Global Configs

Global configs are in many ways similar to Collections. The big difference is that Collections will potentially contain many documents, while a Global is a "one-off". Globals are perfect for things like header nav, site-wide banner alerts, app-wide localized strings, and other "global" data that your site or app might rely on.

As with Collection configs, it's often best practice to write your Globals in separate files and then import them into the main Payload config.

Options

Option	Description
`slug` *	Unique, URL-friendly string that will act as an identifier for this Global.
`fields` *	Array of field types that will determine the structure and functionality of the data stored within this Global. Click here for a full list of field types as well as how to configure them.
`label`	Singular label for use in identifying this Global throughout Payload. Auto-generated from slug if not defined.
`description`	Text or React component to display below the Global header to give editors more information.
`admin`	Admin-specific configuration. See below for more detail.
`hooks`	Entry points to "tie in" to collection actions at specific points. More
`access`	Provide access control functions to define exactly who should be able to do what with this Global. More

* An asterisk denotes that a property is required.

Simple Global example

const Nav = {
    slug: 'nav',
    fields: [
        {
            name: 'items',
            type: 'array',
            required: true,
            maxRows: 8,
            fields: [
                {
                    name: 'page',
                    type: 'relationship',
                    relationTo: 'pages', // "pages" is the slug of an existing collection
                    required: true,
                }
            ]
        },
    ]
}

More Global config examples

You can find an assortment of example Global configs in the Payload source code on GitHub.

Admin options

You can customize the way that the Admin panel behaves on a Global-by-Global basis by defining the admin property on a Global's config.

Option	Description
`components`	Swap in your own React components to be used within this Global. More

Access control

As with Collections, you can specify extremely granular access control (what users can do with this Global) on a Global-by-Global basis. However, Globals only have update and read access control due to their nature of only having one document. To learn more, go to the Access Control docs.

Hooks

Globals also fully support a smaller subset of Hooks. To learn more, go to the Hooks documentation.

Field types

Globals support all field types that Payload has to offer—including simple fields like text and checkboxes all the way to more complicated layout-building field groups like Blocks. Click here to learn more about field types.

TypeScript

You can import global types as follows:

import { GlobalConfig } from 'payload/types';

// This is the type used for incoming global configs.
// Only the bare minimum properties are marked as required.

import { SanitizedGlobalConfig } from 'payload/types';

// This is the type used after an incoming global config is fully sanitized.

// If you are building a plugin, you might benefit from this type,
// as plugins interact will fully defaulted, sanitized, and validated
// global configs.