Personas

StaticOwl ships with three built-in personas. The user picks one on first login; it drives three things:

1. Nav visibility — menu items are tagged with personas: [...] in shell.js.
2. Starter-kit seeding — starter-kits.ts picks a default set of content types + sample pages.
3. Default surface of the AI guide — the system prompt steers questions and proposals toward what that persona cares about.

Persona is stored on the User node in the platform graph and can be changed later (Settings → Workspace).

1. Designer

Who. Solo creators, agency folks, brand-focused makers. They think in layouts, hierarchy, typography, and palette. They know HTML; they may or may not write JS.

Wants to.

• Build a site that feels like theirs.
• Ship landing pages, a blog, galleries or portfolios.
• Iterate on visual identity: colors, type, spacing, template structure.

Typical flow.

1. Describe the vibe to the AI guide ("editorial like Elle", "warm like NYT Cooking") → get a plan with palette + template + sample voice.
2. Tweak the generated template HTML + theme colors.
3. Fill out content in the tree.
4. Preview. Publish.

Visible nav. Dashboard, Content, Media, Types, Templates, Transforms (light usage), Builds, Sites, Users, Settings.

Hidden nav. Scripts, Queries, Routes, API keys, Workflows. Too low-level.

Starter kit. Folder + Page + Blog Post + Landing Page, plus sample Welcome / Blog / Home.

AI sweet spot. Translating "vibe" into theme colors, template, and sample copy voice.

2. Developer

Who. Engineers building data-heavy or integration-driven sites. They want to own the schema, write code, and pull content over an API.

Wants to.

• Define custom content types with relationships and validation.
• Write Transforms for enrichment, side effects, webhooks.
• Query with Cypher; generate typed SDK clients.
• Integrate with external systems (CI/CD, analytics, e-commerce).

Typical flow.

1. Skip the AI guide (or use it purely for scaffolding, then ignore).
2. Model the schema in Types.
3. Write onSave / beforeRender / onPublish Transforms.
4. Generate API keys for external tooling.
5. Configure Routes + Templates; wire a build.

Visible nav. Everything.

Hidden nav. Nothing.

Starter kit. Empty — no seeded types, no samples.

AI sweet spot. Generating Transform code from English, scaffolding types from a brief, emitting full site plans the dev edits in place.

3. Author

Who. Writers, journalists, content teams. Substack energy — they don't want to know about schemas.

Wants to.

• Write. Publish. Repeat.
• Schedule posts for later.
• Find an image; maybe have AI make one.
• Not think about content models.

Typical flow.

1. Open a draft (or create one from the tree).
2. Write in the block editor; AI-assist on headlines, first drafts, images.
3. Add tags + hero image.
4. Save → optionally schedule → publish.

Visible nav. Dashboard, Content, Media, Sites, Bugs, Settings.

Hidden nav. Types, Templates, Transforms, Scripts, Queries, Routes, API keys, Workflows.

Starter kit. Folder + Page + Blog Post, plus Welcome page + first blog post.

AI sweet spot. Drafting from notes, improving copy, generating hero images, suggesting headlines + tags.

What's NOT a persona (deliberately)

• Admin — that's a role (owner | admin | member on User; admin | editor | publisher | viewer on the site edge). It cuts across personas; a designer-admin invites users AND tweaks templates.
• Editor / Reviewer — covered by the publisher role + workflow states. No separate persona needed.
• Operator / DevOps — domain, hosting, backups. Belongs in Site Settings, not a persona.