Sanity Best Practices

Comprehensive best practices and integration guides for Sanity development, maintained by Sanity. Use the quick reference below to load only the one or two topic files that match the task.

When to Apply

Reference these guidelines when:

• Setting up a new Sanity project or onboarding
• Integrating Sanity with a frontend framework (Next.js, Nuxt, Astro, Remix, SvelteKit, Hydrogen)
• Writing GROQ queries or optimizing performance
• Designing content schemas
• Implementing Visual Editing and live preview
• Working with images, Portable Text, or page builders
• Configuring Sanity Studio structure
• Setting up TypeGen for type safety
• Implementing localization
• Migrating content from other systems
• Building custom apps with the Sanity App SDK
• Managing infrastructure with Blueprints
• Automating content workflows with Sanity Functions

Global Rules

• Let Sanity generate _id values for ordinary documents. Do not create deterministic UUIDs, slug-derived IDs, or legacy-system IDs when creating documents.
• Model relationships with reference fields, then resolve related documents with GROQ lookups, source-key fields, or returned _id values from created documents.
• Use explicit document IDs mainly for singleton documents controlled by Studio Structure, including localized singletons such as homePage-en.

Quick Reference

Integration Guides

• get-started - Interactive onboarding for new Sanity projects
• nextjs - Next.js App Router, Live Content API, standalone Studio
• nuxt - Nuxt integration with @nuxtjs/sanity
• angular - Angular integration with @sanity/client, signals, resource API
• astro - Astro integration with @sanity/astro
• remix - React Router / Remix integration
• svelte - SvelteKit integration with @sanity/svelte-loader
• hydrogen - Shopify Hydrogen with Sanity
• project-structure - Standalone Studio and monorepo patterns
• app-sdk - Custom applications with Sanity App SDK
• blueprints - Infrastructure as Code with Sanity Blueprints
• functions - Automating content workflows with Sanity Functions

Topic Guides

• groq - GROQ query patterns, type safety, performance optimization
• schema - Schema design, field definitions, validation, deprecation patterns
• visual-editing - Presentation Tool, Stega, overlays, live preview
• page-builder - Page Builder arrays, block components, live editing
• portable-text - Rich text rendering and custom components
• image - Image schema, URL builder, hotspots, LQIP, Next.js Image
• studio-structure - Desk structure, singletons, navigation
• typegen - TypeGen configuration, workflow, type utilities
• seo - Metadata, sitemaps, Open Graph, JSON-LD
• localization - i18n patterns, document vs field-level, locale management
• migration - Content import overview (see also migration-html-import)
• migration-html-import - HTML to Portable Text with @portabletext/block-tools

How to Use

Start with the single framework or topic guide that best matches the request, then read additional references only when the task crosses concerns. Use these reference files for detailed explanations and code examples:

references/groq.md
references/schema.md
references/nextjs.md

Each reference file contains:

• Comprehensive topic or integration coverage
• Incorrect and correct code examples
• Decision matrices and workflow guidance
• Framework-specific patterns where applicable