Learning paths

To learn Éclair CMS without getting lost, the academy organizes its 34 lessons into four paths, like the lines of a transit network: each has its own color, its stations in a set order and its destination. You can ride the lines one after the other or hop on at the station that interests you.

Path 1: Beginner

To get your site online and learn your way around it, with no technical knowledge. Destination: a published, secure site, ready to be indexed by search engines.

1. Discover Éclair CMS What Éclair is, what it does better than a classic CMS, and its limits.
2. Prepare your installation Domain, hosting, requirements and tools: the checklist before you start.
3. Install Éclair step by step Uploading the files and the five screens of the setup wizard.
4. Get to know the Éclair admin The dashboard, the menus and where to find each setting.
5. Write and publish your first blog post The block editor, shortcuts, preview and publishing.
6. Pages, menus and home page Organizing the site, creating subpages and building the menus.
7. Images and the Éclair media library Uploading, optimizing and describing images, with no plugin at all.
8. Contact form and messages Receiving messages with no captcha and no spam.
9. Essential settings before launch Search Console, legal pages, two-factor authentication and a checklist.

Path 2: Intermediate

For a site that stands out: custom design, SEO, visibility in AI answers, several languages and online sales.

1. Visual mode Edit the page as it actually looks, right there on the page.
2. Themes and appearance The 6 themes, live preview, logo, colors and fonts.
3. Art directions and Design score A complete visual world in one click, or one imagined with AI.
4. Custom CSS Fine-tune the style without losing anything when you update.
5. SEO with Éclair Live analysis, structured data, sitemap and redirects.
6. GEO: getting cited by AI llms.txt, Markdown versions, AI bots and the GEO score.
7. Build a multilingual site A language per piece of content, linked translations and hreflang tags.
8. Blog, categories and topic clusters Structuring your posts for Google and for readers.
9. Sell with the lightweight shop Product pages and payment through a Stripe, PayPal or Revolut link.
10. Everyday security Accounts, two-factor authentication, backups and the Security page.

Path 3: AI & MCP

To put AI to work on your site: the built-in assistant with your API key, or Claude and ChatGPT with your subscription through the MCP connector.

1. Turn on the built-in AI assistant API keys, models, costs, budget and editorial profile.
2. Create a page with AI and polish its text A complete page from one request, then one-click touch-ups.
3. Understanding the MCP connector The protocol, the tools, OAuth authorization and security.
4. Connect Claude to your site Step-by-step setup on the web, desktop and mobile.
5. Connect ChatGPT to your site The custom connector, compatible plans and confirmations.
6. 40 MCP use cases, with prompts Strategy, writing, SEO, GEO, translation and the shop.
7. Advanced AI workflows Editorial routines, human review and agency organization.

Path 4: Expert

For developers, integrators and agencies deploying Éclair at scale.

1. Éclair's architecture The life of a request, flat-file storage and the main classes.
2. Local development and testing Built-in server, automated tests and building the archive.
3. Customize the theme templates Change the public rendering without breaking security or speed.
4. Nginx, VPS, proxy and CDN Hosting Éclair beyond shared hosting, behind Cloudflare or in Docker.
5. Performance: staying at 100 out of 100 Measuring, understanding and preserving Lighthouse scores.
6. Migrate from WordPress or Wix Inventory, content transfer and 301 redirects.
7. Advanced security and maintenance Updates, integrity, recovery and off-site backups.
8. Scaling Éclair in an agency Processes, client accounts, maintenance and the MIT license.

Which path should you choose to learn Éclair CMS?

These times are reading estimates; allow twice as long to repeat each step yourself. For technical details, the reference documentation and the hosting guides complement the paths, and the official guide is still available on GitHub.