How to create Sanity project and dataset without full init setup?

You're absolutely right—running sanity init and then cancelling after creating the project and dataset does feel like a workaround! Unfortunately, there isn't a single dedicated command to only create a project and dataset without going through the full init flow.

Based on the Sanity CLI documentation, the available commands are:

For projects:

• sanity projects list - Lists projects connected to your user

That's it for the projects command—there's no sanity projects create command available.

For datasets: From the sanity dataset command, you can:

• sanity dataset create [NAME] - Create a new dataset within your project
• sanity dataset create <name> --visibility private - Create with specific visibility

Your best options:

1. Use sanity init with minimal interaction - What you're already doing. Run sanity init, create the project and dataset when prompted, then cancel. It's not elegant, but it works.

2. Create the project via the Dashboard - You can create projects through the Sanity Dashboard web interface, then use sanity dataset create <name> from the CLI to add datasets to that project.

3. Use sanity dataset create after project exists - If you already have a project ID (from the Dashboard or a previous init), you can configure your sanity.cli.js or sanity.config.js with that project ID, then run sanity dataset create <dataset-name> to add new datasets.

The Sanity CLI is primarily designed around the init workflow for project setup, so there isn't currently a streamlined "create project only" command. Your approach of using init and cancelling is actually a reasonable workaround given the current CLI design!