July 15, 2026 - Source-first site development

Create a validated standalone site draft from custom source without an existing live site or base theme.

Developers can now create a standalone website draft and development session directly from a complete custom source tree.

Affected surfaces

Developer API
CLI
Node SDK
Python SDK
Docs

Changes

Added POST /v1/sites/development-sessions with the site_drafts:write scope.
The request accepts a complete files archive, validates it against the existing theme/source contracts, and creates an isolated draft and session.
An existing live site and base-theme selection are not required.
Added getme sites create, Node createFromSource(), and Python create_from_source() workflows.
Live publication remains owner-approved; draft creation and preview do not require an initial admin-panel publication.

Developer action

For a new custom-source project, run:

bash

getme sites init --name "Custom storefront"
getme sites create --name "Custom storefront" --message "Initial source"

API clients should call POST /v1/sites/development-sessions, not POST /v1/sites and not the live-site route POST /v1/sites/{site_id}/development-sessions.

See Website source workflow and Website source with the CLI for the complete flow.