--- title: "Site handling basics" manual: "TYPO3 Explained" version: "main" permalink: "https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-basics@main" source: "ApiOverview/SiteHandling/Basics.rst" modified: "2026-09-17T05:14:57+00:00" --- # Site handling basics TYPO3 site handling and configuration is the starting point for creating new websites. The corresponding modules are found in the TYPO3 backend in the section **Sites**. A site configuration consists of the following parts: - Base URL configurations: the domain(s) to access my site. - [Language configuration](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-addinglanguages@main): the languages of my site. - [Error handling](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-errorhandling@main): error behavior of my site (for example, configuration of custom 404 pages). - [Static routes](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-staticroutes@main): static routes of my site (for example, `robots.txt` on a per site base). - Routing configuration: How shall routing behave for this site. When creating a new page on root level via the TYPO3 backend, a very basic site configuration is generated on the fly. It prevents immediate errors due to missing configuration and can also serve as a starting point for all further actions. Most parts of the site configuration can be edited via the graphical interface in the backend module **Sites**. ![](../../Images/ManualScreenshots/SiteHandling/SiteConfigurationOverview.png) > [!TIP] > **Hint** > > While the editing mask for a site looks like a "normal" TYPO3 editing form, > it is not. In contrast to other forms, the site configuration is stored in > the file system and not in database tables. ## Site configuration storage When creating a new site configuration, a folder is created in the file system, located at `/config/sites//`. The site configuration is stored in a file called `config.yaml`. > [!NOTE] > If you are using a Classic mode installation, the location is > `typo3conf/sites//config.yaml`. > [!TIP] > Add this folder to your version control system. ## The configuration file The following part explains the configuration file and options: **config/sites/\/config.yaml | typo3conf/sites/\/config.yaml** ```yaml rootPageId: 12 base: 'https://example.org/' websiteTitle: Example languages: - title: English enabled: true locale: en_US.UTF-8 base: / websiteTitle: '' navigationTitle: English flag: gb languageId: 0 - title: 'danish' enabled: true locale: da_DK.UTF-8 base: /da/ websiteTitle: '' navigationTitle: Dansk fallbackType: strict fallbacks: '' flag: dk languageId: 1 - title: Deutsch enabled: true locale: de_DE.UTF-8 base: 'https://example.net/' websiteTitle: '' navigationTitle: Deutsch fallbackType: fallback fallbacks: '1,0' flag: de languageId: 2 errorHandling: - errorCode: '404' errorHandler: Page errorContentSource: 't3://page?uid=8' - errorCode: '403' errorHandler: Fluid errorFluidTemplate: 'EXT:my_extension/Resources/Private/Templates/ErrorPages/403.fluid.html' errorFluidTemplatesRootPath: 'EXT:my_extension/Resources/Private/Templates/ErrorPages' errorFluidLayoutsRootPath: 'EXT:my_extension/Resources/Private/Layouts/ErrorPages' errorFluidPartialsRootPath: 'EXT:my_extension/Resources/Private/Partials/ErrorPages' - errorCode: '0' errorHandler: PHP errorPhpClassFQCN: MyVendor\ExtensionName\ErrorHandlers\GenericErrorhandler routes: route: robots.txt type: staticText content: | Sitemap: https://example.org/sitemap.xml User-agent: * Allow: / Disallow: /forbidden/ ``` Most settings can also be edited via the **Sites > Setup** backend module, except for custom settings and additional routing configuration. ### Site identifier The site identifier is the name of the folder in `/config/sites/` that contains your configuration file(s). When choosing an identifier, be sure to use ASCII, but you may also use `-`, `_` and `.` for convenience. ### Root page ID Root pages are identified by one of these two properties: - They are direct descendants of PID 0 (the root root page of TYPO3). - They have the **Use as Root Page** property in `pages` set to true. > [!NOTE] > The same root page ID **should not** be used in multiple site configurations. > This may lead to misbehavior, since always the last defined site with this > root page ID is used by TYPO3. The **Sites** module warns you if the > same root page ID is used multiple times. ### `websiteTitle` The title of the website which is used in `` tag in the frontend. ### base The base is the base domain on which a website runs. It accepts either a fully qualified URL or a relative segment "/" to react to any domain name. It is possible to set a site base prefix to `/site1`, `/site2` or even `example.com` instead of entering a full URI. This allows a site base as `example.com` with http and https protocols to be detected, although it is recommended to redirect HTTP to HTTPS, either at the webserver level, via a `.htaccess` rewrite rule or by adding a redirect in TYPO3. Please note: when the domain is an [Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalized_domain_name) containing non-Latin characters, the base must be provided in an ASCII-Compatible Encoded (ACE) format (also known as "[Punycode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punycode)"). You can use a [converter](https://www.punycoder.com/) to get the ACE format of the domain name. > [!NOTE] > This flexibility introduces side effects if you have multiple sites with > mixed configuration settings as site base: > > - Site 1: `/mysite/` > - Site 2: `example.com` > > It is unspecific when a URL like `example.com/mysite/` is detected, > and can lead to side effects. > > In this case, the site administrator must set unique site base prefixes. ### languages Available languages for a site can be specified here. These settings determine both the availability of the language and the behavior. For a detailed description see [Language configuration](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-addinglanguages@main). ### `errorHandling` The error handling section describes how to handle error status codes for this website. It allows you to configure custom redirects, rendering templates, and more. For a detailed description, see [error handling](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-errorhandling@main). ### routes The routes section is used to add static routes to a site, for example a `robots.txt` or `humans.txt` file that depends on the current site (an does not contain the same content for the whole TYPO3 installation). Read more at [static routes](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-staticroutes@main). ### `routeEnhancers` While page routing works out of the box without any further settings, route enhancers allow configuring routing for TYPO3 extensions. Read more at [Route enhancements and aspects: for extensions](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:routing-advanced-routing-configuration@main). ### settings The `settings` section can be used to define custom site settings. These values are available in PHP code, TypoScript and Fluid templates. For further details, see [Site settings](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-settings@main). > [!NOTE] > If a folder contains a `settings.yaml` file, all `settings` defined in > `config.yaml` are ignored. Only the values from `settings.yaml` are > applied. > > When you or your customer manage site settings via the *Site Settings* module > in the TYPO3 backend, TYPO3 automatically creates (or updates) the > `settings.yaml` file. As a result, the configuration in `config.yaml` is > no longer considered. > > To avoid confusion, it is recommended to **remove** the obsolete `settings` > section from `config.yaml` if `settings.yaml` is in use. ### imports The imports section can be used to import additional YAML files into the site configuration. This can be used to split large configurations into smaller parts or to share common configuration parts between multiple sites. The path is relative to the site configuration folder. **EXT:site_package/Configuration/Sets/SitePackage/config.yaml** ```yaml imports: - { resource: 'RouteEnhancers.yaml', glob: true } ```