Getting Started with Astro Content Collections

Welcome to my first blog post using Astro content collections! In this article, I’ll share my experience transitioning from a CMS to using Astro’s built-in content management system.

Why Content Collections?

Content collections in Astro provide a powerful way to manage your content directly in your codebase. Here are some benefits:

1. Type Safety: With Zod schema validation, you can ensure your content follows the correct structure
2. Git-based: Version control your content alongside your code
3. Performance: No API calls needed - everything is compiled at build time

Setting Up Your First Collection

The process is straightforward. First, create a content directory in your project:

mkdir -p src/content/blog

Then, define your collection schema in src/content/config.ts:

import { defineCollection, z } from 'astro:content';

const blog = defineCollection({
  type: 'content',
  schema: z.object({
    title: z.string(),
    pubDate: z.date(),
    // ... rest of your schema
  })
});

Writing Content

With the setup complete, you can start writing your blog posts in Markdown or MDX. The frontmatter will be validated against your schema, ensuring consistency across all your content.

Next Steps

In future posts, I’ll cover:

• Advanced content collection features
• Creating dynamic routes
• Adding rich media to your posts
• Implementing search functionality

Stay tuned for more updates as I continue building out this blog!