Payload CMS V3 Website Template
One-click deploy on Railway!

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Step by step guide and instructions

A powerful, flexible, and production-ready Payload CMS V3 website builder with PostgreSQL database.

RaidGuild Portal

This repo powers the RaidGuild Portal: a CMS-backed surface for briefs, projects, threads, activity, sessions, profiles, recognition, contribution requests, modules, notifications, and contributor workflows.

Start with:

• Product overview
• Portal documentation
• Implementation checklist

The Portal should make real community activity visible and help people find a useful next step. It should not become a project management system, Discord replacement, course platform, handbook dump, or generic AI content feed.

About this boilerplate

This project started from a Payload CMS website boilerplate and still uses Payload, Next.js, and PostgreSQL as its foundation. Some lower sections of this README retain setup notes from the original template, but product direction now lives in docs/.

Version Info

• Payload CMS: 3.82.1
• Next.js: 16.2.5
• Node.js: ^18.20.2 || >=20.9.0

Preconfigured Features & Integrations

• Authentication: Robust user authentication system
• Access Control: Role-based access control for admins and users
• Premium Content: Gated content for authenticated users
• Comments: User commenting system with admin approval
• Layout Builder: Flexible content creation with pre-configured blocks
• Draft Preview: Preview unpublished content before going live
• SEO: Built-in SEO optimization tools
• Redirects: Easy management of URL redirects
• PostgreSQL Support: Configured for both local and production use

Railway Setup

Use one-click deploy template:

Local Setup

1. Clone proejct: (recommeded) Laucnh on Railway and ejct watch how. Alternatively clone this repo or fork it.
2. Copy .env.example to .env (fill in your own values..)
3. Start PostgreSQL: docker compose up -d postgres
4. Install dependencies: pnpm install or npm install
5. Run development mode: pnpm dev or npm run dev or
6. Build the project: pnpm build or npm run build
7. Start the server: pnpm start or npm run start

To reset a non-Docker local PostgreSQL database, set DATABASE_URI to a local host database in .env, then run:

corepack pnpm db:reset:local
corepack pnpm payload migrate

The reset script refuses non-local database hosts and prompts for confirmation before dropping the database. Use corepack pnpm db:reset:local:migrate to reset and immediately run migrations.

To seed local starter content for browser testing, run:

corepack pnpm db:seed:local

This upserts the portal starter content and ensures a local admin account exists:

• email: local-admin@example.com
• password: password

It also creates a local-admin profile and two sessions hosted by that profile:

• Local Artifact Upload Test - Past Session
• Local Host Planning Session - Future Session

Use corepack pnpm db:reset:local:seed for a fresh local reset, migration, and seed in one command. The seed script also refuses non-local database hosts. Pass -- --skip-admin to avoid creating the local admin account, or -- --full to run the older destructive full demo seed.

Email, Password Resets, And Profile Claims

Payload email delivery is optional in local development. Without SENDGRID_API_KEY, Payload writes email output to the server console.

Set these variables to enable SendGrid SMTP delivery for password resets, welcome emails, account email verification, and legacy profile claim verification:

• SENDGRID_API_KEY
• EMAIL_FROM_ADDRESS
• EMAIL_FROM_NAME

The public reset flow is available at /forgot-password and /reset-password?token=.... Logged-in users can verify their account email from /me; self-serve signups start as unverified and become contributor after verification. Legacy profile claims are requested from /me; matching unclaimed profiles send a verification link to the legacy claimEmail before the profile is attached to the logged-in user and the account is promoted to member.

End-to-End Testing

The Playwright suite boots a fresh PostgreSQL container, builds the app from scratch, creates the first admin user through the onboarding UI, upserts the portal starter content, submits a public comment, approves it in the admin UI, and verifies it appears on the public post page.

Before the first run, make sure Docker Desktop is running. The suite starts a fresh PostgreSQL container automatically.

Local Portal Starter Content

The admin dashboard seed action is for local/dev setup. It is hidden and blocked on hosted Railway/Vercel environments unless ENABLE_ADMIN_SEED_ACTION=true is explicitly set. Locally, it is non-destructive: it upserts the portal starter records by stable slugs or titles and does not clear existing CMS content. It may update existing starter records with the same identifiers.

The older full reset seed remains in code for local reset workflows only; do not wire it to hosted production without an explicit database reset intent.

1. Install everything required for e2e: corepack pnpm e2e:install
2. Run the suite headlessly: corepack pnpm test:e2e
3. Run the suite with a visible browser: corepack pnpm test:e2e:headed
4. Run the suite slowly and keep the browser open for manual review: corepack pnpm test:e2e:manual

What e2e:install does:

• Installs project dependencies
• Rebuilds native dependencies used by the app on Windows, including sharp and esbuild
• Downloads the Chromium browser used by Playwright

If you prefer npm, you can run:

1. npm run e2e:install
2. npm run test:e2e
3. npm run test:e2e:headed
4. npm run test:e2e:manual

test:e2e:manual runs the suite in headed mode with a visible slowdown between actions and pauses only at the end of the happy path. While paused, the browser stays open so you can click around and manually inspect seeded content, the admin area, and public pages. When you are done, resume or stop the Playwright session from the inspector/terminal.

Requirements

• Database: PostgreSQL
• Node.js: Compatible version as specified in package.json

Useful Resources

• Blog post about this template: Read here
• Official Payload Documentation: Read here

A template by,