The different types of editing hosts in SitecoreAI
In SitecoreAI, an editing host is the environment that enables WYSIWYG editing in Page builder and Design Studio. An editing host supports component rendering during content authoring. Depending on your project setup and hosting requirements, SitecoreAI offers several types of editing hosts. Each type serves a specific purpose, from built-in options that work out of the box to custom configurations for external applications. Understanding these options helps you choose the right approach for your development and deployment workflows.
Default (builtin) editing host
Default builtin editing hosts are automatically provisioned when you create and deploy a project using the SitecoreAI starter. They are nodebased and hosted natively by SitecoreAI infrastructure. They work “out of the box” on the remote instance for WYSIWYG editing in Page builder.
External editing host
External editing hosts are used when your head application is not (or cannot be) hosted natively in SitecoreAI (for example, nonNode stack or custom hosting like Vercel). You deploy the app to your own hosting provider and then configure the editing host item in /sitecore/system/Settings/Services/Rendering Hosts with the appropriate endpoint URLs (render, app, config).
External editing hosts require correct environment variables such as SITECORE_EDGE_CONTEXT_ID, NEXT_PUBLIC_SITECORE_EDGE_CONTEXT_ID, or SITECORE_EDITING_SECRET, for example.
Editing hosts managed via the Deploy app
You can create and manage multiple editing hosts per project from the Deploy app. You can also optionally use separate repositories for each editing mode.
Each editing host corresponds to a renderingHosts entry in an xmcloud.build.json file (for example, nextjsstarter), and each host name must be unique in the project. Items under /sitecore/system/Settings/Services/Rendering Hosts are autogenerated from xmcloud.build.json during deployment and protected from editing. These represent the Sitecore managed editing hosts; additional editing hosts are added by defining more entries in xmcloud.build.json and redeploying.
Locally connected host for the Page builder and Design studio (developer local editing)
A locally connected host a special local mode where the Page builder and the Design studio connect directly to a developer’s local instance (for example, http://localhost:3000) instead of the shared editing host. These hosts are used so developers can test components without affecting others or the shared environment.