Feature request: native repeater/array field type (e.g. "gallery" of media)

[bhspandc]

Use case

We're modelling content where editors need an ordered list of media per entry — e.g. a photo gallery on a past fundraiser, a slideshow on an event page, a stage-by-stage product photo set.

Today the field types in zod-generator (string/text/slug/url/number/integer/boolean/datetime/select/multiSelect/portableText/image/file/reference/json) don't include a multi-item / repeater type:

• multiSelect is enum-of-strings only, not media.
• image / file are single objects.
• portableText allows inline images but the rendering is a story, not a grid; insertion is sequential not curated-as-a-set.
• json works as a hand-edited escape hatch, but obviously has no media-picker UX.

What I'd hope to see

Either:

1. A new field type like gallery that stores Array<{ id, src?, alt?, caption?, … }> and renders a media-library multi-select picker in the admin, or
2. A multiple: true modifier on existing image / file / reference fields.

The plugin SDK can't fill this gap — plugin Block Kit elements don't include a media picker, and there's no field-type registration API.

Workaround we're using

Adding a portableText field for the outcome write-up (which gets inline images naturally) plus a single image field for one event photo. We'll come back to a real gallery affordance once a primitive lands upstream.

Related downstream

BHS-P-C/bhspandc-cms#6 — our outcome-report ticket that points back here.

[marcusbellamyshaw-cell]

I have a gallery plugin you're welcome to use until galleries make it into Emdash core:

https://github.com/marcusbellamyshaw-cell/emdash-plugin-gallery-images

[diegoaguilar]

+1 — hit this building a product-variants editor for a hardware-store catalog. Each variant needs a nested list of { key, value } spec attributes (variants[].attributes[]), which requires a nested repeater/array sub-field. Today RepeaterSubField is scalar-only, and the first-party @emdash-cms/plugin-field-kit list/object-form widgets are also scalar-sub-field-only (no recursion), so a nested structure isn't expressible in core schema at all.

We worked around it with a flat text field parsed on render into a spec table — identical output on the storefront, but the admin editing UX is just free text. A native nested repeater/array sub-field type (or letting a repeater sub-field itself be a repeater) would turn this into a proper structured editor. Would love to see this land.

[marcusbellamyshaw-cell]

Confirmed — checked RepeaterSubField in packages/core/src/schema/types.ts: sub-field type is a closed union of scalars (string/text/url/number/integer/boolean/datetime/select/image), no subFields recursion, and the doc comment says as much ("no nesting, no complex types"). Same story in @emdash-cms/plugin-field-kit's list/object-form widgets. So variants[].attributes[] genuinely can't be expressed today — it's not just a missing widget, the schema type itself is non-recursive.

That's a distinct root cause from the top-level gallery ask this issue opened with (my gallery plugin only helps there, not here). Might be worth splitting into its own issue so it doesn't get bundled/resolved under the gallery title — happy to file it if useful, but not a maintainer call to make unilaterally.