Getting latest draft via HTTP API

Absolutely! You can get draft content through the HTTP API using the perspective parameter. Sanity has built-in support for this via their Perspectives feature.

Here's how it works:

Using the previewDrafts perspective

The easiest way to get the latest draft is to use the previewDrafts perspective, which prioritizes draft documents over published versions:

/v2025-02-19/data/query/YOUR_DATASET?query=*[]&perspective=previewDrafts

This will return draft versions when they exist, and fall back to published content when no draft is available.

Available perspectives

You have several options depending on your needs:

• previewDrafts - Returns drafts when available, falls back to published (perfect for preview environments)
• published - Returns only published content (default as of API version 2025-02-19)
• raw - Returns all documents including both drafts and published versions
• drafts - Returns content as if all drafts were published (useful for preview)

Important notes

1. CDN caching: When using draft perspectives, you must set useCdn: false in your client configuration or avoid the CDN in your HTTP requests, since draft content should never be cached
2. Authentication: You'll need an authenticated request (with a valid token) to access draft content
3. Draft ID pattern: Draft documents have IDs prefixed with drafts. (e.g., drafts.post-123 vs post-123)

Using with the JS/TS client

If you're using @sanity/client, you can configure it like this:

import {createClient} from '@sanity/client'

const client = createClient({
  projectId: 'your-project-id',
  dataset: 'your-dataset',
  useCdn: false, // Required for drafts
  perspective: 'previewDrafts',
  token: 'your-token' // Required for authentication
})

This is similar to how other headless CMSs handle drafts (like Contentful's preview API, Strapi's publicationState=preview, or Storyblok's version=draft), but Sanity's perspective system is more flexible and works consistently across all queries.

Check out the full Perspectives documentation and the guide on presenting and previewing content for more details!