How to run mutations from Sanity CLI or Vision plugin?

Great question! Yes, there's definitely an easier way than writing a full script for each mutation you want to test.

The sanity exec command is what you're looking for. It lets you run JavaScript/TypeScript files that can perform mutations (create, patch, delete) with access to an authenticated Sanity client.

Here's how it works:

sanity exec myMutation.js --with-user-token

The --with-user-token flag gives your script an authenticated client with your user permissions, so you can perform mutations just like you would in your application code.

For quick one-off mutations, you can create simple scripts like:

Create a document:

// createPost.js
import {getCliClient} from 'sanity/cli'

const client = getCliClient()

client.create({
  _type: 'post',
  title: 'My new post',
  slug: {current: 'my-new-post'}
}).then(console.log)

Patch a document:

// patchPost.js
import {getCliClient} from 'sanity/cli'

const client = getCliClient()

client.patch('document-id-here')
  .set({title: 'Updated title'})
  .commit()
  .then(console.log)

Delete a document:

// deletePost.js
import {getCliClient} from 'sanity/cli'

const client = getCliClient()

client.delete('document-id-here')
  .then(console.log)

Then run any of these with:

sanity exec createPost.js --with-user-token

You can keep a folder of these small utility scripts for common operations you want to test. It's much more convenient than rebuilding a client each time, and the sanity exec command automatically has access to your project configuration.

Pro tip: Always back up your dataset before running mutation scripts, especially on production data:

sanity dataset export

For more complex bulk operations or migrations, check out the migration tooling which has built-in batching and dry-run capabilities.