What is Directwerk?

Directwerk is a whitelabel publication and monetization platform — not a full CMS. Creators publish podcast episodes, articles, and digital files on their own domain; subscribers get free or paid access through a unified entitlement engine.

The platform is API-first: directwerk-studio (creator dashboard) and directwerk-web (public/subscriber site) are reference frontends that call the same /api/v1/ REST contract agencies and integrators use.

Three apps

App	Audience	Role
directwerk-studio	Creators and editors	Upload media, publish content, manage products and subscribers
directwerk-web	Subscribers and visitors	Public site, account portal, entitled feeds and downloads
directwerk-admin	Platform operators	Tenants, modules, job queue (superadmin only)

Creators never need to know the REST API exists. Studio is the default path for non-technical users; the API is the architecture choice for whitelabel and custom frontends.

What Directwerk is not

Misconception	Reality
A full CMS like Ghost Admin	Publisher ops — structured content + workflow, not block editor or themes
A subscriber-facing site	Subscribers use directwerk-web (or a custom frontend)
Optional “for developers only”	Studio is the default creator experience

Core capabilities

• Multi-tenant whitelabel — verified custom domains, tenant branding, Host-based routing (Multi-tenancy)
• Entitlements — FREE/PAID content, LEVEL and PACKAGE products (Subscriptions & entitlements)
• Media on EU S3 — presigned upload, public CDN vs private signed URLs (Asset storage)
• Podcast RSS — public and subscriber feeds with entitlement filtering (RSS feeds)
• Billing — Stripe Connect (Patreon/Steady planned) (Stripe billing)

Publication platform vs CMS

Directwerk manages what content exists, who can access it, and how it is delivered — not authoring UX, page layout, or email infrastructure.

Layer	Directwerk stance
Publication platform	Workflow, slugs, taxonomy, entitlements, RSS, downloads — we build this
CMS (authoring product)	Block editor, themes, plugins — integrate or thin ops UI

Primary audience

Default buyer: non-technical German creators (podcasters, newsletter writers) who want one place to create, manage members, and publish on their domain — similar to Substack or Ghost, with EU-friendly hosting and exit from Patreon/Steady lock-in.

Integrators: agencies building custom frontends against the same API, with verified Host tenancy and structured error codes.

Next steps

• Quickstart — shortest path to a running stack
• Apps — studio, web, admin, and other frontends
• Local development — Gradle + Compose setup
• API integration — auth, tenancy, and OpenAPI reference