Skills

Skill 5 of 8

Sanity Best Practices

Sanity development best practices for schema design, GROQ queries, TypeGen, Visual Editing, images, Portable Text, Studio structure, localization, migrations, Sanity Functions…

2 minutes · 545 words · 7 sections

Install

$ npx skills add sanity-io/agent-toolkit --skill sanity-best-practices

$ npx skills add sanity-io/agent-toolkit

» /plugin marketplace add sanity-io/agent-toolkit

The first command installs just this skill, by the name in its SKILL.md; the second installs the whole repository.

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 or webhooks

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.

Video

Do not store or serve video from Sanity file assets for production playback. File assets are delivered as raw downloads with no transcoding or adaptive streaming, and video traffic drives very high bandwidth usage and unexpectedly large bills.
On Enterprise plans with the video add-on, use Sanity Media Library for video: uploads are transcoded and streamed adaptively via Mux. Model video fields with defineVideoField() from sanity/media-library and play them with @mux/mux-player-react using the asset’s playback ID.
On other plans, use a dedicated video service: install sanity-plugin-mux-input to upload and manage videos in your Mux account from the Studio, or host video on a platform such as YouTube or Vimeo and store only the embed URL in Sanity.
Small clips and short previews in a file field are acceptable, but any user-facing video at scale must go through Media Library or a streaming service.

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: blueprint files, stacks, plan/deploy workflow, error recovery, CI deploys
functions - Automating content workflows with Sanity Functions and webhooks

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

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

About this skill

Trigger

Sanity development best practices for schema design, GROQ queries, TypeGen, Visual Editing, images, Portable Text, Studio structure, localization, migrations, Sanity Functions, webhooks, Blueprints, and framework integrations such as Next.js, Nuxt, Astro, Remix, SvelteKit, Angular, Hydrogen, and the App SDK. Use this skill whenever working with Sanity schemas, defineType or defineField, GROQ or defineQuery, content modeling, Presentation or preview setups, Sanity-powered frontend integrations, event-driven content automation, documentEventHandler, defineDocumentFunction, defineMediaLibraryAssetFunction, @sanity/functions, @sanity/blueprints, sanity.blueprint.ts, event-driven content automation, or when reviewing and fixing a Sanity codebase.

The verbatim description from this skill’s front matter — the string an agent matches on to decide whether to load it.

Colophon for this issue

Colophon

How this issue was made

Source

github.com/sanity-io/agent-toolkit, branch main, last pushed 16 September 2026.

Licence

MIT — the text of every skill is reproduced unmodified, frontmatter included, under the upstream licence.

Discovery

8 skills found by walking the repository tree for SKILL.md, not by matching a directory convention. One layout observed: skills/*/SKILL.md.

Issue colours

Resolved from a deterministic hash of the owner name. Two accent tones are generated per issue and each is proven against its own ground before it ships: a single accent that passes AA on both light and dark paper is arithmetically impossible.

Heading repairs

1 repair applied to this skill so the document has one h1 and no skipped levels:

Removed “Sanity Best Practices”, a leading h1 that duplicated the skill title.

Spec compliance

Every skill satisfies the Agent Skills specification’s frontmatter rules.

Images

Images inside a skill come from the upstream repository. Where the author gave no alternative text we mark the image decorative rather than inventing a description — a plausible caption we made up is worse than none for the reader who depends on it.

Marketplace

A plugin manifest is published at .claude-plugin/marketplace.json by Sanity, declaring 1 plugin. It is read for editorial metadata only — never as the skill index, which is always the repository tree.

Signal

Install counts come from skills.sh. They measure downloads, not quality, and an unranked repository is not an unread one.

Agent surfaces

The whole issue is available as one markdown document at /sanity-io/agent-toolkit.md, and each skill at its own .md URL.

Publication

Set by Skills Docs from the source repository. Body text is Literata at the reader’s chosen size and measure; code is Geist Mono. Nothing on this page was written by us except this paragraph.

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 or webhooks

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.

Video

Do not store or serve video from Sanity file assets for production playback. File assets are delivered as raw downloads with no transcoding or adaptive streaming, and video traffic drives very high bandwidth usage and unexpectedly large bills.

On Enterprise plans with the video add-on, use Sanity Media Library for video: uploads are transcoded and streamed adaptively via Mux. Model video fields with defineVideoField() from sanity/media-library and play them with @mux/mux-player-react using the asset’s playback ID.

On other plans, use a dedicated video service: install sanity-plugin-mux-input to upload and manage videos in your Mux account from the Studio, or host video on a platform such as YouTube or Vimeo and store only the embed URL in Sanity.

Small clips and short previews in a file field are acceptable, but any user-facing video at scale must go through Media Library or a streaming service.

Quick Reference

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: blueprint files, stacks, plan/deploy workflow, error recovery, CI deploys

functions - Automating content workflows with Sanity Functions and webhooks

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

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

Sanity Best Practices

When to Apply

Global Rules

Video

Quick Reference

Integration Guides

Topic Guides

How to Use

About this skill

Trigger

Colophon

Sanity Best Practices

When to Apply

Global Rules

Video

Quick Reference

Integration Guides

Topic Guides

How to Use

Appendix 5.1–5.24

ReferencesMarkdown · 24 files

About this skill

Trigger

Colophon

Appendix 5.1–5.24

ReferencesMarkdown · 24 files