Content Manager Organizer

Group Strapi Content Manager collection types into collapsible sidebar sections

strapi-plugin-content-manager-organizer

A Strapi v5 plugin that lets you organize the Content Manager sidebar into collapsible, labeled groups — configured entirely through a visual Settings UI with no code changes required.

Content Manager Organizer Demo

🎯 Why Content Manager Organizer?

When your Strapi project grows to 20, 30, or 50+ content types, the default sidebar becomes a long, unmanageable list. Content Manager Organizer solves this by letting you:

Problem	Solution
50+ content types in one list	Group into logical sections
Alphabetical order not useful	Custom ordering within groups
Can't find content types fast	Collapse irrelevant groups
Numeric prefixes cluttering names	Auto-strip numeric prefixes
Config lost on redeploy	Saved to database

✨ Features

📁 Group content types into named, collapsible sections
🔢 Custom ordering — drag items up/down within groups
🔍 Strip numeric prefixes — hide 01 Product → show Product
💾 Persisted to database — survives redeploys (SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL)
🌙 Dark/Light theme — auto-detects Strapi theme
♿ Accessible — ARIA attributes on all interactive elements
⚡ Zero config required — works out of the box
🎛️ Visual Settings UI — no code changes needed

📸 Screenshots

Organized Sidebar

Organized sidebar with groups

Settings Page

Settings page

🚀 Installation

npm

npm install strapi-plugin-content-manager-organizer

yarn

yarn add strapi-plugin-content-manager-organizer

pnpm

pnpm add strapi-plugin-content-manager-organizer

⚙️ Setup

Step 1 — Enable the plugin

Add to your config/plugins.ts (or config/plugins.js):

// config/plugins.ts
export default () => ({
  'content-manager-organizer': {
    enabled: true,
  },
});

Step 2 — Rebuild Strapi admin

npm run build
npm run develop

Step 3 — Configure via UI

Open Strapi admin
Go to ⚙️ Settings → Content Manager Organizer
Click Add group
Name the group (e.g., Products)
Add content types from the Ungrouped panel
Click Save

The sidebar updates immediately — no restart needed!

🎛️ How It Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  First launch (no config in DB)                 │
│  → Shows default Strapi sidebar order           │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
                       │
                       ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  User configures via Settings > Content Manager Organizer  │
│  → Config saved to database                     │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
                       │
                       ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Every subsequent visit                         │
│  → DB config loaded → grouped sidebar shown     │
│  → Survives redeploys ✓                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Database Storage

The plugin creates a hidden content type content-manager-configuration that stores your config as JSON. It's hidden from the Content Manager and Content-Type Builder — you'll never accidentally see it.

plugin::content-manager-organizer.content-manager-configuration
├── key: "main"          (always "main", one record)
└── config: { ... }      (your full group config as JSON)

Supported Databases

Database	Supported
SQLite	✅ Yes
PostgreSQL	✅ Yes
MySQL	✅ Yes
MariaDB	✅ Yes

📋 Settings Page Reference

Groups Panel

Control	Description
Group name input	Rename the group
↑ ↓ arrows	Reorder groups
🗑️ trash	Delete group
Expanded by default	Whether group starts open
↑ ↓ on items	Reorder items within group
🗑️ on items	Remove item from group
Add content type	Dropdown of ungrouped types

Ungrouped Panel

Shows all content types not yet assigned to any group. These still appear in the sidebar under an "Other" group at the bottom.

Strip Numeric Prefixes

When enabled, removes leading numbers from display names:

Before: "01 Product"     → After: "Product"
Before: "10 Asset Tag"   → After: "Asset Tag"

Useful if you prefix content types for Strapi's default ordering.

🔐 Permissions

The plugin registers two permissions under Plugins → Content Manager Organizer:

Permission	Description
`settings.read`	View the settings page
`settings.update`	Save configuration changes

Assign these in Settings → Roles to control who can configure the plugin.

🔄 Config Lifecycle

Admin visits Content Manager
         │
         ▼
Plugin fetches config from API
         │
    ┌────┴────┐
    │DB has   │ Yes → Use DB config → Group sidebar
    │config?  │
    └────┬────┘
         │ No
         ▼
Use empty default → Show normal Strapi sidebar
         │
         ▼
Admin goes to Settings → Content Manager Organizer
         │
         ▼
Creates groups, assigns content types, saves
         │
         ▼
Config saved to DB → Sidebar updates instantly
         │
         ▼
Next time any admin visits → DB config used ✓

🛠️ Advanced: Pre-seeding Config via Code

If you want to ship a default config for your team (without UI configuration), you can seed the database on bootstrap:

// src/index.ts (your Strapi project, not the plugin)
export default {
  async bootstrap({ strapi }) {
    // Only seed if no config exists
    const existing = await strapi.db
      .query('plugin::content-manager-organizer.content-manager-configuration')
      .findOne({ where: { key: 'main' } });

    if (!existing) {
      await strapi.db
        .query('plugin::content-manager-organizer.content-manager-configuration')
        .create({
          data: {
            key: 'main',
            config: {
              stripNumericPrefix: true,
              groups: [
                {
                  id: 'products',
                  label: 'Products',
                  defaultExpanded: true,
                  items: ['product', 'category'],
                },
                {
                  id: 'blog',
                  label: 'Blog',
                  defaultExpanded: false,
                  items: ['article', 'tag', 'author'],
                },
              ],
            },
          },
        });
    }
  },
};

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

Quick Start for Contributors

# 1. Fork & clone
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/strapi-plugin-content-manager-organizer
cd strapi-plugin-content-manager-organizer

# 2. Install dependencies
npm install

# 3. Link to your Strapi project for development
npm run watch:link

# In your Strapi project:
npm run develop

Roadmap / Good First Issues

We’re incredibly proud of how Content Manager Organizer has simplified the Strapi Content Manager experience so far, but we’re far more excited by the features and enhancements that lie ahead.