Site types

Create a site type and decide what the sites built from it offer.

Every site is built from a site type. A type is configuration: it deploys with the rest of your configuration. The sites themselves are content, created on each environment.

What a type decides

The type form holds a settings matrix: one row per setting, grouped under the section the setting belongs to, like Site information, Appearance or Assignable content. Each row has four columns:

Column	Effect when checked
Default	The type gives the setting a default value, entered under Default settings below the matrix. Unchecked, the module's own default applies.
Available	Sites of the type show the setting and can change it. Unchecked, every site uses the default and the setting is hidden from its sections. A checked, disabled box marks a setting every site needs.
Environment overrides	The value can differ per environment.
Translatable	The value can differ per language.

A ❌ marks a column the setting does not support. How these layers combine is on Setting layers; every setting is listed in the settings reference.

Two groups of rows decide what the sites hold and who works on them:

• Assignable content: one row per content type, like Content: Article, Taxonomy term: Tags or User. The value is Unlimited sites, Single site or Not assignable: how many sites one item of that type can belong to. Without a default from the type, taxonomy terms belong to a single site and everything else to unlimited sites. See Content on sites.
• Assignable roles: one row per role. A role the type offers can be granted on its sites, on one site at a time. See Roles and permissions.

A changed default applies at once to every site of the type that has no value of its own for that setting.

Create a site type

Before you start

You need the Administer sites configuration permission.

Steps

1. Go to Sites configuration > Site types (/admin/sites/types).
2. Click Add site type.
3. Enter a Label. The machine name follows it and cannot change later.
4. Enter a Description. It is shown when someone chooses a type on Add site.
5. Select the Base site plugin: Content site for sites created and managed in the admin UI. It cannot change later.
6. In the matrix, check Default on each row the type should preset, then enter the values under Default settings.
7. Set Available, Environment overrides and Translatable per row.
8. Click Save.

The settings matrix of a site type at the Assignable content rows.

The list at /admin/sites/types shows each type's label, machine name and base plugin. Edit changes a type. Delete works only while no site uses the type.

An install without a site type

The modules alone create no site type. Until one exists, Add site (/admin/sites/add-site) shows "No site type exists yet." with a link to add one, and no site can be created. The hub and its administration work as usual. The Content sites recipe adds a type named Site; see Installation.