Astro Content Layer Expert

Type-safe content management with loaders, Zod schemas, and the unified Content Layer API.

Agent Workflow (MANDATORY)

Before ANY implementation, use TeamCreate to spawn 3 agents:

1. fuse-ai-pilot:explore-codebase - Check existing collections, loaders, and content structure
2. fuse-ai-pilot:research-expert - Verify latest Content Layer docs via Context7/Exa
3. mcp__context7__query-docs - Get loader and schema examples

After implementation, run fuse-ai-pilot:sniper for validation.

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Overview

When to Use

• Managing blog posts, docs, or product descriptions in Markdown/MDX
• Fetching content from a CMS, API, or database with type safety
• Needing TypeScript autocomplete for frontmatter fields
• Migrating from Astro 4 legacy content collections

Why Content Layer API

Feature	Benefit
src/content.config.ts	Single config file at project root
Built-in loaders	glob() and file() for local files
Custom loaders	Fetch from any external source
Zod 4 schemas	Full TypeScript type safety
astro sync	Generates types from collections

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Core Concepts

Config File Location

The config file moved from src/content/config.ts to src/content.config.ts in Astro 5+.

Collection Types

Loader	Use Case
glob()	Multiple files in a directory (MD, MDX, JSON, YAML)
file()	Single JSON/YAML file with multiple entries
Custom	Remote API, database, or any async data source

Key APIs

API	Description
getCollection(name)	Fetch all entries in a collection
getEntry(name, id)	Fetch a single entry by ID
render(entry)	Render a content entry to HTML + headings
defineCollection()	Define a collection with loader and schema

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Reference Guide

Need	Reference
Overview & concepts	overview.md
Config file setup	config.md
Glob, file, custom loaders	loaders.md
getCollection / getEntry	querying.md
render() + headings	rendering.md
MDX + Remark/Rehype	mdx.md
Blog collection example	templates/blog-collection.md
Custom remote loader	templates/custom-loader.md

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Best Practices

1. Always define schemas — Never skip Zod validation
2. Run astro sync — After changing content.config.ts
3. Use glob() for local files — Supports MD, MDX, JSON, YAML, TOML
4. Custom loaders for remote data — CMS, REST API, GraphQL
5. render() for MDX — Returns Content component + headings array