content-modeling-best-practices

SKILL.md

Structured content modeling guidance for schema design, reusability, and multi-channel delivery.

Covers core principles: treating content as data rather than pages, maintaining single sources of truth, designing for future channels, and optimizing for editor workflows

Includes decision frameworks for references versus embedded objects, separation of concerns, and content reuse patterns

Provides taxonomy and classification guidance for flat, hierarchical, and faceted approaches

Applies to Sanity and other headless CMSes, with Sanity-specific implementation notes included

Content Modeling Best Practices

Principles for designing structured content that's flexible, reusable, and maintainable. These concepts apply to any headless CMS but include Sanity-specific implementation notes.

When to Apply

Reference these guidelines when:

Starting a new project and designing the content model

Evaluating whether content should be structured or free-form

Deciding between references and embedded content

Planning for multi-channel content delivery

Refactoring existing content structures

Core Principles

Content is data, not pages — Structure content for meaning, not presentation

Single source of truth — Avoid content duplication

Future-proof — Design for channels that don't exist yet

Editor-centric — Optimize for the people creating content