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Sanity

Sanity

Headless CMS & Content Infrastructure

Sanity is our canonical source for methodology, shows, episodes, and educational content. With 30 document types, 1,100+ documents, and custom AI-powered workflows, it's the backbone of our content operations.

Active Added Oct 2024 Free Tier sanity.io →

30 Document Types

Our Sanity schema encodes the entire Value-First methodology alongside operational content.

Content

~800+
ShowEpisodeBlogPostContentSeriesEventCourseLessonPresentation

Methodology

~50
ValuePathStageTrapUnifiedGoalValueRealityFrameworkConceptPlatformLayer

Resources

~200+
ContributorGlossaryToolPersonaContentTagTechStackItemGoldenPathQA

Interactive

~50+
QuizAssessmentGeneratedVideoAgentRunEvent

Features We Use

Not just a CMS - Sanity powers custom workflows, AI integration, and content intelligence.

GROQ Queries

heavy

Sanity's powerful query language powers 41+ queries across our site

~2,250 lines of GROQ with complex nested references, aggregations, and filters

Image CDN

active

Automatic image optimization and responsive serving

All thumbnails, avatars, and banners served through Sanity's CDN with on-the-fly transforms

Mux Video Plugin

active

Native video hosting integration for premium content

Hybrid YouTube/Mux approach - YouTube for discovery, Mux for owned distribution

Custom Studio Components

active

AI-assisted content creation workflows

AIGenerateButton for summaries, YouTubeFetcher for metadata, Auto-Tag on publish

Real-time Preview

limited

Draft content preview before publishing

Two-client approach: CDN for published, non-CDN for drafts with auth token

Build Cache

active

Optimized API usage during Vercel builds

Custom caching layer reduces API calls by 80%+ during static generation

Schema Highlights

Key document types that power our content operations.

Episode Core content unit - 635+ episodes across 38 shows
25 fields
Show Media Network shows with schedules, hosts, and branding
20 fields
Contributor 37 contributors with profiles, expertise, and HubSpot linking
18 fields
Trap 12 Complexity Traps - core methodology encoding
15 fields
ValuePathStage 8 stages of the customer journey framework
12 fields
Quiz Interactive assessments with Sanity-powered questions
14 fields

Free Tier Usage

We run entirely on Sanity's free tier. Here's how our usage stacks up against the limits.

Documents

~1,100 / 10,000

11% of limit

Assets

~3GB / 100GB

3% of limit

Bandwidth

Variable / 100GB/mo

10% of limit

CDN Requests

Variable / 1M/mo

15% of limit

API Requests

Variable / 250K/mo

20% of limit

Datasets

1 / 2

50% of limit

Verdict: The free tier handles our needs well. Our build cache pattern and CDN-first approach keep API usage low. The main things to watch are API requests during high-traffic periods or frequent deploys.

Lessons Learned

What we've discovered building a production CMS with Sanity.

1

Embrace Portable Text

Sanity's rich text format is incredibly powerful. We use it for episode descriptions, blog posts, and methodology content with custom blocks for code, callouts, and embeds.

2

Build Cache Pattern

Our custom build-cache.ts saves thousands of API calls per deploy. Cache frequently-accessed data at build time, invalidate strategically.

3

Reference Everything

Sanity's reference system lets us connect Shows→Episodes→Contributors→Traps→Stages. This powers our "related content" features and Value Path integration.

4

Custom Components Pay Off

The AIGenerateButton alone saves hours per week. YouTubeFetcher eliminates copy-paste errors. Auto-Tag ensures consistent taxonomy.

5

GROQ > GraphQL for Us

GROQ's flexibility and the Vision plugin for testing queries made development faster than GraphQL would have. The learning curve is worth it.

Custom Studio Components

We've extended Sanity Studio with AI-powered workflows.

AIGenerateButton

One-click AI generation for summaries, SEO descriptions, and content suggestions. Uses Claude API through our backend.

YouTubeFetcher

Paste a YouTube URL, auto-populate title, description, duration, and video ID. Eliminates copy-paste errors for 635+ episodes.

Auto-Tag Action

Document action that auto-applies ContentTag references on publish. 24 keyword rules ensure consistent taxonomy across all content.

Architecture Pattern

How Sanity fits into our overall system.

S

Sanity Studio

Content editing

→
API

GROQ + CDN

Query & cache

→
A

Astro + Vercel

Build & serve

Build Time

Static pages generated with cached Sanity data. Build cache reduces API calls by 80%+.

Runtime

Dynamic pages query Sanity CDN directly. Portal pages use server-side rendering.

Mutations

Profile updates, auto-tagging, and agent writes go through authenticated non-CDN client.

Explore Our Full Tech Stack

Sanity is just one piece of our AI-native infrastructure. See all 35+ technologies powering Value-First Team.

View Full Tech Stack

Last updated: January 13, 2026