Manage Configuration with the Admin Console – Yext Help

The Admin Console is a web-based tool built around Yext's Configuration as Code capabilities. It lets you view, edit, and apply configuration files for your Yext account, or install a Solution Template into an account, without needing to use the command line.

To open the Admin Console, click Developer in the navigation bar, then click Admin Console. It opens in a new tab and automatically pulls the latest configuration files from your account on load.

Note: The Admin Console can load up to 1,000 resources at a time. For accounts beyond that limit, use the Yext CLI instead.

Navigating the Admin Console

When the Admin Console opens, you'll see two panels:

Left panel: A folder structure organizing your account's configuration files by product area (e.g., km, platform) and resource type. Click the arrow next to any folder to expand it and see the files inside.
Right panel: The editor. Click any file in the left panel to open it here.

All edits made in the editor are local to your browser until you apply them. Changes will not affect your account and will be lost if you refresh or close the tab. This means you can safely delete, rename, or edit files in the Admin Console without any risk to your account.

Adding a New Resource

Click Add Resource in the upper right. Select the resource type, give it a name, and click Create. The new file will open in the editor with a generic template to start from. Edit it as needed, then apply when ready.

Add Resource dialog

For documentation on each resource type and how files are structured, see the Configuration Resources documentation.

Applying Changes

When you are ready to commit your changes to the account:

Click Apply in the upper right.
Choose whether to apply to the current account or a different account. This looks similar to how you apply a solution template, except solution templates are GitHub Repositories so you’re always applying to another account.
- In most cases, you’ll be applying changes to this account (except when using Solution Templates) unless you are working across multiple accounts (e.g., as a Yext partner or Yext employee working with multiple brands).
Once you make a selection, you will be taken to a screen that shows the diff between the files you are applying and what is currently in the account. You can also view the diff at any time by clicking View Diff in the upper right. Click Continue when satisfied.
After you continue, review the confirmation screen and click Confirm to apply. The bottom of the Admin Console will show any errors or warnings and confirm when the files have finished applying.

Downloading Your Files

Click Download within the Admin Console to save a zipped copy of all current configuration files to your computer. This is useful for storing a snapshot of your configuration before making significant changes.

Advanced Admin Console and Configuration as Code| Yext Hitchhikers Platform

Missing Resources

It is not possible to delete a resource through Configuration as Code. If you apply a set of files that is missing a resource already in your account, that resource will continue to exist unchanged.

For example, if you delete km/entity-type/ce_park.json in the Admin Console and apply, the ce_park entity type will still exist in the account.

This makes applying configuration much safer since you don't need to worry about accidentally deleting important resources.

Changing Resource Names

Because missing resources are not deleted, you cannot change a resource's unique identifier ($id) via CaC. If you change the $id and apply, the original resource remains unchanged, and a new resource is created with the new identifier.

Using the example of your ce_park entity type, if you change the unique identifier (“$id”) in the JSON file to ce_themePark and apply your changes, here is what happens:

Your ce_park entity type remains unchanged since it was merely missing from the configuration files
You will have a new entity type with identifier ce_themePark. As long as the only thing you changed was the “$id” then it will be identical to the ce_park entity type.

However, in many cases, the resource names are modifiable in the UI as they are using customer-settable unique identifiers, like API name. Some resource identifiers can be changed in the UI even though they cannot be changed via CaC:

Fields (API Name)
Entity Types (API Name)
Page Builder Templates (template name)

Other resource identifiers are system-generated and cannot be changed in any interface after creation:

Entity Templates
Labels
Saved Filters

Variables

Variables let you apply the same configuration files to multiple accounts with slight differences, rather than hardcoding specific values.

Variables use the format ${{variableName}} in configuration files. When you apply files containing variables, the Admin Console will prompt you to enter the values for each variable before confirming.

Example: a Solution Template author who wants to allow each user to customize their Page Builder template's colors could define:

{
  "Colors": {
    "Background": "${{backgroundColor}}",
    "Primary": "${{primaryColor}}",
    "Secondary": "${{secondaryColor}}"
  }
}

When any user installs this template, they would be prompted to enter values for backgroundColor, primaryColor, and secondaryColor.

Variables prompt screen

Dependency Files

A dependency file defines conditions that must be true for a set of configuration files to be applied to an account. Three types of conditions can be defined:

Available Entity Types
Product Features
Subscription Features

In Production, the apply will fail if the account does not satisfy the conditions defined in the dependency file. For example, if the dependency file says that the account needs a specific subscription feature, but that subscription feature is not in the account, the apply will fail.

Settings

Click Settings in the upper right to access the following display options.

Friendly Name Mode

There are some resources that, when created in the customer dashboard, have a filename that does not describe what it represents. For example, creating an entity may lead to a Configuration as Code file called 5473320314999661225.json. It would be very challenging to determine which entity that file was referring to.

Friendly Name Mode changes the display of the filename. For entities, the displayed filename will be [entity name].json. So, if our entity in the example above was called “Turtlehead Tacos New York,” the filename displayed in Admin Console would change from 5473320314999661225.json to Turtlehead Tacos New York.json.

Friendly Name Mode applies to the following resource types:

Entity
Folder
Label
Entity Template
Saved Filter
Role

Show Read-Only Resources

Some resource files are not editable, but may be useful to view. Document schemas for already-defined resources are an example of this. Enabling this setting will show those resource files.

Resource Type Mode

To improve usability, the top-level directory defaults to group by Resource Type, rather than by namespace. Users who prefer to view the Admin Console by Namespace can still do so by unchecking “Resource Type Mode.”