Studio Editor
The Studio is the heart of RepoPress - a visual editor for MDX and Markdown files that commits directly to your GitHub repository. This guide covers every part of the editing experience.
Editor Layout
The Studio is organized into three resizable panels:
- File Tree (Left) - Browse your repository’s content directory. Click any file to open it in the editor. Directories are collapsible, and the current file is highlighted.
- Editor (Center) - The main editing area. Edit frontmatter fields at the top and content below. A formatting toolbar provides quick access to headings, bold, italic, links, images, and code blocks.
- Preview (Right) - A real-time rendered preview of your MDX content. As you type, the preview updates instantly so you can see exactly how your content will look.
You can resize each panel by dragging the dividers, or collapse the file tree and preview panels to focus on writing.
MDX Editing with Frontmatter
RepoPress understands MDX frontmatter natively. When you open a file with frontmatter (the YAML block between --- delimiters), the Studio displays each field as a structured form input:
- Text fields - For title, description, and other string values
- Date pickers - For date and publishedAt fields
- Tag inputs - For array fields like tags and categories
- Toggles - For boolean fields like draft
The body content is edited below the frontmatter section using a full-featured MDX-aware editor with syntax highlighting.
Saving Drafts
Every change you make in the Studio is automatically saved as a draft. Drafts are stored in Convex (not in your Git repository) so you can freely experiment without affecting your live content.
- Auto-save - Drafts are saved automatically as you type, with a brief debounce to avoid excessive writes.
- Draft indicator - A status indicator in the editor header shows whether your changes are saved, saving, or unsaved.
- Discard changes - You can discard a draft at any time to revert to the last published version from Git.
Publishing Workflow
When your content is ready, the publishing workflow guides you through committing changes back to your repository:
Draft → Review
Mark a document for review to signal to collaborators that it’s ready for feedback. Documents in review are visible to all project members but are not yet committed to Git.
Review → Publish
Once reviewed (or if you skip the review step), click Publish to commit the changes. You’ll be prompted to enter a commit message. RepoPress then creates a commit on the configured branch of your repository via the GitHub API.
Publish → Live
Once published, your changes are live in the repository. If your site has CI/CD (e.g., Vercel, Netlify), it will pick up the commit and redeploy automatically.
Version History
Since all published content is committed to Git, you get full version history for free. RepoPress shows the commit history for the current file, including:
- Commit message and timestamp
- Author information
- Ability to view previous versions and compare changes
You can view any previous version and optionally restore it by creating a new draft from that version’s content.
Keyboard Shortcuts
The Studio supports keyboard shortcuts for common editing actions:
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Bold | ⌘ + B |
| Italic | ⌘ + I |
| Insert Link | ⌘ + K |
| Save Draft | ⌘ + S |
| Toggle Preview | ⌘ + Shift + P |
That covers the essentials of the Studio editor. If you haven’t already, head back to Getting Started or learn more about How It Works under the hood.