Start Sanity frontend only without studio on localhost:3000

It sounds like you have a Next.js project with an embedded Sanity Studio, and running npm start is launching both together. You're right that running both can be resource-intensive!

The solution depends on your project setup:

If you have a Next.js app with embedded Studio:

Your package.json likely has scripts that look something like this:

"scripts": {
  "dev": "next dev",
  "build": "next build",
  "start": "next start"
}

If npm start runs both, it's probably because your Studio is embedded in your Next.js app (like at /studio route). In this case:

1. To run only the frontend: Just use npm run dev (or next dev) - this starts the Next.js dev server at localhost:3000
2. To run only the Studio: Navigate to your studio directory and run sanity dev (this typically runs on localhost:3333)

If you have separate folders for frontend and studio:

Navigate to just the frontend folder and run:

cd frontend  # or whatever your frontend folder is named
npm run dev

Performance tip: The Next.js development server at localhost:3000 is your frontend. The Sanity Studio (typically at localhost:3333 or embedded at /studio) is a separate React application. If you only need to work on the frontend and don't need to edit content, you can absolutely skip running the Studio - your frontend will still fetch published content from Sanity's hosted Content Lake.

Check your package.json to see what npm start actually runs - it might be calling a custom script that launches both processes. You can modify it or just use the individual commands instead. If the Studio is embedded as a route in your Next.js app, it will load when you visit that route, but if you just work on your frontend pages, it won't consume resources until you navigate to it.