Gatsby Starter Honey is a baseline Gatsby v2 starter project that packages SEO, Google Analytics, PostCSS, accessibility support, and developer environment variables into a single starting point. Built by Davs Howard and hosted at github.com/davshoward/gatsby-starter-honey, it serves as a drop-in foundation for building a new Gatsby site without setting up those common integrations from scratch.
What is Gatsby Starter Honey?
Gatsby Starter Honey is a Gatsby v2 starter template that provides a preconfigured baseline for new projects. It takes as input a Gatsby CLI command and outputs a running local site at http://localhost:8000 with hot reloading, SEO tags, sitemap/robots.txt generation, social sharing metadata, Google Analytics, and PostCSS styling support. The template is based on the official Gatsby Starter Default, so it inherits that project's structure while adding its own configuration layer.
Key Features
- Gatsby v2 — Built on Gatsby version 2 and derived from the Gatsby Starter Default, giving you a familiar file structure with
src/pages/index.jsas the home page. - SEO toolkit — Includes robots.txt and sitemap generation, automated yet customisable metadata, and social sharing data out of the box.
- Google Analytics — Analytics code is integrated into the starter so you can track site traffic without adding a separate plugin manually.
- PostCSS support — Styling uses PostCSS, allowing you to write modern CSS features and use custom properties for spacing (renamed to
flowin version 1.2.0). - Developer environment variables — The starter supports environment-specific configuration via developer environment variables.
- Accessibility support — Added a focus-visible polyfill in version 1.1.0 and custom
--headingproperties to improve keyboard navigation and visual consistency. - Icon component — Version 1.1.0 introduced an Icon component for use with SVG icons, simplifying inline icon management.
- Central configuration — Site-wide settings like SEO metadata and social sharing data are managed in the root
config.jsfile rather than scattered across React components.
Who is it for?
Gatsby Starter Honey is for web developers who want a Gatsby v2 project already wired with SEO, analytics, and accessibility features. It suits freelancers and agencies that build marketing sites or blogs for clients and want to skip repetitive setup. It also helps teams that need a consistent baseline across multiple Gatsby projects, since the configuration is centralised in one file. Developers new to Gatsby can use it to see how SEO, sitemaps, and Google Analytics are typically integrated into a Gatsby site.
What can you do with Gatsby Starter Honey?
- Developers: create a new site with
gatsby new my-honey-starter https://github.com/davshoward/gatsby-starter-honey, rungatsby develop, and editsrc/pages/index.jsto see browser updates in real time. - Project owners: update the root
config.jsto change SEO metadata, sitemap settings, and social sharing data without touching React code. - Designers: use the included PostCSS setup and flow/heading custom properties to style the site while retaining the accessibility polyfill and Icon component.
How does it work?
- Run
gatsby newwith the starter's GitHub URL to create a local project. - Navigate into the folder and run
gatsby developto start the development server on port 8000. - Edit
src/pages/index.jsand save to trigger hot reload; configure global metadata in the rootconfig.js.
FAQ
How do I install Gatsby Starter Honey?
Use the Gatsby CLI with the repository URL: gatsby new my-honey-starter https://github.com/davshoward/gatsby-starter-honey. Then run cd my-honey-starter and gatsby develop to start a local server.
What Gatsby version does this starter use?
The starter is built on Gatsby v2, according to the README, and it is based on the official Gatsby Starter Default project.
Where do I configure SEO and social sharing metadata?
Open the root config.js file and update the settings there. The README explicitly says to edit and update this file for configuration changes.
Does the starter include a blog?
The README does not list a blog feature. The starter focuses on baseline site needs: SEO, Google Analytics, PostCSS, accessibility, and environment variables, but it can be extended.
Is there a demo site?
Yes, the README links to a demo at https://gatsbyhoney.davshoward.com.
