https://docs.netlify.com/visual-editor/concepts/how-visual-editor-works/
Walk through the core concepts of how Visual Editor works by following a developer's typical journey.
Understanding how Visual Editor works is easiest when we follow a developer's typical journey, where each step builds on concepts and practices from those before it.
You can put many of the concepts in this guide into action by following the getting started tutorial.
You can use the visual editor in local development mode or in cloud setup mode.
Developers typically start by working locally to build out a visual editing experience to suit their project's needs, while collaborating with content editors occurs in the cloud, which is covered near the end of this guide.
Learn more about Local Development
Working locally with Visual Editor is made possible by using the CLI. The stackbit dev command runs in parallel with your site's development server to create a visual editing environment that enables developers to prepare a site before bringing in content editors.
Visual Editor is fully composable, which means that most content sources and site frameworks can be supported (with varying levels of required configuration).
Although Visual Editor services a large variety of sites, the one thing all sites have in common — what we consider to be the sole prerequisite — is that content must be structured and separated from code. We think of this as having a content-driven architecture.
Read more on Content-Driven Development
For Visual Editor to be able to empower editors to change content, that content must be structured, which means it has a predictable shape, as defined by a content schema.
Visual Editor will inherit content schema when it is defined in the source. When Visual Editor can't infer the schema (e.g. file-based content), you must provide a schema definition through Visual Editor configuration.