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formats](/docs/extending/extensions/formats/)[Capability methods](/docs/extending/extensions/capabilities/)[Project sections](/docs/extending/extensions/project-sections/)[Server mounts](/docs/extending/extensions/server/)[Connectors](/docs/extending/extensions/connectors/)[Search indexes](/docs/extending/extensions/search/)[Security and secrets](/docs/extending/extensions/security/)[Tutorial: a TOML format](/docs/extending/extensions/tutorial-toml-format/)[Tutorial: a guestbook](/docs/extending/extensions/tutorial-guestbook/)[First-party extensions](/docs/extending/extensions/first-party/)Embedding[Overview](/docs/extending/embedding/)[Hosting the Studio assets](/docs/extending/embedding/hosting/)[Writing a platform adapter](/docs/extending/embedding/platform-adapter/)[The backend protocol](/docs/extending/embedding/backend-protocol/)[Dev server internals](/docs/extending/embedding/dev-server/)[Embedding the runtime in your app](/docs/extending/embedding/runtime-host/)[Writing assistant tools](/docs/extending/embedding/assistant-harness/)UI kit[The Jx UI kit](/docs/extending/ui-kit/)Reference[Protocol routes](/docs/extending/reference/studio-routes/)[Implementation status](/docs/extending/reference/implementation-status/)[Spec changelog](/docs/extending/reference/spec-changelog/)[Standards alignment](/docs/extending/reference/standards/)Contributing[Working in the monorepo](/docs/extending/contributing/monorepo/)[Contributing to these docs](/docs/extending/contributing/docs/)[AI assistant evals](/docs/extending/contributing/ai-evals/) # Relationships > **Studio writes this format for you.** The [content-type builder](/docs/studio/projects/content-types) creates reference fields visually, and this page documents the schema they produce and how references resolve at build time. A relationship links one content entry to another: a blog post to its author, a product to its tags. You declare it once, in the field's JSON Schema inside the `content` section of `project.json`. That single declaration drives validation, build-time resolution, and Studio's entry pickers. ## The reference form A reference field's schema points at the target content type with a `#/content/` pointer: ```json shiki ``` Cardinality is expressed with plain JSON Schema; there is no separate relationship syntax: | Cardinality | Field schema | | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | To-one | `{ "$ref": "#/content/authors" }` | | To-many | `{ "type": "array", "items": { "$ref": "#/content/tags" } }` | ## What entries store Entries store the target's **entry id**: a string for to-one, an array of strings for to-many. For a Markdown collection the id is the entry's filename, so a post in `content/blog/` referencing `content/authors/jane-doe.md` looks like: ```yaml shiki ``` Anything other than a string (or array of strings, for to-many) fails the field's validation. ## Resolution References resolve when content loads, at build and in the dev server and in Studio preview alike. The stored id is replaced in place with the full referenced entry, so by the time a page sees the data, `author` is no longer `"jane-doe"` but the whole author entry (`id`, `data`, body). Templates walk straight through: ```json shiki ``` For a to-many field, each id in the array is replaced by its entry the same way. An id that matches no entry in the target type is left untouched, and the raw string stays in the data. Guard templates accordingly, or keep ids and filenames in sync. An entry that the target type's `exclude` or [`where`](/docs/framework/site/content-collections#choosing-which-files-are-entries) leaves out does not exist as far as relationships are concerned, so a reference to it is unresolved in the same way. ## Beyond content The same reference form generalizes: a pointer targets any project section whose extension declares it referenceable, as `#//`. File-based content resolves at load time as described above; connection-backed table sections (from the connector extension) store the id in a column and resolve at request time instead. One direction is disallowed outright: a **content** schema cannot reference a **table** section, because content is loaded once at build time while table rows are live, so model that association from the table side. ## Related - [Content collections](/docs/framework/site/content-collections): defining content types and their schemas - [Content types in Studio](/docs/studio/projects/content-types): building these schemas visually - [References](/docs/framework/concepts/references): `$ref` inside documents, a different mechanism ✕ Start here[Overview](/docs/start/)Get started[Install Jx Studio](/docs/start/install/)[Your first project](/docs/start/first-project/)[A tour of Jx Studio](/docs/start/studio-tour/)Tutorials[Tutorial: interactive component](/docs/start/first-component/)[Tutorial: blog with collections](/docs/start/first-collection/)[Video tutorials](/docs/start/videos/)Coming from another tool[Coming from WordPress](/docs/start/coming-from-wordpress/)[Coming from Webflow or 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and secrets](/docs/extending/extensions/security/)[Tutorial: a TOML format](/docs/extending/extensions/tutorial-toml-format/)[Tutorial: a guestbook](/docs/extending/extensions/tutorial-guestbook/)[First-party extensions](/docs/extending/extensions/first-party/)Embedding[Overview](/docs/extending/embedding/)[Hosting the Studio assets](/docs/extending/embedding/hosting/)[Writing a platform adapter](/docs/extending/embedding/platform-adapter/)[The backend protocol](/docs/extending/embedding/backend-protocol/)[Dev server internals](/docs/extending/embedding/dev-server/)[Embedding the runtime in your app](/docs/extending/embedding/runtime-host/)[Writing assistant tools](/docs/extending/embedding/assistant-harness/)UI kit[The Jx UI kit](/docs/extending/ui-kit/)Reference[Protocol routes](/docs/extending/reference/studio-routes/)[Implementation status](/docs/extending/reference/implementation-status/)[Spec changelog](/docs/extending/reference/spec-changelog/)[Standards 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