---
title: "Manual Creation Use Cases"
description: "Scenarios where explicit navigation beats auto-generation"
---

Manual configuration shines when order, wording, or visibility need deliberate control.

## Common Scenarios

- **Narrative guides:** Tutorials, onboarding, and curricula that must be read in sequence.
- **Compliance flows:** Policies, legal terms, and security checklists that should precede how-to guides.
- **Launch playbooks:** Release plans or migration guides where steps must be executed in order.
- **Product positioning:** Highlight flagship features before niche ones.
- **Controlled experiments:** Temporarily feature A/B content without renaming files.

## What Manual Control Gives You

- Precise ordering via the `entries` array
- Custom labels/icons through frontmatter (`navLabel`, `navIcon`)
- The ability to hide drafts with `navHidden: true`
- Stable URLs even if display order changes

## Example Structure

```typescript
{
    id: "rollout-guide",
    label: "Rollout Guide",
    entries: [
        { slug: "rollout/01-plan" },
        { slug: "rollout/02-dry-run" },
        { slug: "rollout/03-launch" },
        { slug: "rollout/04-follow-up" },
    ],
}
```

## Anti-Patterns

- Using manual ordering for very large sections (hundreds of pages)
- Duplicating the same slug in multiple groups
- Relying on file name prefixes when the config already defines order

## Next Steps

- Control ordering details in [Ordering Content Manually](/docs/generation-strategies/manual-creation/ordering-content)
- Mix manual pins with discovery in [Hybrid: Pin and Expand](/docs/generation-strategies/hybrid-approach/pin-and-expand)