Create new Site

Each site in the CMS5 multisite is a Strapi plugin under src/plugins/. This guide walks through scaffolding a new site plugin, registering it, wiring up the shared slug logic, and building it.

For this example we create a site called andronis.

1. Scaffold the plugin

Open a terminal in the cms5-backend root and run the command below. The argument is the path where the plugin is created, so pass the full src/plugins/<NAME> path (passing just <NAME> would create the plugin in the repo root instead):

npx @strapi/sdk-plugin@latest init src/plugins/<NAME>

Important: answer no to register with the admin panel? and yes to register with the server?. Answering no to the admin panel keeps the plugin server-only (no admin/ folder is generated).

You will be prompted for the following, in order (the plugin id must match /^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-_]*$/):

? plugin name › andronis
? plugin id (used by Strapi) › andronis
? plugin display name › Andronis
? plugin description › Andronis CMS5
? plugin author name › John Paraskevopoulos
? plugin author email › jparaskevopoulos@nelios.com
? git url ›
? plugin license › MIT
? register with the admin panel? › no
? register with the server? › yes
? Add .editorconfig? › yes
? Use ESLint? › yes
? Use Prettier? › yes
? Use TypeScript? › yes

2. Fix the plugin’s dependencies

Once the script finishes it will attempt to install node modules — it might crash, ignore it. Open the package.json of your new plugin (src/plugins/andronis/package.json) and replace the dependencies, devDependencies, and peerDependencies with the ones any other site uses:

{
   "dependencies":{
      "@strapi/types":"5.48.0"
   },
   "devDependencies":{
      "@strapi/sdk-plugin":"^5.3.2",
      "@strapi/typescript-utils":"^5.12.6",
      "prettier":"^3.5.3",
      "typescript":"^5.8.3"
   },
   "peerDependencies":{
      "@strapi/sdk-plugin":"^5.3.2",
      "@strapi/strapi":"^5.35.0"
   }
}

Note: These versions drift over time — always copy from the package.json of an existing site plugin (e.g. src/plugins/andronis) rather than trusting the snippet above.

3. Register the plugin

Add the plugin to config/plugins.ts:

export default {
  // …other plugins
  'andronis': {
    enabled: true,
    resolve: './src/plugins/andronis'
  },
  // …other plugins
}

Note: The key name (andronis) must match the plugin name you used when scaffolding.

4. Generate the lifecycle hooks

Run the helper script and enter the same name you used above:

pnpm run add:plugin

Enter plugin name (e.g., my-plugin): andronis
✅ register.ts has been overwritten in order to enable lifecycle hooks: src/plugins/andronis/server/src/register.ts
✅ Copied lib folder from 'demo' to src/plugins/andronis/lib
ℹ️  'andronis' lives under src/plugins/* and will be built automatically by 'pnpm run buildAll'.

This does everything needed to wire up the site’s slug logic:

• Overwrites the plugin’s server/src/register.ts with beforeCreate / beforeUpdate lifecycle hooks that auto-generate the Slug field for any content type that has one, importing the shared helper from ../../lib/NeliosSlug.
• Copies the shared lib folder (NeliosSlug.ts + helpers.ts) from an existing plugin into src/plugins/<name>/lib/, so that import resolves when the plugin is built in isolation.

Notes

• The plugin name is validated — only letters, numbers, dashes, and underscores are allowed; anything else is rejected.
• No build:plugins edit is needed. Because src/plugins/* is a pnpm workspace, the new plugin is picked up automatically by build:plugins (pnpm -r --if-present build).
• If the plugin already has a lib folder it is left untouched; if no donor plugin is found, the script warns you to copy a lib folder in manually.

5. Build

To apply changes, from the plugin directory src/plugins/<name>/ run:

pnpm run build

or, during development:

pnpm run watch

To build everything (shared packages, types, all plugins, then Strapi) run from the cms5-backend root:

pnpm run buildAll

Review the changes locally before deploying.