The Gatsby Contentful TypeScript Starter is a Gatsby.js boilerplate that wires up the Contentful headless CMS and TypeScript out of the box, producing a static site you can extend with your own content models.
What is the Gatsby Contentful TypeScript Starter?
This starter, maintained by GitHub user fhavrlent, is a starting point for building static websites with Gatsby.js. As input it takes a Contentful space ID and API keys (stored in a .env file); as output it produces a fast static site with TypeScript-typed React components and a GraphQL layer that queries your Contentful content. It includes a complete Gatsby project skeleton: gatsby-config.js for plugin and site metadata, gatsby-node.js for build-time APIs, gatsby-browser.js and gatsby-ssr.js for browser and server rendering hooks.
Key Features
- Preconfigured Contentful integration — The starter includes an empty.env file you rename to .env and fill with your Contentful API variables; no extra plugin configuration is needed to fetch content.
- TypeScript support — TypeScript environments are set up via tsconfig.json and tslint.json, and the main page template is src/pages/index.tsx, so you get type checking and linting from the start.
- Gatsby CLI scaffolding — Create a new site by running
gatsby new your-project with this repository's URL, then gatsby develop launches a dev server at http://localhost:8000.
- Built-in GraphiQL explorer — While developing, a second link at http://localhost:8000/___graphql lets you experiment with GraphQL queries against your Contentful data.
- One-click deployment options — The README has deploy buttons for Netlify and Vercel that import the GitHub repository directly and build the static site automatically.
- Consistent tooling preinstalled — .nvmrc pins the Node version, .prettierrc enforces code formatting, and both package-lock.json and yarn.lock are included so you can use npm or Yarn.
- Documented file structure — The README explains every top-level file from gatsby-config.js to tslint.json, making it easy to understand and customize the starter.
Who is it for?
- Gatsby developers — who want a ready-made setup for a Contentful-backed static site without manually installing and connecting the source plugin and TypeScript tooling.
- TypeScript-first teams — who require type safety in their React components and want linting configured from day one.
- Content-driven project owners — who manage editorial content in Contentful and need a fast, static frontend that pulls that content through GraphQL.
How does it work?
First install the Gatsby CLI globally with npm install -g gatsby-cli. Then run gatsby new your-project and point it at this repository's GitHub URL. Rename empty.env to .env, enter your Contentful space ID and API keys, and run gatsby develop; the dev server runs at http://localhost:8000, and edits to src/pages/index.tsx hot reload in the browser.
What can you do with it?
- Launch a personal blog: connect a Contentful space with blog post models, generate static pages, and enjoy TypeScript safety when querying your content.
- Build a marketing site: use the starter as a foundational codebase for a company website, adding routes and components while keeping content management in Contentful.
- Create a documentation portal: structure your docs as Contentful entries and let Gatsby pre-render them into fast static HTML.
Deployment
The README provides one-click deploy buttons for Netlify and Vercel, which take you to app.netlify.com or vercel.com with this repository already linked. Both platforms will run the Gatsby build and publish the static output. The starter is MIT-licensed, as noted in the LICENSE file.
