[!IMPORTANT]
This toolkit is no longer actively developed. For Next.js users on React Server Components we recommend next-sanity's defineLive API. Next.js pages router, Remix, React Router, TanStack Start, should use our React Loader.

@sanity/preview-kit

[!NOTE]
You're looking at the README for v6, the README for v5 is available here.

• Installation
• @sanity/preview-kit
  • Live real-time preview for React
    • 1. Create a client instance
    • 2. Define a <LiveQueryProvider /> component
    • 3. Making a Remix route conditionally preview drafts
    • 4. Adding the useLiveQuery hook to components that need to re-render in real-time
      • Implementing a Loading UI with useLiveQuery
      • Optimizing performance
    • Advanced usage
      • Using the LiveQuery wrapper component instead of the useLiveQuery hook
      • Trouble-shooting and debugging
• Release new version
• License

Installation

1npm i @sanity/preview-kit

1pnpm i @sanity/preview-kit

1yarn add @sanity/preview-kit

@sanity/preview-kit

Note

This is the new docs for @sanity/preview-kit v6. If you're looking for docs for v1 APIs, like definePreview and usePreview, they're available on the v1 branch..

There's a full migration guide available here.

If you're looking for React Server Component and Next.js docs, they're in the next-sanity readme.

Live real-time preview for React

Note

The examples in this README use Remix, you can find Next.js specific examples in the next-sanity README. Including information on how to build live previews in React Server Components with the new app-router.

Write GROQ queries like @sanity/client and have them automatically refetch when content changes. The Live Content API is used to notify on changes.

Get started in 3 steps:

1. Create a client instance of @sanity/client that can be shared on the server and browser.
2. Define a <LiveQueryProvider /> configuration.
3. Refactor the root layout of your app to conditionally wrap it in <LiveQueryProvider /> when it's asked to preview drafts.
4. Use the useLiveQuery hook in components that you want to re-render in real-time as your documents are edited.

1. Create a client instance

As <LiveQueryProvider /> is configured with a @sanity/client instance it makes sense to create a utility for it. Doing so makes it easy to ensure the server-side and client-side client are configured the same way.

app/lib/sanity.ts

1import {createClient, type QueryParams} from '@sanity/preview-kit/client'
2
3// Shared on the server and the browser
4export const client = createClient({
5  projectId: 'your-project-id',
6  dataset: 'production',
7  apiVersion: '2025-03-04',
8  useCdn: true,
9})
10
11// Only defined on the server, passed to the browser via a `loader`
12export const token = typeof process === 'undefined' ? '' : process.env.SANITY_API_READ_TOKEN!
13
14const DEFAULT_PARAMS = {} as QueryParams
15
16// Utility for fetching data on the server, that can toggle between published and preview drafts
17export async function sanityFetch<QueryResponse>({
18  previewDrafts,
19  query,
20  params = DEFAULT_PARAMS,
21}: {
22  previewDrafts?: boolean
23  query: string
24  params?: QueryParams
25}): Promise<QueryResponse> {
26  if (previewDrafts && !token) {
27    throw new Error('The `SANITY_API_READ_TOKEN` environment variable is required.')
28  }
29  return client.fetch<QueryResponse>(
30    query,
31    params,
32    previewDrafts
33      ? {
34          token,
35          perspective: 'drafts',
36        }
37      : {},
38  )
39}

2. Define a <LiveQueryProvider /> component

Create a new file for the provider, so it can be loaded with React.lazy and avoid increasing the bundle size in production. Ensuring code needed for live previewing drafts are only loaded when needed.

app/PreviewProvider.tsx

1import {LiveQueryProvider} from '@sanity/preview-kit'
2import {client} from '~/lib/sanity'
3
4export default function PreviewProvider({
5  children,
6  token,
7}: {
8  children: React.ReactNode
9  token: string
10}) {
11  if (!token) throw new TypeError('Missing token')
12  return (
13    <LiveQueryProvider client={client} token={token}>
14      {children}
15    </LiveQueryProvider>
16  )
17}

Only the client and token props are required. For debugging you can pass a logger={console} prop.

You can also use the useIsEnabled hook to debug wether you have a parent <LiveQueryProvider /> in your React tree or not.

3. Making a Remix route conditionally preview drafts

Here's the Remix route we'll be adding live preview of drafts, it's pretty basic:

1// app/routes/index.tsx
2import type {LoaderArgs} from '@vercel/remix'
3import {useLoaderData} from '@remix-run/react'
4
5import {client} from '~/lib/sanity'
6import type {UsersResponse} from '~/UsersList'
7import {UsersList, usersQuery} from '~/UsersList'
8import {Layout} from '~/ui'
9
10export async function loader({request}: LoaderArgs) {
11  const url = new URL(request.url)
12  const lastId = url.searchParams.get('lastId') || ''
13
14  const users = await client.fetch<UsersResponse>(usersQuery, {lastId})
15
16  return {users, lastId}
17}
18
19export default function Index() {
20  const {users, lastId} = useLoaderData<typeof loader>()
21
22  return (
23    <Layout>
24      <UsersList data={users} lastId={lastId} />
25    </Layout>
26  )
27}

Now let's import the PreviewProvider component we created in the previous step. To ensure we don't increase the production bundle size, we'll use React.lazy to code-split the component. The React.lazy API requires a React.Suspense boundary, so we'll add that too.

1import {lazy, Suspense} from 'react'
2
3const PreviewProvider = lazy(() => import('~/PreviewProvider'))

Before we can add <PreviewProvider /> to the layout we need to update the loader to include the props it needs. We'll use an environment variable called SANITY_API_PREVIEW_DRAFTS to control when to live preview drafts, and store a viewer API token in SANITY_API_READ_TOKEN.

Update the client.fetch call to use the new sanityFetch utility we created earlier, as well as the token:

1import {token, sanityFetch} from '~/lib/sanity'
2
3const previewDrafts = process.env.SANITY_API_PREVIEW_DRAFTS === 'true'
4const users = await sanityFetch<UsersResponse>({
5  previewDrafts,
6  query: usersQuery,
7  params: {lastId},
8})

Update the loader return statement from return {users, lastId} to:

1return {previewDrafts, token, users, lastId}

And add previewDrafts, and token, to useLoaderData:

1const {previewDrafts, token, users, lastId} = useLoaderData<typeof loader>()

Then make the render conditional based on wether previewDrafts is set:

1const children = <UsersList data={users} lastId={lastId} />
2
3return (
4  <Layout>
5    {previewDrafts ? (
6      <Suspense fallback={children}>
7        <PreviewProvider token={token}>{children}</PreviewProvider>
8      </Suspense>
9    ) : (
10      children
11    )}
12  </Layout>
13)

After putting everything together the route should now look like this:

1// app/routes/index.tsx
2import type {LoaderArgs} from '@vercel/remix'
3import {useLoaderData} from '@remix-run/react'
4import {lazy, Suspense} from 'react'
5
6import {token, sanityFetch} from '~/lib/sanity'
7import type {UsersResponse} from '~/UsersList'
8import {UsersList, usersQuery} from '~/UsersList'
9import {Layout} from '~/ui'
10
11const PreviewProvider = lazy(() => import('~/PreviewProvider'))
12
13export async function loader({request}: LoaderArgs) {
14  const previewDrafts = process.env.SANITY_API_PREVIEW_DRAFTS === 'true' ? {token} : undefined
15  const url = new URL(request.url)
16  const lastId = url.searchParams.get('lastId') || ''
17
18  const users = await sanityFetch<UsersResponse>({
19    previewDrafts,
20    query: usersQuery,
21    params: {lastId},
22  })
23
24  return {previewDrafts, token, users, lastId}
25}
26
27export default function Index() {
28  const {previewDrafts, token, users, lastId} = useLoaderData<typeof loader>()
29
30  const children = <UsersList data={users} lastId={lastId} />
31
32  return (
33    <Layout>
34      {previewDrafts ? (
35        <Suspense fallback={children}>
36          <PreviewProvider token={token!}>{children}</PreviewProvider>
37        </Suspense>
38      ) : (
39        children
40      )}
41    </Layout>
42  )
43}

4. Adding the useLiveQuery hook to components that need to re-render in real-time

Let's look at what the <UsersList> component looks like, before we add the hook:

1// app/UsersList.tsx
2import groq from 'groq'
3
4import {ListView, ListPagination} from '~/ui'
5
6export const usersQuery = groq`{
7  "list": *[_type == "user" && _id > $lastId] | order(_id) [0...20],
8  "total": count(*[_type == "user"]),
9}`
10
11export interface UsersResponse {
12  list: User[]
13  total: number
14}
15
16export interface UsersListProps {
17  data: UsersResponse
18  lastId: string
19}
20
21export function UsersList(props: UsersListProps) {
22  const {data, lastId} = props
23
24  return (
25    <>
26      <ListView list={data.list} />
27      <ListPagination total={data.total} lastId={lastId} />
28    </>
29  )
30}

To make this component connect to your preview provider you need to add the useLiveQuery. You don't have to refactor your components so that the hook is only called when there's a parent <LiveQueryProvider />, it's safe to call it unconditionally. If there's no <LiveQueryProvider /> it behaves as if the hook had this implementation:

1export function useLiveQuery(initialData) {
2  return [initialData, false]
3}

Thus it's fairly easy to add conditional live preview capabilities to UsersList, simply add hook to your imports:

1import {useLiveQuery} from '@sanity/preview-kit'

And replace this:

1const {data, lastId} = props

With this:

1const {data: initialData, lastId} = props
2const [data] = useLiveQuery(initialData, usersQuery, {lastId})

All together now:

1// app/UsersList.tsx
2import {useLiveQuery} from '@sanity/preview-kit'
3import groq from 'groq'
4
5import {ListView, ListPagination} from '~/ui'
6
7export const usersQuery = groq`{
8  "list": *[_type == "user" && _id > $lastId] | order(_id) [0...20],
9  "total": count(*[_type == "user"]),
10}`
11
12export interface UsersResponse {
13  list: User[]
14  total: number
15}
16
17export interface UsersListProps {
18  data: UsersResponse
19  lastId: string
20}
21
22export function UsersList(props: UsersListProps) {
23  const {data: initialData, lastId} = props
24  const [data] = useLiveQuery(initialData, usersQuery, {lastId})
25
26  return (
27    <>
28      <ListView list={data.list} />
29      <ListPagination total={data.total} lastId={lastId} />
30    </>
31  )
32}

And done! You can optionally optimize it further by adding a loading UI while it loads, or improve performance by adding a custom isEqual function to reduce React re-renders if there's a lot of data that changes but isn't user visible (SEO metadata and such).

Implementing a Loading UI with useLiveQuery

The best way to do this is to add a wrapper component that is only used in preview mode that calls the useLiveQuery hook.

1export function UsersList(props: UsersListProps) {
2  const {data, lastId} = props
3
4  return (
5    <>
6      <ListView list={data.list} />
7      <ListPagination total={data.total} lastId={lastId} />
8    </>
9  )
10}
11
12export function PreviewUsersList(props: UsersListProps) {
13  const {data: initialData, lastId} = props
14  const [data, loading] = useLiveQuery(initialData, usersQuery, {lastId})
15
16  return (
17    <>
18      <PreviewStatus loading={loading} />
19      <UsersList data={users} lastId={lastId} />
20    </>
21  )
22}

Change the layout from:

1const children = <UsersList data={users} lastId={lastId} />
2
3return (
4  <Layout>
5    {preview ? (
6      <Suspense fallback={children}>
7        <PreviewProvider token={preview.token!}>{children}</PreviewProvider>
8      </Suspense>
9    ) : (
10      children
11    )}
12  </Layout>
13)

To this:

1return (
2  <Layout>
3    {preview ? (
4      <Suspense fallback={children}>
5        <PreviewProvider token={preview.token!}>
6          <PreviewUsersList data={users} lastId={lastId} />
7        </PreviewProvider>
8      </Suspense>
9    ) : (
10      <UsersList data={users} lastId={lastId} />
11    )}
12  </Layout>
13)

Optimizing performance

Out of the box it'll only trigger a re-render of UsersList if the query response changed, using react-fast-compare under the hood. You can tweak this behavior by passing a custom isEqual function as the third argument to useLiveQuery if there's only some changes you want to trigger a re-render.

1const [data] = useLiveQuery(
2  initialData,
3  usersQuery,
4  {lastId},
5  {
6    // Only re-render in real-time if user ids and names changed, ignore all other differences
7    isEqual: (a, b) =>
8      a.list.every((aItem, index) => {
9        const bItem = b.list[index]
10        return aItem._id === bItem._id && aItem.name === bItem.name
11      }),
12  },
13)

You can also use the React.useDeferredValue hook and a React.memo wrapper to further optimize performance by letting React give other state updates higher priority than the preview updates. It prevents the rest of your app from slowing down should there be too much Studio activity for the previews to keep up with:

1import {memo, useDeferredValue} from 'react'
2
3export function PreviewUsersList(props: UsersListProps) {
4  const {data: initialData, lastId} = props
5  const [snapshot] = useLiveQuery(initialData, usersQuery, {lastId})
6  const data = useDeferredValue(snapshot)
7
8  return <UsersList data={data} lastId={lastId} />
9}
10
11export const UsersList = memo(function UsersList(props: UsersListProps) {
12  const {data, lastId} = props
13
14  return (
15    <>
16      <ListView list={data.list} />
17      <ListPagination total={data.total} lastId={lastId} />
18    </>
19  )
20})

Advanced usage

Using the LiveQuery wrapper component instead of the useLiveQuery hook

The main benefit of the LiveQuery wrapper, over the useLiveQuery hook, is that it implements lazy loading. Unless enabled the code for useLiveQuery isn't loaded and your application's bundlesize isn't increased in production.

1import {LiveQuery} from '@sanity/preview-kit/live-query'
2
3const UsersList = memo(function UsersList(props: UsersListProps) {
4  const {data, lastId} = props
5
6  return (
7    <>
8      <ListView list={data.list} />
9      <ListPagination total={data.total} lastId={lastId} />
10    </>
11  )
12})
13
14export default function Layout(props: LayoutProps) {
15  return (
16    <LiveQuery
17      enabled={props.preview}
18      query={usersQuery}
19      params={{lastId: props.lastId}}
20      initialData={props.data}
21    >
22      <UsersList
23        // LiveQuery will override the `data` prop with the real-time data when live previews are enabled
24        data={props.data}
25        // But other props will be passed through
26        lastId={props.lastId}
27      />
28    </LiveQuery>
29  )
30}

For React Server Components it's important to note that the children of LiveQuery must be a use client component. Otherwise it won't be able to re-render as the data prop changes. The as prop can be used to make sure the component is only used as a client component when live previews are enabled, below is an example of how this is done in the Next.js App Router, using 3 separate files:

app/users/[lastId]/UsersList.tsx:

1// This component in itself doesn't have any interactivity and can be rendered on the server, and avoid adding to the browser bundle.
2
3export default function UsersList(props: UsersListProps) {
4  const {data, lastId} = props
5
6  return (
7    <>
8      <ListView list={data.list} />
9      <ListPagination total={data.total} lastId={lastId} />
10    </>
11  )
12}

app/users/[lastId]/UsersListPreview.tsx:

1'use client'
2
3import dynamic from 'next/dynamic'
4
5// Re-exported components using next/dynamic ensures they're not bundled
6// and sent to the browser unless actually used, with draftMode().enabled.
7
8export default dynamic(() => import('./UsersList'))

app/users/[lastId]/page.tsx

1import {createClient} from '@sanity/preview-kit/client'
2import {LiveQuery} from '@sanity/preview-kit/live-query'
3import {draftMode} from 'next/headers'
4import UsersList from './UsersList'
5import UsersListPreview from './UsersListPreview'
6
7const client = createClient({
8  // standard client config
9})
10
11export default async function UsersPage(params) {
12  const {lastId} = params
13  const data = await client.fetch(
14    usersQuery,
15    {lastId},
16    {perspective: draftMode().isEnabled ? 'drafts' : 'published'},
17  )
18
19  return (
20    <LiveQuery
21      enabled={draftMode().isEnabled}
22      query={usersQuery}
23      params={{lastId}}
24      initialData={data}
25      as={UsersListPreview}
26    >
27      <UsersList
28        data={data}
29        // LiveQuery ensures that the `lastId` prop used here is applied to `UsersListPreview` as well
30        lastId={lastId}
31      />
32    </LiveQuery>
33  )
34}

What's great about this setup is that UsersList is rendering only on the server by default, but when live previews are enabled the UsersListPreview repackages it to a client component so it's able to re-render in the browser in real-time as the data changes. It's the closest thing to having your cake and eating it too.

Trouble-shooting and debugging

As the nature of live queries is that they're real-time, it can be hard to debug issues. Is nothing happening because no edits happened? Or because something isn't setup correctly? To aid in understanding what's going on, you can pass a logger prop to LiveQueryProvider:

1<LiveQueryProvider client={client} token={token} logger={console}>
2  {children}
3</LiveQueryProvider>

You'll now get detailed reports on how it's setup and what to expect in terms of how it responds to updates. For example in large datasets it may use a polling interval instead of running GROQ queries on a complete local cache of your dataset.

You can also use the useIsEnabled hook to determine of a live component (something that uses useLiveQuery) has a LiveQueryProvider in the parent tree or not:

1import {useLiveQuery, useIsEnabled} from '@sanity/preview-kit'
2
3export function PreviewUsersList(props) {
4  const [data] = useLiveQuery(props.data, query, params)
5  const isLive = useIsEnabled()
6
7  if (!isLive) {
8    throw new TypeError('UsersList is not wrapped in a LiveQueryProvider')
9  }
10
11  return <UsersList data={data} />
12}

If it's always false it's an indicator that you may need to lift your LiveQueryProvider higher up in the tree. Depending on the framework it's recommended that you put it in:

• Remix: src/app/routes/index.tsx
• Next App Router: src/app/layout.tsx
• Next Pages Router: src/pages/_app.tsx

Release new version

Run "CI & Release" workflow. Make sure to select the main branch and check "Release new version".

Semantic release will only release on configured branches, so it is safe to run release on any branch.

License

MIT-licensed. See LICENSE.