Sanity Blog Theme (Next.js + Sanity v3)

Modern, editor-friendly starter that pairs Next.js (App Router) with Sanity Studio v3. It ships with a flexible Page Builder, a blog, SEO fields, and a curated Studio experience (Desk structure, grouped fields, icons, and collapsible inputs).

Highlights

• Page Builder with reusable blocks (Hero, CTA, Image & Text, Client Logos, Services, Testimonials, Team, Address)
• Organized editor UX: field groups, collapsible sections, sensible defaults, previews
• Sanity Studio embedded at /studio with a custom content structure
• Blog with authors, categories, SEO, pagination-ready queries

Create a new project

The easiest way to get started is using the CLI:

npx @multidots/sanity-blog-theme my-blog-project
cd my-blog-project

Or using your preferred package manager:

# npm
npx @multidots/sanity-blog-theme my-blog-project

# yarn
yarn create @multidots/sanity-blog-theme my-blog-project

# pnpm
pnpm create @multidots/sanity-blog-theme my-blog-project

or Directly clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/multidots/sanity-blog.git
cd sanity-blog-theme

This will:

• Create a new directory with your project name
• Copy all template files
• Interactive Sanity setup - Configure your project with guided prompts
• Auto-generate .env.local - No manual environment setup needed
• Install dependencies automatically
• Set up a proper .gitignore file
• Update package.json with your project name

🚀 Interactive Setup Process

The CLI will guide you through:

1. Sanity Project Configuration - Enter your project details:

   • Project ID
   • Dataset name (default: "production")
   • API version (auto-suggested with current date)

2. Environment File Creation - Choose to:

   • Create .env.local with your actual project details
   • Or get an .env.example template for manual setup

3. Ready to Go - Your project will be fully configured and ready to run!

Project structure

Folder Structure

sanity-blog-theme/
├── public/                         # Static assets
│   └── images/                    # Image assets
├── src/                           # Source code
│   ├── app/                       # Next.js App Router
│   │   ├── (frontend)/           # Frontend route group
│   │   │   ├── [slug]/           # Dynamic page routes
│   │   │   └── blog/             # Blog routes
│   │   │       └── [slug]/       # Individual blog post routes
│   │   ├── api/                  # API routes
│   │   │   └── submit-form/      # Form submission endpoint for contact form plugin integration
│   │   └── studio/               # Sanity Studio routes
│   │       └── [[...tool]]/      # Studio catch-all routes
│   ├── components/               # React components
│   │   └── blocks/               # Page Builder block components
│   └── sanity/                   # Sanity configuration and schemas
│       ├── lib/                  # Sanity utilities
│       └── schemaTypes/          # Content schemas
│           └── blocks/           # Block schemas for Page Builder

Sanity Studio

• Config: sanity.config.ts
• Schemas: src/sanity/schemaTypes/
• Custom Desk structure: src/sanity/structure.ts
• Contact Form: @multidots/sanity-plugin-contact-form integration

Studio is mounted at /studio via the Next.js App Router integration.

Content model (schemas)

Documents

• page: Title, Slug, Content (Page Builder), SEO
• post: Title, Slug, Author, Main Image, Categories, Published At, Body, SEO
• author: Name, Slug, Image, Bio
• category: Title, Slug, Description
• siteSettings (singleton): General, Header (Logo, Menu), Footer (menus, social), Blog settings, Home page reference

Objects and blocks

• pageBuilder: Array composing these blocks:
  • hero: Headline/subtitle, background (image/color), alignment, colors
  • ctaBlock: Heading, Subheading, Button (text/link/new tab), background (image/color), text color
  • imageTextSection: Title, portable description, main image (+alt/size), image position, button
  • clientList: Title, logos (image + url/new tab)
  • services: Title, services (title, text, background color)
  • testimonialSlider: Title, testimonials (quote, author)
  • team: Title, team (name, role, image, bg color)
  • address: Title, address, phone, email
• blockContent: Portable Text with basic marks, images, CTAs, etc.
• seo: Title override, description, image, noindex

Icons

• Blocks use icons from @sanity/icons for a clearer insert menu and arrays.
  • For example: hero (TextIcon), ctaBlock (BlockContentIcon), team (UsersIcon), address (PinIcon)
  • Change icons in each block schema under src/sanity/schemaTypes/blocks/*Type.ts.

Desk structure

Defined in src/sanity/structure.ts:

• Site Settings singleton pinned at the top
• Pages
• Blog → Posts, Categories, Authors
• Any other types appear in a fallback list

Frontend implementation

Rendering content

• Page Builder component: src/components/PageBuilder.tsx
  • Maps each _type in the pageBuilder array to a React component in src/components/blocks/*
  • Includes in-place editing data attributes via next-sanity for a smoother authoring workflow

Mobile Navigation

• Responsive hamburger menu with smooth slide animations
• Vertical mobile menu layout with professional styling
• Touch-friendly interactions and accessibility features
• Auto-close on navigation and click outside

Contact Form System

• Plugin: @multidots/sanity-plugin-contact-form v1.0.5
• Features: Dynamic forms, file upload, reCAPTCHA, email notifications
• Documentation: Plugin Documentation

Queries

Queries live in src/sanity/lib/queries.ts and cover header/footer, sitemap, pages, posts, and settings.

• PAGE_QUERY loads page content + SEO
• POSTS_QUERY, POSTS_COUNT_QUERY, SINGLE_POST_QUERY power the blog
• SITE_SETTINGS_QUERY, HEADER_QUERY, FOOTER_QUERY load global UI config
• SITEMAP_QUERY returns URLs and update dates for pages and posts

Using the Page Builder

1. Create a Page document in Studio
2. Add blocks to the Content group
3. Use the insert menu (grid view) to discover blocks; re-order via drag-and-drop
4. Most blocks have grouped fields (Content, Style, etc.) and collapsible sub-objects for a clean editing experience

Contact Form Plugin

The project includes @multidots/sanity-plugin-contact-form for dynamic form creation and management. For detailed setup and usage instructions, visit the plugin documentation.

Blog

Content modeling

• post documents reference author and category
• seo embedded per post

Frontend

• Blog listing and post page live under src/app/(frontend)/blog
• Pagination logic can use POSTS_QUERY + POSTS_COUNT_QUERY
• Posts per page driven by siteSettings.blogPostsPerPage

Global settings

Singleton: siteSettings (enforced via Desk structure and restricted actions in sanity.config.ts).

Key fields

• General: siteTitle
• Header: logo, menuItems (title, url, openInNewTab)
• Footer: footerTitle, footerDescription, footermenuItems, copyrightText, socialLinks
• Pages: homePage reference (used as the site’s homepage source)
• Blog: blogPostsPerPage, blogPageCTA

SEO

Each page and post has an seo object. Queries coalesce page/post title/description when SEO fields are left empty. noIndex can be toggled per document.

Add a new block

1. Create the schema

• Add a new file under src/sanity/schemaTypes/blocks/YourBlockType.ts
• Follow the pattern in existing blocks: groups, fields, preview, icon

2. Register the type

• Export it from src/sanity/schemaTypes/index.ts
• Add it to the of list in src/sanity/schemaTypes/pageBuilderType.ts

3. Build the React component

• Create src/components/blocks/YourBlock.tsx
• Match props to your schema fields

4. Map it in the Page Builder

• Update the switch in src/components/PageBuilder.tsx to render your component when _type === 'yourBlock'

5. (Optional) Insert menu preview

• Add /public/block-previews/yourBlock.png to visualize the block in the Studio insert grid

Current Available Blocks: hero, ctaBlock, imageTextSection, clientList, services, testimonialSlider, team, address

Development

Common commands

npm run dev      # Start Next.js app + Studio (mounted at /studio)
npm run build    # Production build
npm run start    # Start production server

Sanity configuration

• Project/API vars are set via src/sanity/env.ts
• Studio plugins: Structure tool, Vision, Color input, Contact Form plugin

Troubleshooting

• Missing env var error
  • The app throws a helpful error if NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_PROJECT_ID or NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_DATASET is missing
• Studio not showing a type
  • Ensure the type is exported in src/sanity/schemaTypes/index.ts

License

MIT — feel free to use, modify, and distribute. Attribution is appreciated.