A curated, use-case-driven reference for building real things on AEM Edge Delivery Services and Document Authoring. Implementation-first, code-cited, intentionally lightweight.
Reference, not production. Code linked from this playbook is provided as a sample, and is not suitable for production use as-is. Adapt to your own schemas, security model, performance budget, and integrations.
A bridge between the official "Getting Started" tutorials on aem.live / docs.da.live and the enterprise use cases customers actually ship. Every chapter:
- Frames a real-world problem.
- Points at working code in scdemos/demo via commit-pinned GitHub permalinks.
- Shows how to adapt it into your own project.
- Caps at a 7-block schema — no chapter ever grows into a tutorial-of-tutorials.
- Not a boilerplate, starter kit, or framework
- Not "Adobe-blessed architecture" — read it as community / SC reference
- Not a documentation portal duplicating aem.live or docs.da.live
- No build step, no framework, no backing CMS — pure static HTML
| Lane | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Explore Hub | Search + pick a lane |
| Getting Started | What this is and how to navigate |
| Playbooks | Chapters (7 guides) + Demo Site - Library |
| Cookbook | Block and plugin reference (26 guides) |
| Case studies | Anonymous migration journeys by industry — how teams moved to EDS |
| AI and AEM | Meta skill + 17 task skills, prompts, MCP |
| References | Official doc links |
Hosted demo use cases live under https://demo.bbird.live/demo-docs/usecases/*. The playbook does not duplicate those SC demo scripts. Instead, playbooks/hosted-demo-map.html (Demo Site - Library) links each walkthrough to adoption paths and points to:
- Playbook chapter — full 7-block adoption guide with GitHub snippets
- Cookbook — block-level reference where relevant
- Live demo — hosted walkthrough for customer demos
Experience patterns
- Gated content — Cloudflare Access + CDN HTML rewriting + author preview toggle
- Search & discovery — query-index-driven search and recommendations
- Experimentation & personalization — A/B + audiences + Adobe Target
Dynamic content & workers
- Structured JSON → dynamic HTML — Mustache templates + mhast fallback
- RSS / JSON Feed syndication — Worker over query-index
- Embeddable EDS content — web component with shadow-DOM isolation
Forms & workflows
- Worker-backed forms — JSON form → Cloudflare Worker → Slack / n8n / CRM
Calculators and dynamic blocks (tabs/modal) are covered in the Cookbook and Demo Site - Library, not standalone playbook chapters.
Install eds-reference-playbook so assistants consult this playbook before inventing EDS patterns:
# Example: global Cursor skill (recommended)
mkdir -p ~/.cursor/skills
cp -R .skills/eds-reference-playbook ~/.cursor/skills/Also copy task skills from scdemos/demo .skills/ into each EDS project. Step-by-step: Playground agent skills.
Pure static HTML. Any HTTP server will do:
python3 -m http.server 8000
# then open http://localhost:8000/cd ..
zip -r eds-reference-playbook.zip demo-playground \
-x "demo-playground/.DS_Store" \
-x "demo-playground/**/.DS_Store" \
-x "demo-playground/node_modules/*"The playbook is a static site, so any chapter can be linked or iframed. For richer in-doc embeds, see embed-snippets.md — copy/paste snippets ready for AEM docs, internal wikis, or partner sites.
demo-playground/
├── index.html # Explore Hub (unified search)
├── README.md
├── embed-snippets.md # Snippets for embedding chapters elsewhere
├── getting-started/
│ ├── index.html
│ ├── boilerplate-vs-author-kit-vs-playbooks.html
│ └── contributing.html
├── playbooks/ # 10 use-case-first chapters
│ ├── index.html
│ ├── _template.html # Canonical 7-block chapter template
│ └── ...
├── cookbook/
│ └── index.html # Lands users into use-cases/ (block-by-block reference)
├── case-studies/ # Anonymous EDS migration journeys (by industry)
│ └── ...
├── use-cases/ # 26 audit-fixed block / plugin / tool guides
│ └── ...
├── .skills/ # eds-reference-playbook meta skill (canonical)
├── ai-and-aem/ # AI lane: skills, prompts, MCP, modernization
│ └── ...
├── references/ # External docs hub
├── styles/styles.css # Heritage theme + layout
├── scripts/
│ ├── navigation.js # Sidebar (five lanes)
│ ├── global-search.js # Search on hub + sidebar
│ └── search-index.json # Unified search index
└── assets/
See getting-started/contributing.html for:
- How to file a use-case request
- Chapter checklist (7-block schema, commit-pinned permalinks, lane chips)
- Anti-goals (what we don't accept)
Issues / PRs welcome at scdemos/demo-playground.
- ✗ Don't duplicate content from aem.live / docs.da.live
- ✗ Don't invent best practices not grounded in
scdemos/demosource - ✗ Don't add a runtime build step, framework, or CMS
- ✗ Don't let any chapter exceed the 7-block schema
- ✗ Don't link to
main— use commit-pinned permalinks so freshness is conscious
Educational reference. The code referenced lives in scdemos/demo under its own license; this site is a free-to-use reference layer over it.
Built for customers, partners, SCs, and internal teams looking for "Okay, this is actually possible on EDS and DA, and I can inspect how they did it."