✨ Streamline Category Creation - Reduce Clicks in TinaCMS

[micsblank]

Requested by: @micsblank via YakShaver.ai 🦬
cc: @micsblank, @JackDevAU, @Marxoz, @PothieuG, @Freego1783

Hi Team!

  🟥  Watch the video (1 min 42 sec)

  Url from screen share: https://tina/public/uploads/rules/done-tasks-figma/

Pain

Reduce the number of clicks required to create a new category in TinaCMS to improve user experience and efficiency.

Acceptance Criteria

1. The process to create a new category should require no more than 3 clicks.
2. The system should automatically save the new category without requiring additional user actions.
3. The user should receive a confirmation message once the category is successfully created.
4. The back navigation should not affect the saving process of the new category.

Screenshot

Figure: Creating a new category requires seven clicks, highlighting inefficiency.

[github-actions]

🤖 AI Triage Research

Summary

This is a UX feature request to streamline the TinaCMS category creation workflow from ~7 clicks down to ≤3. After researching the codebase, I have low confidence in implementing this autonomously — it requires product decisions and some acceptance criteria may need TinaCMS Pro features. Here's what I found:

---

Relevant Files

File	Role
tina/collection/category.tsx	Defines the Category collection with 3 templates
tina/collection/shared/historyFields.ts	beforeSubmit hook that runs on save (handles metadata, category API calls)
tina/collection/shared/createdInfoFields.ts	Auto-populates creator info on new documents
tina/config.tsx	Root TinaCMS config

---

Current Flow Analysis

The Category collection (tina/collection/category.tsx) defines 3 templates:

• main — the root index file
• top_category — a top-level grouping
• category — a regular subcategory (contains rules)

When a user clicks "New" in TinaCMS, they must first select a template before filling in any fields. This mandatory template-picker step is an inherent TinaCMS behaviour when a collection has multiple templates.

Why reducing to ≤3 clicks is hard:

• Click 1: "New" button
• Click 2: Select template type (unavoidable with 3 templates)
• Click 3: Fill in title (keyboard, not click)
• Click 4: "Save" button

That's at minimum 3 clicks + typing just to reach the save step. Acceptance Criteria 1 (≤3 clicks) would likely require either:

• Splitting templates into separate collections (e.g., a dedicated "Subcategory" collection), eliminating the template picker entirely
• Or creating separate UI entry points per category type

---

Acceptance Criteria Assessment

Criteria	Feasibility	Notes
≤3 clicks to create	Medium	Requires splitting templates into separate collections or a custom "quick create" UI
Auto-save new category	Low	Not available in TinaCMS OSS — this is a [TinaCMS Cloud/Pro feature]((tina.io/redacted) Would need significant custom implementation.
Confirmation message on success	High	TinaCMS already shows success toasts. Can also be customised via cms.alerts.success() in afterSubmit
Back navigation doesn't affect save	Low	This is TinaCMS core router behaviour — not configurable via schema alone

---

Potential Approaches

Option A: Split Category Templates into Separate Collections

Separate main, top_category, and category into their own TinaCMS collections. This removes the template selection step and allows "New → Fill title → Save" = 3 clicks.

• Pro: Works within TinaCMS OSS, aligns with existing patterns (Rule collection is already a standalone)
• Con: May clutter the TinaCMS sidebar; cross-collection references still needed

Option B: Custom "Quick Create" Button

Add a custom TinaCMS sidebar button (via config.ui.sidebar) that creates a new subcategory with sensible defaults and immediately saves.

• Pro: Could achieve 1-click creation with auto-populated defaults
• Con: Requires custom React component + TinaCMS SDK integration; beforeSubmit API call logic would need to be replicated

Option C: Improve Defaults to Minimise Required Fields

Ensure defaultItem pre-populates as many fields as possible so the user only needs to enter the title, then save. The category template already does this for guid.

• Pro: Small, safe change
• Con: Doesn't reduce click count for template selection or save step

---

Open Questions for Refinement

1. Which category type is most commonly created? If it's always "subcategory", splitting that into its own collection would be the highest-value change.
2. Is the video (1m42s) accessible? It would clarify exactly which 7 steps are painful.
3. Auto-save requirement — is this truly required, or would "pre-filled defaults + 1-click save" be acceptable? Auto-save needs TinaCMS Cloud.
4. Back navigation — does the screenshot show data being lost on back-navigate, or is this about unsaved drafts being discarded?

---

Confidence: Low (~35%)

The template-picker UX constraint, the auto-save requirement (TinaCMS Pro), and the back-navigation behaviour are outside what can be addressed by simple schema config changes. This needs product clarification before implementation. A developer familiar with TinaCMS's plugin/customisation API would be best suited to take this on once the refinement questions above are answered.

Generated by Issue Triage for issue #2519