What a web CMS actually owes you: my baseline standard
A web CMS should work for editors and developers without compromise. Here is the baseline I hold every platform against before recommending it.
Tag
GROQ
GROQ query patterns for Sanity CMS — projections, joins, coalesce, array flattening, and avoiding waterfall fetches in Next.js.
21 posts
6 min read
Sanity image-url hotspot not working: four causes and fixes
Sanity hotspot not applying to your rendered image? Here are the four real causes and exact fixes for each one.
Sanity vs Directus for Next.js in 2026: An Honest Comparison
Sanity vs Directus compared across data ownership, schema design, querying, editor UX, and self-hosting for Next.js projects in 2026.
Sanity vs Hygraph 2026: An Honest Side-by-Side for Next.js Teams
Sanity vs Hygraph in 2026: GROQ content lake vs GraphQL-native federation compared on DX, editor UX, pricing, and Next.js fit. Make the right call.
How I Migrate WordPress to Sanity + Next.js: A Technical Walkthrough
A step-by-step guide to exporting WordPress content, mapping schemas, running an import script, converting HTML to Portable Text, and preserving SEO with 301 redirects.
Sanity Embeddings: Semantic Search in a Next.js App Router Site
Step-by-step guide to indexing Sanity content with native Embeddings, running a semantic query, and wiring a debounced search UI in Next.js App Router.
Sanity Agent Actions: Automating Content Workflows
Learn how Sanity Agent Actions let you trigger AI-powered content workflows from the API — generate drafts, translate, and enrich fields at scale, without an editor clicking anything.
How to Vet a Senior Sanity CMS Developer: A Buyer's Guide
Learn how to vet a senior Sanity CMS developer before you hire — portfolio signals, honest questions, and the red flags that reveal real seniority.
How to Archive Documents in Sanity — Unpublish Without Deleting
Step-by-step: custom Sanity document actions to unpublish, archive, and restore content without deleting, plus Next.js front-end handling for archived docs.
Sanity Custom Validation Rules: A Practical Guide
Learn how to write Sanity custom validation rules: required fields, regex, async checks, cross-field logic, and clear editor error messages.
Sanity Structure Builder: Custom Ordering & Grouping
Learn how to configure Sanity Structure Builder's defaultOrdering, documentTypeList grouping, and icons so a 20+ schema Studio still feels deliberate.
Sanity vs Strapi in 2026: an honest side-by-side comparison
Sanity vs Strapi 2026: GROQ content lake vs self-hosted SQL, editor UX, image pipelines, pricing, and lock-in trade-offs compared honestly.
Advanced GROQ Queries: Joins, Coalesce & Array Flattening
Deep dive into advanced GROQ queries in Sanity: inline joins, the coalesce() function, conditional projections, and array flattening with real payload sizes measured.
Sanity TypeGen: Fully Typed GROQ Queries in TypeScript
A step-by-step guide to Sanity TypeGen: CLI config, generating TypeScript types from GROQ queries, CI integration, and handling schema evolution gotchas.
Sanity CMS + Next.js App Router: A Practical Getting Started Guide
A step-by-step Sanity CMS + Next.js tutorial for developers setting up schemas, GROQ queries, and Sanity Studio with the App Router for the first time.
Sanity CMS vs Contentful for Next.js Projects: An Honest Comparison
Sanity CMS or Contentful for your next Next.js build? Honest comparison — pricing, GROQ vs GraphQL, editor DX, lock-in, and which one wins where.
Sanity Slug Validation: Block Duplicate Slugs Before Publish
Sanity's slug field doesn't enforce uniqueness by default. Here's the custom GROQ validation hook that blocks duplicate slugs at publish, across multiple document types.
GROQ Conditional Projections: Cut Query Payload by 60%
A pattern for projecting only the fields your Next.js components actually render, using GROQ's select() and type filters to prune unused blocks from a union array.
Avoiding N+1 Queries: Modeling Sanity References in RSC
A pattern for structuring Sanity references and GROQ projections that eliminates query waterfalls in server components, cutting fetch latency by 200–400 ms.
Multi-Locale Navigation in Sanity Without Bloating Queries
A singleton pattern for i18n navigation that keeps GROQ queries fast, using dynamic field access (field[$param]) instead of string interpolation.
Structuring Sanity Schemas to Avoid Query Waterfalls
Denormalising references and embedding common fields in Sanity schemas cuts server component render time by 40–60%. Here's the pattern I ship.