---
title: Content Model
---

PieCrust is a CMS, _i.e._ a _Content Management System_. It looks, by default,
like a simple blog engine, but it can really handle any arbitrary set of
content. You need however to define what that content is. This is the _content
model_.

The [default content model][def] is what you get out of the box. It defines a
simple blog site where you can have pages and posts.

To create more complex or customized websites, you can define another content
model by specifying [sources][], [routes][], and [taxonomies][] in the [site
configuration][siteconf]:

* [Sources][] are how you tell PieCrust where to find your content. It defines
  in what sub-directories it will find what kind of pages, with what kind of
  naming convention, and what kind of metadata. In theory, sources can also
  provide pages from other places than the file-system -- like a network
  connection or a ZIP file or a database or whatever.

* [Routes][] define how the content returned by the sources is exposed to your
  visitors. This defines both the URLs for that content, and the place on disk
  where it will be baked to.

* [Taxonomies][] define special types of metadata on which PieCrust will create
  index pages. You can generally define any type of metadata on your pages in a
  completely free-form way, without having to declare anything, but in some
  situations -- like blog post categories -- you want PieCrust to create a page
  that lists all pages assigned with each category.


[def]: {{docurl('content-model/default-model')}}
[sources]: {{docurl('content-model/sources')}}
[routes]: {{docurl('content-model/routes')}}
[taxonomies]: {{docurl('content-model/taxonomies')}}
[siteconf]: {{docurl('general/website-configuration')}}