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Enable CMS on your project

Enabling the CMS is a one-toggle change in the Console. It provisions a dedicated Payload tenant for your project and turns on billing for the CMS line item on your Stripe subscription.

:::info Who can do this You need the admin role on the project. Members see the toggle in read-only state and cannot flip it. :::

1. Open project settings​

Sign in to the Console at console.sandbox.ovok.com (or your tier's console — see Release tiers), pick the project you want, then open Settings → General from the sidebar.

The page URL is /settings/general.

2. Find the Payload CMS section​

Scroll to the section titled Payload CMS (eyebrow: CONTENT). It looks like this:

Settings General page showing the Payload CMS section with Enable Payload CMS toggle off and the Custom mailing section below it

CONTENT > Payload CMS

Opt this project into the new Payload-backed CMS. Flipping on triggers tenant provisioning + adds a CMS line item to your Stripe subscription. The legacy FHIR-backed /cms/* surface is unaffected.

☐ Enable Payload CMS — Provisions a Payload tenant and starts CMS billing for this project. Config key: CONTENT_ENABLED

The card next to it is Custom mailing (MAILING_ENABLED) — a separate, independent toggle. Don't flip it by accident.

3. Flip the toggle​

Click Enable Payload CMS. Behind the scenes the Console:

  1. Calls PUT /v1/project/settings/CONTENT_ENABLED with { enabled: true } to flag the project.
  2. Calls POST /v1/cms/projects/{slug}/environments with { "environment": "dev" } to enable CMS on the control plane. That provisions the Payload tenant idempotently via payload-ovok.
  3. Adds a cms line item to the project's Stripe subscription so usage is billed alongside the platform.

The toggle picks up an Enabled badge once provisioning completes. First-time provisioning is typically under 10 seconds.

4. Open the CMS​

The Content entry in the sidebar becomes live. Click it to land on the CMS dashboard for the project — collections, media library, drafts, publishing.

If you visited /content before enabling, you would have seen a "Payload CMS · Off" card with an Open project settings button — that links straight to the toggle above:

Console Content page off state with the Payload CMS Off card

5. Mint a delivery API key​

For your frontend or mobile app to fetch published content, you need an API key. From the Console, go to Settings → API keys → CMS and create a key. Treat it like any other secret. See API keys for details on scoping and rotation.

What changed under the hood​

Before enableAfter enable
/v1/content/* requests return 403/v1/content/* forwards to your tenant
/v1/public/cms/* returns 404/v1/public/cms/* serves published items
No CMS line item in StripeCMS line item is active and metered
Console sidebar omits ContentConsole shows Content + sub-menus

Turning it off​

Flipping the toggle back off:

  • Stops new authoring writes (/v1/content/* returns 403).
  • Pauses billing for the CMS line item at the next invoice boundary.
  • Does not delete your tenant or content — flipping back on restores full access immediately.

If you need to permanently delete CMS data, contact support; we don't expose self-serve hard-deletes from the Console to avoid accidents.

Troubleshooting​

"Failed to enable Payload CMS" in the Console → the most common cause is the project lacking an active subscription. Open billing first, make sure you have a payment method on file, then retry.

/v1/content/* returns 403 even after enabling → wait ~10 seconds for tenant provisioning to settle, then refresh. The first authenticated /v1/content/* call can also self-heal tenant resolution if the control plane row exists but the Payload tenant was missing.

Deleted the tenant manually in Railway / cloud console → don't. Re-enable the environment from Settings → General (calls POST /v1/cms/projects/{slug}/environments again) or contact support.

Next​