Documentation

Soames runs WordPress as a headless CMS: you author content in WordPress, and a fast, static Astro front end reads it over WPGraphQL and renders the site. This guide takes you from a fresh WordPress install to running the Soames front end locally.

This guide explains how the Soames site is built, how to run it locally, and how changes reach production. Soames is a headless WordPress setup: WordPress is the content backend, and a static Astro front end is built from it and served on a CDN.

Soames is made of four pieces: WPGraphQL (the API), the Soames plugin and Soames WordPress theme (the WordPress side), and soames-astro-theme (the front end, consumed by a site project such as soames-site). This guide goes deeper into installation.

This guide walks through deploying a Soames site to Netlify. Soames is a headless setup: WordPress is the content backend, and the soames-site repository builds a static Astro front end that Netlify hosts on its CDN.

Because a Soames site is static, content you publish in WordPress does not appear on the live site until the site is rebuilt. A publish webhook closes that gap: it tells Netlify to rebuild automatically whenever content changes.

Welcome to the Editor Guide. This is the starting point for everyone who writes and manages content on this site — no coding required. It explains how the site works from an editor’s point of view and how your changes reach visitors.

Every page and post on this site has a hero header — the large banner at the top with a headline over a background image. You control it from the Hero Header panel in the editor sidebar, with four settings: Title, Caption, Background, and Overlay opacity.

The Soames Text List block builds a clean, styled bulleted list where each bullet can hold its own chunk of content. You add, remove, and reorder items visually — there’s no need to write HTML or add blank lines for spacing.

The Soames Feature block pairs a block of content with an image, side by side — a titled write-up on one side and a supporting image on the other. It’s the block to reach for when you want to highlight a single idea.

The Soames Gallery Menu block lays out a row of image cards, each with a label and an optional link. It’s built for visual navigation menus, product or service grids, category pickers, or any place you want a tidy grid.

The Soames Icon List block displays a centered row of icons or logos, each with an optional caption underneath and an optional link. It’s built for things like “as seen in” logo strips, technology or partner badges, feature icons, or any evenly-sized row of images.