dev.smith-dental.com. Such sites are closed to search engines; the check build and the publishing script use this address. What a domain is
Where it is saved: site.domain and site.domains in site.yaml. One line to change if the domain changes later.

Languages

Which languages the site has and which one is the main. Languages are picked from a list, the main one from the chosen. You can add a language later; HERON creates its folder with a home page and a 404 page.

Addresses: The main language lives at the root, the others get a prefix: /ru/, /de/.
Links between versions: HERON adds the language switch and the hreflang tags that tell search engines which page is a translation of which.
Answers in every language: The name, job title, description and the note for AI are filled in for every language of the site.
More: Multilingual websites

Who the site is about: schema.org for your site

Search engines try to work out from the pages who a site is about and do not always get it right. schema.org markup tells them unambiguously. Answer once, and every page carries the same correct facts.

Who you are: A person or an organization; for an organization, its kind: a company, a local business, a non-profit, an educational one.
Field and specialization: From the classifier: healthcare → dental clinic, or legal → attorney. A specialization may have its own schema.org type — Dentist, Attorney, Restaurant — and it goes into the markup.
Address: The country from a list with its calling code, city, region, postal code, street, house.
Contacts: As many lines as you need: phone, email, website, WhatsApp, Telegram and more, each with a purpose: main, sales, support.
Nothing is invented: A question you skip simply stays out; HERON never puts an empty value into the markup.

Search

How the site looks in search results and when a link to it is shared.

Title suffix: A separator and the text after the title of every page: «About — Smith Dental». The questionnaire shows how it will look right away.
Social image: Shown when a link is shared in a messenger: 1200×630 pixels, put it into media/, for example media/social.jpg.
Prices in markup: Off by default, so a price never leaks into search results by accident. Turn it on only if the prices on the site are current.

AI assistants

What AI tools should know about the site: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and others.

Note for AI: A few lines of facts at the top of llms.txt: what you do, where, how to reach you. A tab per language of the site. What llms.txt is

Analytics

Visit counters: Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Yandex Metrica.

Public IDs: Not passwords: counter IDs are visible in the page code.
Only on the live site: Counters run in the working build and only after the visitor agrees.

Where you publish

Pick how you will store and publish the site. The configurator shows only the fields that way needs.

Not sure yet: The site builds and previews anyway; choose when you are ready. Compare the ways
GitHub: The repository and the branch. With the automatic build, GitHub checks the site on every push, builds its image on its servers and publishes it at the address the questionnaire shows for dev and prod. Publish with GitHub
Docker Hub: Your Docker Hub name and the image name. Publish to Docker Hub
Static files: The server address and the folder on it, or GitHub Pages. Publish as static files
Helpers: If you want them: a build script, a publish script and .gitignore. The scripts go to the hidden .heron/ folder and never into the build of the site.

Access keys and modules

Optional modules: an external database, a CRM, another CMS. Database module

Where keys are kept: In the HERON settings on your computer, outside the site folder. They never go into site.yaml or git.
Publishing without personal tokens: Docker Hub uses docker login, and GitHub gives the build its own short-lived token.

Theme

The look of the site: the current theme, a theme from the HERON catalog, by link or as your own archive. Themes

What comes: Templates and styles into theme/, the theme's demo pages only where there are no pages yet: your files are never overwritten.; The previous theme is not deleted, it goes to a backup.

One set of answers, everything consistent

The configurator asks each fact once and writes it to one place, site.yaml. Everything search engines and AI assistants read is built from that place on every build, so nothing contradicts anything else.

schema.org

Who you are, your field and specialization become the structured data of every page: a Dentist with its address and hours, a Person with an occupation.

Sitemap

Built from the working domain and the pages in content/, with dates from the history of each file.

llms.txt

The short note for AI goes on top, then the pages with their titles and descriptions.

Change once

A new phone number or opening hours change in site.yaml, and the next build updates the footer, the markup and llms.txt together.

A part of what the configurator writes:

site:
  domain: smith-dental.com
  name: "Smith Dental"
  default_lang: en
  languages: [en, de]

organization:
  name: "Smith Dental"
  name_de: "Zahnarztpraxis Smith"
  field_of_work: Healthcare
  specialization: Dental clinic

contact:
  phone: "+43 1 234 56 78"
  country: AT
  city: Vienna
  channels:
    - {type: phone, purpose: main, value: "+43 1 234 56 78"}
    - {type: telegram, purpose: support, value: "@smithdental"}

seo:
  llms_note:
    en: |
      ### How to reach us

      Phone +43 1 234 56 78, Monday to Friday 8 to 18.

Every key of site.yaml

What it writes

File	What it is	When
`site.yaml`	All settings of the site in one file	Always
`.heron/scripts/build.sh`	Builds the final version in one command	When the helper is on
`.heron/scripts/publish.sh`	Publishes the way you chose: push, image or files	When a way is chosen and the helper is on
`.gitignore`	Keeps caches and `dist/` out of git	When the helper is on
`.github/workflows/image.yml`	The build on GitHub: check, build the image, publish	When the automatic build is on

After saving

1
Look at the site

heron serve . and localhost:8000.
2
Write the pages

Open the home page file in the folder of your language inside content/ and change the texts. A new page is a copy of a page file under a new name.
Pages and content
3
Publish

When everything is ready, publish the finished site the way you chose: .heron/scripts/publish.sh does it for you.
Store and publish

Questions

Do I have to use the configurator?

No. It writes an ordinary site.yaml, and you can edit that file by hand. Every setting is described in the spec.

Is my token safe?

It stays on your computer, outside the site folder, and never goes to git. For the git way on GitHub's own registry, no personal token is needed: GitHub gives the build its own short-lived one.

My business type is not in the list. What then?

Pick the nearest field and specialization, or only the kind of organization, for example "local business". The structured data stays correct, only less detailed.

Can I run the configurator again?

Yes. It reads site.yaml and shows your answers; changed fields are marked and can be undone. Change what you need and save; the workflow and scripts are rewritten to match.