How to create working document edit links in custom Sanity Studio v2 desk structure views?

For creating working links to document edit screens in Sanity Studio v2 from custom document views, you'll want to use the IntentLink component rather than plain relative links. This is the proper way to navigate within the Studio without causing full page refreshes or unresponsive behavior.

The Solution: IntentLink

The IntentLink component from part:@sanity/base/router handles Studio navigation properly by working with the internal state management system. Here's how to use it:

import { IntentLink } from 'part:@sanity/base/router'

// In your component
<IntentLink
  intent="edit"
  params={{ id: documentId, type: documentType }}
>
  Click to edit
</IntentLink>

This generates URLs that look like:

http://localhost:3333/intent/edit/id=4497efe3-8ab6-4e55-872e-b1ef9577cc07;type=paletteColor/

Why Plain Links Don't Work

When you use regular <a> tags with relative paths like /desk/paletteColor-unsorted;d27d5d4e-5faf-4a4c-b25f-0213e2ea492c, the browser treats it as a full page navigation. This causes:

• Complete Studio page reloads (that "huge refresh" you're experiencing)
• Loss of internal state tracking
• Potential unresponsiveness as the Studio tries to reinitialize

The Studio maintains complex state for the desk structure, panes, and document editing sessions. IntentLink preserves all of this by using the internal router.

Complete Example

Here's a more complete example showing IntentLink in context:

import React from 'react'
import { IntentLink } from 'part:@sanity/base/router'
import Preview from 'part:@sanity/base/preview'
import schema from 'part:@sanity/base/schema'

const MyCustomView = ({ documents }) => {
  return (
    <div>
      {documents.map((doc) => {
        const schemaType = schema.get(doc._type)
        return (
          <IntentLink
            key={doc._id}
            intent="edit"
            params={{ id: doc._id, type: doc._type }}
          >
            <Preview value={doc} type={schemaType} />
          </IntentLink>
        )
      })}
    </div>
  )
}

This pattern is used throughout Sanity's own components (like in the backlinks recipe) and provides smooth, stateful navigation within the Studio.

Note: If you've migrated to Studio v3, the approach has changed - you'd use the router from sanity/router instead. But for v2, IntentLink is the way to go!