quoin

Blocks and themes

How a Quoin site is built from a library of blocks, and why the design can change without touching the content.

Built from blocks

Every Quoin page is either a document written in Markdown, or a list of blocks: a hero, a section of text, a grid of cards, a gallery. Each block has a strict schema. A person or an agent can only compose pages from pieces the site knows how to draw, and each piece must carry every field it needs.

The library below is not typed by hand. It is read from the active theme’s manifest when the site is built, so it cannot fall out of date.

The block library

Every block the active theme can render.

  • beta-progress

    How many places in the current beta phase are taken, counted from the beta records when the site is built.

  • block-library

    This list: the blocks the active theme can render, read from its manifest when the site is built.

  • card-grid

    A grid of linked cards, each with a title and a short summary.

  • definition

    A dictionary-style entry: a word, how to say it, and what it means.

  • feature

    Spotlights one page, pulling its title and summary from the page itself.

  • gallery

    A sequence of images. Alt text is required, so every image is described.

  • hero

    The opening banner: a headline, a short introduction, an image and up to two buttons.

  • link-list

    A curated list of links, each with an optional note.

  • loop-steps

    A process shown as numbered steps across lanes for who does what, with an optional loop back.

  • notice

    A highlighted box for something readers must not miss.

  • text

    A section of prose with an optional heading.

11 blocks in the cornerstone theme. Installed themes: cornerstone.

Swap the theme, keep the content

A theme draws everything you see: the header and footer, a renderer for each block, a template for each kind of page, and the styles. Content never contains layout. So changing theme is one line in the site’s configuration, and the content stays exactly as it was.

Quoin’s tools check the content against every installed theme. A theme that cannot draw a block the content uses is refused loudly, rather than quietly breaking a page.

Same content, two themes

  • This site’s home page in the plain base theme: a serif headline, a wide banner image and simple buttons.
    The same home page in the plain base theme, captured on 24 September 2026.
  • The same home page in the cornerstone theme: a slab-serif headline, a stack of product wireframes and a private beta notice.
    The same content in the cornerstone theme you are reading now.

The freedom that gives you

Redesign without rewriting. A new look is a new theme, built and previewed on its own branch while the live site carries on. Pages written years ago render in next year’s design.

One family, many faces. A campaign group and a parish council can share the same blocks and still look like themselves.

Agents stay out of the design. They write content through tools that refuse layout, unknown fields and structural files. Design changes are code, reviewed like code.