Sanity Gatsby Blog Starter Template Removed - What Happened?

I understand your frustration! You're right that the old sanity.io/create web interface and the convenient starter templates that were available there have been discontinued. The GitHub repository for the Gatsby blog starter was actually archived on March 6, 2023, confirming that this template is no longer actively maintained.

What Happened

Sanity has moved away from the web-based sanity.io/create flow and the associated starter templates. This was part of a broader shift toward a more flexible, CLI-first approach that better integrates with modern development workflows.

Current Way to Create Projects

Instead of using sanity.io/create, you now use the Sanity CLI directly:

npm create sanity@latest

or

npx -y sanity@latest init

This interactive command will guide you through:

• Authentication with your Sanity account
• Creating or selecting a project
• Choosing a dataset configuration
• Selecting from available templates (like "clean" or "blog")
• Configuring TypeScript preferences

You can learn more about this in the Sanity CLI documentation.

Recreating Your Gatsby Blog Workflow

Since the specific Gatsby blog starter template is archived and no longer maintained, here's how to achieve a similar setup:

1. Initialize your Sanity Studio with a blog template:

   npm create sanity@latest -- --template blog

   This gives you a Sanity Studio with blog-ready schemas (posts, authors, categories, etc.).

2. Set up your Gatsby frontend separately:

   • Create a new Gatsby project
   • Install gatsby-source-sanity to connect to your Sanity project
   • Configure it with your project ID and dataset

3. Deploy:

   • Deploy your Studio: sanity deploy
   • Deploy your Gatsby site to Netlify as usual

Alternative: Consider Next.js

While this is more work than the old one-click flow, I should mention that Sanity's current focus is heavily on Next.js integration. The CLI has specialized Next.js support with automatic detection and configuration. If you're open to it, you might find the Next.js path more streamlined with current Sanity tooling.

Why the Change?

The CLI-first approach provides:

• Better integration with existing projects
• More flexibility in project structure
• Easier version control and reproducibility
• Better support for modern frameworks

I know it's less convenient than the web interface you were used to, but once you get familiar with the CLI commands, the workflow becomes quite fast. The trade-off is more initial setup for greater long-term flexibility.