Blueprint (Statamic)

A Blueprint in Statamic is a schema definition for a content type. It specifies which fields appear when an editor creates or edits a piece of content, what type each field is, and how those fields are arranged in the Control Panel. Blueprints can be attached to Collections, Taxonomies, asset containers, and user accounts.

The WordPress equivalent is a custom field configuration, but the comparison requires some context. In WordPress, custom fields aren’t really a core concept with a clean interface — they’re a loose convention bolted onto the wp_postmeta table. Most WordPress developers use a plugin like Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) or Meta Box to build a proper field-editing UI and define field schemas. Statamic’s Blueprints do that natively, with no plugin required.

Blueprints are stored as YAML files in resources/blueprints/. You can edit them through the Control Panel’s Blueprint editor, which gives you a drag-and-drop interface for adding and arranging fields, or you can edit the YAML directly if you prefer. Each field in a Blueprint references a Fieldtype — that’s the component that determines what kind of data the field stores and how it renders in the editor.

Blueprints also support sections and tabs, which lets you group related fields together in the editing interface. A long-form article Blueprint might have a Content tab with the body and summary fields, a SEO tab with meta title and description, and a Sidebar tab for things like tags and related posts.

One Blueprint can be used across multiple Collections, or each Collection can have its own. A Collection can also have multiple Blueprints — useful when you have a content type where some entries have meaningfully different fields than others. For example, a Resources collection might have separate Blueprints for PDFs, videos, and webinars, each with fields appropriate to that format.

When migrating from WordPress, the Blueprint design phase maps to the work of deciding which custom fields each content type needs. If you were using ACF, your field groups translate fairly directly to Blueprints. The migration guide covers how to think through this mapping.