Clay - Gatsby Theme

Clay is a free, open-source Gatsby v5+ theme built for image-first publishing sites, giving photographers, portfolio owners, and bloggers a fast, responsive foundation with Netlify CMS pre-configured. The theme is maintained on GitHub by lilxyzz, inspired by the Gatsby London starter, and ships with PWA, SEO, and Lighthouse performance baked in.

What is Clay?

Clay is a Gatsby theme that takes a Gatsby project and produces a fully responsive static website centered on large imagery. It's designed for publishers, portfolios, and photographer blogs, and it includes a pre-configured Netlify/Decap CMS for content editing and a Netlify contact form that works without custom backend code. The theme runs on Gatsby v5+ and is available as a public GitHub repository with a live demo hosted on Netlify.

Key Features

• Gatsby v5+ — Uses the latest Gatsby static site generator, with a built-in GraphiQL explorer available at http://localhost:8000/___graphql during development.
• PWA support — The output site is installable and works offline, meeting progressive web app standards out of the box.
• Netlify/Decap CMS pre-configured — Content management is ready to use, with Netlify settings predefined in the repo for smooth deploys.
• PurgeCSS optimization — Unused CSS is stripped from the production bundle, reducing overall page weight.
• Netlify contact form support — A functional contact form is wired directly to Netlify's form handling, so no extra server is required.
• SEO optimized — The theme includes built-in metadata and structured data to help search engines index and rank pages.
• 90+ Lighthouse score — The theme is tuned to pass performance, accessibility, and best-practice audits.
• Light & Dark mode (coming soon) — The feature is on the roadmap but not yet implemented in the current release.

Who is it for?

• Photographers — showcase image galleries and portfolios with a layout that puts photos first and supports PWA install.
• Publishers and bloggers — publish articles using the pre-configured Netlify CMS admin interface without editing code.
• Portfolio owners — present visual work with a fast, responsive site that scores well on Lighthouse.
• Gatsby developers — use the theme as a starter base, clone the repository, customize it, and deploy with one click to Netlify.

What can you do with Clay?

• Photographers: launch an image-centric portfolio site with responsive galleries and offline support via PWA.
• Publishers: manage and publish content through Netlify/Decap CMS, which is pre-wired into the theme.
• Static site developers: start from the repo, run yarn and gatsby develop, and iterate with hot reloading at http://localhost:8000.

How does Clay work?

The theme is distributed as a GitHub repository. You clone it, install dependencies with yarn, then run gatsby develop for local development. For production, you can deploy directly to Netlify via the one-click deploy button that connects the repository to Netlify's pipeline, using the predefined settings included in the project.

Pricing

Clay is completely free and open source. No purchase or license is required, and the maintainers only ask for a star rating on GitHub as a way to show support.

Alternatives

• Gatsby London — the minimal Gatsby starter that inspired Clay's design, a lighter option for text-focused blogs.

FAQ

Is Clay free?

Yes, Clay is completely free and open source. The GitHub repository says so explicitly, and the maintainer asks for a 5-star rating as support rather than payment.

What Gatsby version does Clay require?

Clay is built on Gatsby v5 or higher. The repository lists Gatsby v5+ as a feature requirement.

Does Clay support dark mode?

Not yet. Light and dark mode are listed as a "coming soon" feature, so the current release includes only the default light appearance.

What CMS does Clay include?

Clay comes pre-configured with Netlify/Decap CMS, so you can edit site content through a Git-backed CMS interface. It also supports Netlify's contact form handling without custom backend code.

Can I deploy Clay to Netlify?

Yes. The repository includes Netlify settings and a one-click deploy button that connects the repo directly to Netlify for continuous deployment.