Sections & tabs

A real admin has dozens of models. A flat list of 75 sidebar entries is unusable, so Conjure organizes navigation as Group → Section → Tabs — django-unfold-style IA.

The model

▼ Members                    ← Group (bold heading)
   Users                     ← Section = the "main" model (one sidebar row)
      [Users] Social · Consents · Blocks …   ← top tabs (satellite models)
   Devices
▼ Subscriptions & billing
   Subscriptions · Orders
   …

• Group — a bold heading that buckets related sections.
• Section — its first model is the "main" model and takes a single sidebar row.
• Tabs — the section's other (satellite) models — reads, history, reactions — appear as top tabs on the main model's page, not as separate sidebar rows.

This is what collapses, say, 75 model pages into ~21 readable sidebar sections.

Why the first model wins

A section's first model is the one people land on; its siblings are usually drill-downs of it (a post's images, comments, reports). Putting those on tabs keeps the sidebar about subjects (Users, Orders) rather than tables.

The tab bar is injected automatically by a SectionTabs wrapper around the list route — your 75 generated pages are not modified to gain tabs.

Runtime mode — configure from the backend

In runtime mode you don't ship a manifest. The same Group → Section → Tabs structure is declared in your Django settings and delivered over the schema API, so the dashboard builds the sidebar live — set the config, refresh, done.

settings.py

CONJURE = {
    # Sidebar groups: app_label → group label. Apps sharing a label merge into one group;
    # order follows this dict's insertion order; unlisted apps group by app_label (last).
    "APP_GROUPS": {
        "user": "Members", "device": "Members",
        "subscription": "Billing", "order": "Billing",
    },
    # Sections: first model = main (the only sidebar row); the rest become its page tabs.
    "SECTIONS": [
        ["user.User", "user.SocialAccount", "user.UserConsent"],
        ["subscription.Subscription", "subscription.Product"],
    ],
    # Row order within a group: list position = order (same convention as APP_GROUPS).
    "MODEL_ORDER": [
        "user.User",          # first row of the "Members" group
        "device.Device",
    ],
}

• A model in no SECTIONS list is its own sidebar row (standalone).
• A model in no APP_GROUPS entry falls back to a group named after its app_label.
• A model not listed in MODEL_ORDER sorts after listed ones, alphabetically. Matching is case-insensitive.
• Because this lives in settings.py, it survives re-init — re-scaffolding the frontend never wipes your navigation. Pairs with AUTO_REGISTER for true install-and-go: register every model, then shape the nav from config alone.

Codegen mode — the manifest

Navigation is declared in the codegen manifest, then assembled deterministically:

web/codegen/pages-manifest.json

{
  "groups": [
    {
      "label": "Members",
      "sections": [
        { "models": ["user.User", "user.SocialAccount", "user.UserBlock"] },
        { "models": ["device.Device"] }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

python codegen/assemble.py   # regenerates router.tsx + sidebar-nav.ts + sections.ts

assemble.py reads the manifest and regenerates the router, the sidebar, and the section map — registering only directories that actually exist (safe; it won't route to a missing page).

Common edits

Goal	Do this
Move a model to another section	Move its entry between models[] arrays, re-run assemble.py.
Change which model is "main"	Reorder models[] so the new main is first.
Make a model a tab instead of a row	Put it after the first model in a section's models[].
Add a whole new group	Add a groups[] entry, re-run assemble.py.

You don't declare whether a model has a detail page or its own directory — assemble.py infers that from the model's kebab name and which files exist.

Determinism beats hand-editing

Registering 75 routes and sidebar entries by hand invites merge conflicts and omissions. The manifest + assemble.py make navigation a generated artifact — review the manifest diff, not the router diff.

Active-state behaviour

• Group labels render bold.
• A section shows as active when you're on any of its models — including a satellite model's detail page reached through a tab.

In runtime mode the same grouping comes from CONJURE["APP_GROUPS"] / CONJURE["SECTIONS"] (see above) — the SPA reads it from the schema API and builds the identical sidebar with no manifest file.