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This page summarizes design work on and surrounding the portal model generated by {{Basic portal start page}}, including design objectives, elements, and tools based on this model, which is intended as a one-page fully automated integrated design. Other designs and design templates are certainly possible and encouraged. This page however, focuses on just the one, being the current de facto standard for generating new portals and conversion of existing ones.
On the talk page, we discuss all aspects of portal design.
Below, we are concerned mostly with automation level 1 – that is, once the template is substituted on a page and saved, everything works without any further input or editing. Automation level 2 would be a program that asks for the name of the portal (or portals) to be created, or that starts a page (and title) upon the click of a redlink, and places the template and whatever else is needed, automatically. Automation level 3 would be a program that just does the job on its own, without asking (or optionally, asks for confirmation first); it would explore Wikipedia and figure out what subjects need to be covered in the portal system and make the portals for those.
Also needed is a portal configuration tool, that provides editors with an interface for easily changing a portal's various parameters section-by-section, but that's being handled on another page.
One of the two main design objectives here is to create a one-page portal, with no portal subpages. This model accomplishes that.
The other main design objective is to make a portal page that is fully automated, meaning it is complete and operational once the generating template has been substituted onto the page, using "subst:". This has yet to be fully achieved, and is covered component-by-component, below.
To help track progress, the following indicators have been used:
Automated indicates the component is fully automated.
An 
indicates that the component still needs design/programming work.