Headless CMS without the headache

A headless CMS separates content from presentation. That separation is powerful: the same content can feed a website, an app and a digital signage screen. But many headless projects stumble because they are designed for developers first and editors second.

Model content, not pages

The most common mistake is modelling content around the current design. A "homepage hero" field works until marketing wants a second hero, or the same message on a landing page. Instead, we model reusable blocks with clear names and sensible defaults, then let editors compose pages from them.

Make preview a first-class feature

Editors need to see what they are building. With visual editing, an editor can click any heading on the live preview and jump straight to the right field. It turns the CMS from a form into a canvas.

Guard rails, not gates

Good validation explains itself. Instead of a red "Required", we write descriptions like "Shown on cards and in search results. Keep it under 200 characters." Editors make better decisions when they understand why a rule exists.

• Use field groups to keep long documents manageable
• Provide previews for every block so the page structure is scannable
• Default to the most common option so editors only change what matters

This very website runs on that approach: a Nuxt front end, a Sanity Studio, and a page builder that editors can use without a developer on call.