Gatsby + Agility CMS is a boilerplate starter that pairs the Gatsby V3 static site generator with the Agility CMS headless content management system to build an editor-managed blog website.
What is Gatsby + Agility CMS?
This starter repository creates a GatsbyJS site that pulls pages and blog content from Agility CMS using the official Gatsby source plugin. It takes Agility CMS content types, pages, and media as input and produces a static Gatsby site as output, running on Gatsby V3 and React. The project is maintained by Agility CMS, released under the MIT license, and designed to be used with Agility CMS's free Blog Template.
Key Features
- Gatsby V3 — Built on Gatsby's latest core framework, which introduces improvements to developer and user experience.
- AgilityImage — A custom image component that wraps the Gatsby Image Plugin and automatically handles responsive, optimized images stored in Agility CMS.
- Incremental source plugin — The official Agility CMS Gatsby Source Plugin refreshes only content that changed since the last build, keeping builds fast even with many pages.
- Editor-friendly Page Management — Agility CMS includes built-in page management so editors can compose pages from developer-built components without touching code.
- Blog Template integration — The starter is meant to be used with Agility CMS's Blog Template, giving you a sample blog structure out of the box.
- One-click deployments — Deploy buttons for Vercel and Netlify that prompt for your Agility CMS API credentials, plus a Gatsby Cloud preview site.
- Prettier code style — The repository is formatted with Prettier and uses a standard branching and pull-request contribution workflow.
Who is it for?
- Gatsby developers — who want a pre-configured blog starter with a production headless CMS instead of building the integration themselves.
- Content editors — who need a CMS where they can manage sitemaps and page composition through Agility CMS's Page Management.
- Agencies — building Gatsby websites for clients that require a balance of developer experience, user experience, and editor experience.
- JAMstack evaluators — who want a working example of Agility CMS connected to Gatsby V3 before committing to a CMS.
What can you do with it?
- Developers: clone the repo, run
npm install, add your Agility CMS API keys to.env.development, and launch a local development server withnpm start. - Site owners: deploy to Netlify or Vercel using the one-click buttons, entering your
AGILITY_GUIDandAGILITY_API_KEYenvironment variables. - Content editors: create and arrange pages in Agility CMS, and those changes appear on the Gatsby site through the source plugin.
How does it work?
First, sign up for a free Agility CMS account with the Blog Template and take note of your GUID and Live/Preview API keys. Then clone the repository, install dependencies, and copy the example environment files to .env.development and .env.production, filling in your credentials. Once configured, run npm start for local development or build a production version with npm run build and test it with npm run serve.
Pricing
The starter repository itself is free and open source under the MIT license. The page instructs users to sign up for a free Agility CMS account using the Blog Template; no paid tier details are listed on this page.
FAQ
Is the Gatsby + Agility CMS starter free?
Yes, the repository is released under the MIT license. To use it with Agility CMS, you need an Agility CMS account — the README directs you to sign up for a free account using the Blog Template.
Do I need an Agility CMS account to run this starter?
Yes. The starter reads content from Agility CMS, so you must sign up for an account and retrieve your GUID, Live API Key, and Preview API Key from the Agility CMS dashboard before you can run the site.
How do I deploy the starter?
The README includes one-click deployment buttons for Vercel and Netlify. Both prompt you to enter your AGILITY_GUID, AGILITY_API_KEY, and AGILITY_API_ISPREVIEW environment variables. There is also a Gatsby Cloud preview site and an Azure Static Web Apps CI/CD workflow.
What Gatsby version does this starter use?
The starter is built on Gatsby V3, the latest core framework release at the time of writing, as stated in the README's feature list.
