Sanity MCP Server <!-- omit in toc -->

> Transform your content operations with AI-powered tools for Sanity. Create, manage, and explore your content through natural language conversations in your favorite AI-enabled editor.

Sanity MCP Server implements the Model Context Protocol to connect your Sanity projects with AI tools like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code. It enables AI models to understand your content structure and perform operations through natural language instructions.

✨ Key Features <!-- omit in toc -->

- 🤖 Content Intelligence: Let AI explore and understand your content library
- 🔄 Content Operations: Automate tasks through natural language instructions
- 📊 Schema-Aware: AI respects your content structure and validation rules
- 🚀 Release Management: Plan and organize content releases effortlessly
- 🔍 Semantic Search: Find content based on meaning, not just keywords

Table of Contents <!-- omit in toc -->

- 🔌 Quickstart
- Prerequisites
- Add configuration for the Sanity MCP server
- 🛠️ Available Tools
- ⚙️ Configuration
- 🔑 API Tokens and Permissions
- 👥 User Roles
- 📦 Node.js Environment Setup
- 🛠 Quick Setup for Node Version Manager Users
- 🤔 Why Is This Needed?
- 🔍 Troubleshooting
- 💻 Development
- Debugging

🔌 Quickstart

Prerequisites

Before you can use the MCP server, you need to:

1. Deploy your Sanity Studio with schema manifest

The MCP server needs access to your content structure to work effectively. Deploy your schema manifest using one of these approaches:

   # Option A: If you have the CLI installed globally
   npm install -g sanity
   cd /path/to/studio
   sanity schema deploy
# Option B: Update your Studio

   cd /path/to/studio

   npm update sanity

   npx sanity schema deploy

   

When running in CI environments without Sanity login, you'll need to provide an auth token:

   SANITY_AUTH_TOKEN=<token> sanity schema deploy
   

> [!NOTE]
> Schema deployment requires Sanity CLI version 3.88.1 or newer.

2. Get your API credentials
- Project ID
- Dataset name
- API token with appropriate permissions

This MCP server can be used with any application that supports the Model Context Protocol. Here are some popular examples:

- Claude Desktop
- Cursor IDE
- Visual Studio Code
- Custom MCP-compatible applications

Add configuration for the Sanity MCP server

To use the Sanity MCP server, add the following configuration to your application's MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sanity": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@sanity/mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "SANITY_PROJECT_ID": "your-project-id",
        "SANITY_DATASET": "production",
        "SANITY_API_TOKEN": "your-sanity-api-token",
        "MCP_USER_ROLE": "developer"
      }
    }
  }
}

For a complete list of all required and optional environment variables, see the Configuration section.

The exact location of this configuration will depend on your application:

| Application | Configuration Location |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| Claude Desktop | Claude Desktop configuration file |
| Cursor | Workspace or global settings |
| VS Code | Workspace or user settings (depends on extension) |
| Custom Apps | Refer to your app's MCP integration docs |

You don't get it to work? See the section on Node.js configuration.

🛠️ Available Tools

Context & Setup <!-- omit in toc -->

- get_initial_context – IMPORTANT: Must be called before using any other tools to initialize context and get usage instructions.
- get_sanity_config – Retrieves current Sanity configuration (projectId, dataset, apiVersion, etc.)

Document Operations <!-- omit in toc -->

- create_document – Create a new document with AI-generated content based on instructions
- update_document – Update an existing document with AI-generated content based on instructions
- patch_document - Apply direct patch operations to modify specific parts of a document without using AI generation
- transform_document – Transform document content while preserving formatting and structure, ideal for text replacements and style corrections
- translate_document – Translate document content to another language while preserving formatting and structure
- query_documents – Execute GROQ queries to search for and retrieve content
- document_action – Perform document actions like publishing, unpublishing, or deleting documents

Release Management <!-- omit in toc -->

- list_releases – List content releases, optionally filtered by state
- create_release – Create a new content release
- edit_release – Update metadata for an existing release
- schedule_release – Schedule a release to publish at a specific time
- release_action – Perform actions on releases (publish, archive, unarchive, unschedule, delete)

Version Management <!-- omit in toc -->

- create_version – Create a version of a document for a specific release
- discard_version – Delete a specific version document from a release
- mark_for_unpublish – Mark a document to be unpublished when a specific release is published

Dataset Management <!-- omit in toc -->

- list_datasets – List all datasets in the project
- create_dataset – Create a new dataset
- update_dataset – Modify dataset settings

Schema Information <!-- omit in toc -->

- get_schema – Get schema details, either full schema or for a specific type
- list_workspace_schemas – Get a list of all available workspace schema names

GROQ Support <!-- omit in toc -->

- get_groq_specification – Get the GROQ language specification summary

Embeddings & Semantic Search <!-- omit in toc -->

- list_embeddings_indices – List all available embeddings indices
- semantic_search – Perform semantic search on an embeddings index

Project Information <!-- omit in toc -->

- list_projects – List all Sanity projects associated with your account
- get_project_studios – Get studio applications linked to a specific project

⚙️ Configuration

The server takes the following environment variables:

| Variable | Description | Required |
| ----------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------- |
| SANITY_API_TOKEN | Your Sanity API token | ✅ |
| SANITY_PROJECT_ID | Your Sanity project ID | ✅ |
| SANITY_DATASET | The dataset to use | ✅ |
| MCP_USER_ROLE | Determines tool access level (developer or editor) | ✅ |
| SANITY_API_HOST | API host (defaults to https://api.sanity.io) | ❌ |
| MAX_TOOL_TOKEN_OUTPUT | Maximum token output for tool responses (defaults to 50000). Adjust based on your model's context limits. Higher limits may pollute the conversation context with excessive data | ❌ |

> [!WARNING] > Using AI with Production Datasets
> When configuring the MCP server with a token that has write access to a production dataset, please be aware that the AI can perform destructive actions like creating, updating, or deleting content. This is not a concern if you're using a read-only token. While we are actively developing guardrails, you should exercise caution and consider using a development/staging dataset for testing AI operations that require write access.

🔑 API Tokens and Permissions

The MCP server requires appropriate API tokens and permissions to function correctly. Here's what you need to know:

1. Generate a Robot Token:

- Go to your project's management console: Settings > API > Tokens
- Click "Add new token"
- Create a dedicated token for your MCP server usage
- Store the token securely - it's only shown once!

2. Required Permissions:

- The token needs appropriate permissions based on your usage
- For basic read operations: viewer role is sufficient
- For content management: editor or developer role recommended
- For advanced operations (like managing datasets): administrator role may be needed

3. Dataset Access:

- Public datasets: Content is readable by unauthenticated users
- Private datasets: Require proper token authentication
- Draft and versioned content: Only accessible to authenticated users with appropriate permissions

4. Security Best Practices:
- Use separate tokens for different environments (development, staging, production)
- Never commit tokens to version control
- Consider using environment variables for token management
- Regularly rotate tokens for security

👥 User Roles

The server supports two user roles:

- developer: Access to all tools
- editor: Content-focused tools without project administration

📦 Node.js Environment Setup

> Important for Node Version Manager Users: If you use nvm, mise, fnm, nvm-windows or similar tools, you'll need to follow the setup steps below to ensure MCP servers can access Node.js. This is a one-time setup that will save you troubleshooting time later. This is an ongoing issue with MCP servers.

🛠 Quick Setup for Node Version Manager Users

1. First, activate your preferred Node.js version:

   # Using nvm
   nvm use 20   # or your preferred version
# Using mise

   mise use node@20
# Using fnm

   fnm use 20

   

2. Then, create the necessary symlinks (choose your OS):

On macOS/Linux:

   sudo ln -sf "$(which node)" /usr/local/bin/node && sudo ln -sf "$(which npx)" /usr/local/bin/npx
   

> [!NOTE]
> While using sudo generally requires caution, it's safe in this context because:
>
> - We're only creating symlinks to your existing Node.js binaries
> - The target directory (/usr/local/bin) is a standard system location for user-installed programs
> - The symlinks only point to binaries you've already installed and trust
> - You can easily remove these symlinks later with sudo rm

On Windows (PowerShell as Administrator):

   New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe" -Target (Get-Command node).Source -Force
   New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path "C:\Program Files\nodejs\npx.cmd" -Target (Get-Command npx).Source -Force
   

3. Verify the setup:

   # Should show your chosen Node version

   /usr/local/bin/node --version  # macOS/Linux

   "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe" --version  # Windows

   

🤔 Why Is This Needed?

MCP servers are launched by calling node and npx binaries directly. When using Node version managers, these binaries are managed in isolated environments that aren't automatically accessible to system applications. The symlinks above create a bridge between your version manager and the system paths that MCP servers use.

🔍 Troubleshooting

If you switch Node versions often:

- Remember to update your symlinks when changing Node versions
- You can create a shell alias or script to automate this:

  # Example alias for your .bashrc or .zshrc

  alias update-node-symlinks='sudo ln -sf "$(which node)" /usr/local/bin/node && sudo ln -sf "$(which npx)" /usr/local/bin/npx'

  

To remove the symlinks later:

```bash