Scribly Specification

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Scribly

Make Your Mark.

Scribly is an open-source blogging and digital publishing platform designed to give individuals, creators, organizations, and publishers greater control over their content, design, monetization, privacy, and online presence. Its modular architecture combines intuitive content creation, flexible site customization, owner-controlled advertising, and extensible publishing capabilities in a platform designed to serve as a modern alternative to traditional blogging systems.

Vision

Scribly aims to make digital publishing more accessible, adaptable, and independent by providing a comprehensive publishing platform without unnecessary complexity, restrictive customization, or mandatory dependence on proprietary services. The platform prioritizes content ownership, user autonomy, privacy, security, interoperability, and transparent administration.

Core Modules

Content Creation and Publishing Module

Rich-text visual editor with block-based editing.
Markdown editing with live preview.
Hybrid visual and source-editing modes.
Drag-and-drop content blocks and layout composition.
Support for text, images, galleries, audio, video, quotations, tables, and embedded media.
Reusable content blocks and custom block definitions.
Automatic saving, drafts, scheduled publishing, and publication workflows.
Revision history, version comparison, restoration, and change tracking.
Post duplication, reusable templates, and bulk editing.
Categories, tags, collections, series, and custom taxonomies.
Featured images, excerpts, captions, and author attribution.
Internal linking and related-content management.
Content expiration, archival, and scheduled unpublishing.
Content import and export using supported formats.
Preview modes for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
Optional collaborative editing with conflict resolution.
Content portability without dependence on proprietary publishing services.

Pages and Site Structure Module

Creation of static pages and hierarchical page structures.
Custom landing pages, content hubs, and informational sections.
Navigation menus with nested items.
Header, footer, sidebar, and content-region management.
Reusable page templates and layout presets.
Custom URL structures and permalink management.
Redirect creation and broken-link management.
Archive pages for authors, categories, tags, and publication dates.
Password-protected and private pages.
Custom error pages and configurable not-found experiences.
Site-wide navigation and internal linking controls.
Separation of content organization from presentation.

Visual Design and Theme Module

Customizable themes without requiring modifications to core files.
Visual page and layout builder.
Templates for posts, pages, archives, search results, and other content types.
Theme inheritance and child-theme support.
Live previews before publishing design changes.
Global typography, color, spacing, border, and layout controls.
Responsive, mobile-friendly design.
Custom CSS and controlled JavaScript extensions.
Theme installation, updates, import, export, and removal.
Reusable design systems and style presets.
Page-specific and content-type-specific design overrides.
Accessibility-aware design controls.
Theme compatibility validation.
Separation of presentation, content, and publishing logic.

User, Identity, and Access Control Module

Multi-user and multi-author publishing.
Owner, administrator, editor, author, and contributor roles.
Custom roles and granular permissions.
Permissions scoped to content types, categories, sites, and administrative capabilities.
Invitation-based registration and account verification.
Secure account recovery and password management.
Multi-factor authentication and supported passkey authentication.
Optional federated authentication integrations.
Session management and device revocation.
Login attempt controls and brute-force protection.
Author profiles, biographies, avatars, and public author pages.
Contributor approval workflows.
Account suspension, deletion, and data export.
Separate permissions for publishing, advertising, analytics, and administration.
Audit trails for permission changes and sensitive account actions.

Media and Digital Asset Module

Centralized media library.
Management of images, audio, video, documents, and downloadable files.
Drag-and-drop uploads and batch processing.
Image resizing, compression, format conversion, and responsive delivery.
Automatic thumbnail generation.
Alternative text, captions, descriptions, and accessibility metadata.
Media folders, collections, labels, and searchable metadata.
Duplicate detection and unused-media reporting.
Media replacement with link preservation where possible.
Local storage as a first-class option.
Optional compatible remote storage integrations.
Configurable upload limits and file-type restrictions.
Media access permissions and protected downloads.
Storage quotas and usage reporting.
Asset provenance and licensing metadata.

Search and Content Discovery Module

Full-text search across published content.
Search filters for authors, dates, categories, and tags.
Relevance ranking and configurable sorting.
Search suggestions and query completion.
Related posts and content recommendations.
Popular, recent, and frequently updated content listings.
Custom search result layouts.
Search indexing and reindexing controls.
Privacy-conscious search analytics.
Optional semantic search integrations.
Search exclusion rules for private, unpublished, or restricted content.

Advertising and Monetization Module

Optional owner-controlled advertisements embedded within published content.
Configurable placements before articles, within content, between content sections, and after articles.
Sidebar, header, footer, and dedicated promotional placements.
Native-style sponsored content cards with clear advertising disclosures.
Visual placement controls and previews.
Advertising frequency limits and spacing controls.
Placement rules by site, page, category, tag, author, and content type.
Audience rules for anonymous visitors, registered users, and subscriber groups.
Advertising exclusions for selected pages, content, and audiences.
Support for self-hosted advertisements and compatible third-party advertising providers.
Support for image advertisements, approved HTML content, sandboxed embeds, and provider-supported formats.
Content security policies and isolation controls for third-party advertising content.
Sponsored-content labels and configurable disclosure text.
Campaign scheduling, start and end dates, and campaign management.
Advertiser records and campaign performance reporting.
Impression and click measurement with configurable privacy controls.
Bot filtering and invalid-traffic safeguards.
Optional revenue attribution and author revenue-sharing rules.
Optional integrations with external advertising networks.
No mandatory advertising provider or advertising network.
No requirement to display advertisements.
Owner-defined rules governing advertising placement, frequency, and eligibility.
Advertising configuration changes restricted to authorized users.
Separation of advertising content from editorial content and publishing permissions.

Search Engine Optimization and Discoverability Module

Editable page titles and meta descriptions.
Canonical URL management.
XML sitemap generation.
Robots directives and search indexing controls.
Social sharing metadata and Open Graph support.
Structured data and supported schema markup.
Redirect handling for changed URLs.
Image alternative-text checks and accessibility reminders.
RSS and Atom feed generation.
Search engine verification support.
Duplicate-content and canonicalization checks.
Broken-link detection.
Per-page and site-wide indexing controls.
Optional integration with external search performance services.

Comments and Community Module

Optional comments on posts and pages.
Configurable comment approval and moderation.
Threaded discussions and reply notifications.
Anonymous, registered-user, or invitation-only participation.
Spam filtering and abuse reporting.
Rate limiting and suspicious-activity detection.
User blocking and comment restrictions.
Configurable community guidelines.
Moderation queues and moderator permissions.
Comment editing and deletion policies.
Optional reactions and content ratings.
Privacy-conscious notification preferences.
Optional integrations with external or federated discussion systems.

Analytics and Reporting Module

Owner-controlled traffic and content analytics.
Page views, visits, referral sources, and engagement metrics.
Content performance comparisons.
Author and category performance reports.
Search and content discovery reports.
Advertising impressions, clicks, and campaign reports.
Configurable analytics data retention.
Privacy-preserving analytics options.
Optional integrations with Matomo, Plausible, and compatible services.
Exportable reports and scheduled summaries.
Bot and internal traffic exclusion.
Role-based access to reports.
Configurable consent and tracking policies.
No mandatory third-party tracking scripts.

Security, Privacy, and Data Ownership Module

Secure authentication and password storage.
Role-based access enforcement.
Protection against common web application vulnerabilities.
Cross-site request forgery and cross-site scripting protections.
Content security policy controls.
Secure handling of uploads and embedded content.
Rate limiting and abuse prevention.
Security event logs and administrative audit trails.
Configurable encryption at rest and encryption in transit.
Optional end-to-end encryption for supported private-content workflows.
Backup encryption and recovery testing.
Secrets management and credential rotation support.
Privacy settings and configurable data retention.
User data export and deletion workflows.
Dependency and plugin security checks.
Security update notifications.
Session expiration and emergency access revocation.
Transparent disclosure of external service connections.
Clear separation between public content, private content, and encrypted data.

Backup, Recovery, and Migration Module

Full-site and selective backups.
Database, media, configuration, and content backups.
Scheduled and manual backup operations.
Local backup storage and optional remote destinations.
Backup encryption and integrity verification.
Configurable retention policies.
Restoration workflows with validation and safety checks.
Recovery testing and backup status reporting.
Import support for WordPress and other supported publishing platforms.
Standardized content and media export.
Migration previews and conflict reporting.
URL preservation and redirect generation.
Portable backups without proprietary restoration dependencies.
Site duplication and deployment migration support.

API and Headless Publishing Module

Documented content management APIs.
Read and write APIs with permission enforcement.
Headless content delivery.
Webhooks for publishing events and content changes.
API tokens with scoped permissions and configurable expiration.
Rate limits and usage reporting.
Integration with external websites and applications.
Support for alternative frontends and mobile applications.
Preview access for drafts and scheduled content.
Content delivery caching and invalidation.
Versioned APIs and compatibility policies.
Machine-readable content and metadata exports.

Plugin and Extension Management Module

Plugin installation, activation, configuration, updating, and removal.
Defined extension points and stable plugin interfaces.
Independent activation of optional capabilities.
Plugin permissions and declared capabilities.
Compatibility checks against platform and API versions.
Dependency resolution and conflict detection.
Package integrity verification and supported digital signature validation.
Update channels and release verification.
Plugin configuration interfaces.
Resource limits and isolation controls for supported execution models.
Security advisories and vulnerability reporting.
Plugin audit logs and rollback support.
Extension interfaces for content blocks, themes, integrations, analytics, and advertising.
No requirement to install plugins for essential publishing functions.
Exportable plugin configuration and portable module settings.

Localization and Accessibility Module

Internationalization of the administration interface.
Multilingual posts and pages.
Language-specific URLs and metadata.
Translation workflows and translation status tracking.
Locale-aware dates, numbers, and formatting.
Right-to-left language support.
Configurable time zones.
Keyboard-accessible administration and editing.
Screen-reader-friendly interface patterns.
Accessible content and media checks.
Color contrast and heading-structure guidance.
Reduced-motion and other supported accessibility preferences.

Site Administration and System Health Module

Centralized site settings and configuration.
Site identity, domain, language, and timezone settings.
Environment and dependency health checks.
Database, storage, and background-job status.
Cache management and performance diagnostics.
Error logs and configurable log retention.
Scheduled maintenance and maintenance-mode controls.
Resource usage and storage monitoring.
Update notifications and compatibility checks.
Administrative activity history.
Diagnostic exports that exclude secrets and sensitive data.
Configurable operational alerts.
Staging environments and site cloning support.
Safe configuration changes with validation and rollback where possible.

Optional Plugin Modules

Newsletter and Subscriber Management Plugin

Newsletter creation, editing, and publishing.
Subscriber lists, segmentation, and management.
Double opt-in and unsubscribe workflows.
Email templates and scheduled delivery.
RSS-to-email publishing.
Subscriber-only posts and archives.
Delivery status and bounce management.
Integration with self-hosted or external email delivery services.
Consent records and subscriber data export.
Optional paid newsletter integrations.

Membership and Premium Content Plugin

Free, registered, member-only, and premium content access.
Subscription tiers and membership benefits.
Access expiration and renewal policies.
Content previews and upgrade prompts.
Member dashboards and account management.
Optional payment provider integrations.
Access rules for individual posts, pages, and categories.
Integration with external membership systems.
Separation of membership permissions from editorial roles.

Commerce and Digital Products Plugin

Sale of ebooks, downloads, templates, and other digital products.
Product catalogs and landing pages.
Order records and fulfillment workflows.
Secure download delivery.
Payment provider integrations.
Tax and invoice integration points.
Refund and cancellation workflows.
License keys and configurable download limits.
Integration with external commerce platforms.
Optional physical-product support through extensions.

AI-Assisted Publishing Plugin

Optional AI-assisted drafting, editing, and summarization.
Headline and excerpt suggestions.
Grammar, clarity, and readability assistance.
Content categorization and tagging suggestions.
Accessibility and SEO recommendations.
Translation assistance.
Editorial research assistance with source references.
Configurable local-model and external-provider integrations.
Human approval before AI-generated content is published.
Optional disclosure and provenance records for AI-assisted material.
Permission-aware access to drafts and private content.
No mandatory AI provider or external model dependency.
No automatic changes to published content without authorization.

Editorial Workflow and Governance Plugin

Multi-stage editorial review.
Draft assignment and approval queues.
Author, editor, and publisher responsibilities.
Scheduled approvals and publication permissions.
Editorial comments and revision requests.
Content ownership and attribution records.
Publication checklists and policy enforcement.
Configurable workflows by content type.
Change history and decision audit trails.
Optional separation of duties for sensitive publishing operations.

Multisite and Multi-Tenant Plugin

Management of multiple independent sites.
Shared or isolated themes and extensions.
Site-specific domains and branding.
Independent users, roles, and permissions.
Configurable separation of content and configuration.
Per-site advertising, analytics, and monetization policies.
Resource quotas and storage allocation.
Site provisioning, cloning, suspension, and archival.
Centralized administration with site-level autonomy.
Isolation appropriate to the selected deployment architecture.

Federation and Content Distribution Plugin

RSS and Atom distribution.
Import and export through standard content formats.
Cross-site publishing and syndication.
Canonical attribution and source links.
Configurable content-sharing permissions.
Webmention or compatible interaction protocols.
Optional ActivityPub and other federated publishing support.
Duplicate-publication and attribution controls.
Portable identity and content discovery integrations.
Optional decentralized storage adapters.

Developer Tools and Integration Plugin

Extension development interfaces and documented integration points.
Command-line administration tools.
Local development and testing utilities.
Test fixtures and integration test support.
Theme and plugin validation tools.
API documentation and example integrations.
Database migration tooling.
Debugging and diagnostic modes.
Automated compatibility testing.
Reproducible builds and release verification support.
Contribution guidelines and extension development standards.

Notifications and Automation Plugin

In-platform notifications.
Email notifications for publishing and account events.
Configurable author and subscriber alerts.
Scheduled tasks and recurring workflows.
Webhook-triggered actions.
Content publication and expiration automation.
Backup and system health notifications.
Notification preferences by user and event type.
Retry handling and delivery logs.
Explicit permission controls for automated actions.

Performance and Delivery Optimization Plugin

Page and content caching.
Static page generation and incremental regeneration options.
Responsive image delivery.
Asset compression and minification.
Lazy loading for eligible media.
Configurable content delivery network integration.
Database query monitoring and optimization.
Background processing for expensive tasks.
Cache invalidation after content updates.
Performance diagnostics and configurable resource limits.
Graceful degradation when optional services are unavailable.

Specification Branding License (SBL)

Standard

Fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant system
Copyleft enforced for network deployments
Required attribution:
- Roxanne Ardary
- https://www.roxanneardary.com/

Optional

Specification Branding License (SBL)
- Attribution-free commercial deployment
- Pricing based on scale, usage, and deployment scope
- https://roxanneardary.com/scribly/

License & Notice Requirements

Scribly is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).

By contributing to any Open Arsenal project, you agree that your contributions will also be released under this license.

Please note the following:

All contributions must comply with the AGPL-3.0+ terms.
Under Section 7 of the license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works must preserve attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.
Scribly specifications are free to use with attribution. A Specification Branding License can be negotiated upon request.
The project’s notice.md file tracks attribution requirements and contributor acknowledgments. Any update that adds new contributors or modifies attribution should also update notice.md.
When submitting a pull request, ensure that any new files maintain the attribution headers where applicable.
Network-deployed versions of this software must also remain fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant, including exposure of source code modifications when applicable under the license.

For full legal details, please refer to the AGPL-3.0+ license and the project’s notice.md file.

Notice – Scribly

Attribution Requirement: Under Section 7 of the AGPL 3.0+ license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works, including network-deployed versions of this project, must provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.

Contributors

This file tracks contributors and their specific contributions to the project.

Roxanne Ardary, roxanneardary.com – October 24, 2026
Created the repository for Scribly. Developed the project concept and specification for an open-source blogging and publishing platform featuring modular content management, customizable themes, owner-controlled advertising, flexible monetization, privacy, security, and extensibility.
Add other contributors here – [Date]
[Describe contribution in one sentence]

License – Scribly

This repository is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).

Key Points:

You are free to use, modify, and distribute the code.
All redistributions, forks, and derivative works or network-deployed versions must also be licensed under AGPL-3.0+ and provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com as required under Section 7 of the license.
The software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind.

For the full license text, see GNU AGPL-3.0 License.