Gatsby Starter Paperbase is a Gatsby starter that implements Material UI's Paperbase Premium Theme, giving you a ready-made foundation for dashboards and administration tools.
What is Gatsby Starter Paperbase?
Gatsby Starter Paperbase is a boilerplate for building dashboard and admin interfaces using the Gatsby static site generator and Material UI's Paperbase Premium Theme. It takes the Paperbase layout—which includes navigation and content areas—and bundles it into a Gatsby project you can clone and run. The starter is maintained and published on GitHub under the repository willcode4food/gatsby-starter-paperbase. Running it produces a static React site served at localhost:8000 in development, exactly as you'd expect from a Gatsby project.
Key Features
- Gatsby-based static site: The template runs on Gatsby, so you get static site generation, a React frontend, and the Gatsby plugin ecosystem.
- Material UI Paperbase Premium Theme: The starter implements Paperbase, a premium theme from Material UI, giving dashboards a consistent Material Design look without extra styling work.
- One-command scaffold: Use
gatsby new my-admin-tool-starter https://github.com/willcode4food/gatsby-starter-paperbaseto create a new project from the template. - Hot reload development: Running
gatsby developspins up a dev server at http://localhost:8000 and updates the browser in real time when you save changes. - Integrated GraphiQL explorer: While developing, you can open http://localhost:8000/___graphql to experiment with Gatsby's query language against your site's data.
- Editable dashboard page: The main dashboard is in
src/pages/index.js, a single file you can modify to change the layout and content.
Who is it for?
- Frontend developers who build administration interfaces and want a Material UI–based dashboard without starting from scratch.
- Gatsby users looking for a project that demonstrates combining Gatsby with Material UI and a multi-file layout.
- Product teams that need an internal tool for managing data and prefer the Gatsby static-site workflow with GraphQL.
What can you do with Gatsby Starter Paperbase?
- Admin tool builders: scaffold a new dashboard project in one command, then replace the placeholder content in
src/pages/index.jswith your own charts, tables, and forms. - Gatsby experimenters: explore how Gatsby's file-based routing and GraphQL layer work in a hands-on starter, with GraphiQL available at the built-in query endpoint.
- Material UI adopters: see how Material UI components are composed into a full dashboard layout, using the Paperbase theme as a reference.
How does it work?
Start by running gatsby new my-admin-tool-starter https://github.com/willcode4food/gatsby-starter-paperbase in a terminal. Then cd my-admin-tool-starter and run gatsby develop to start the site at localhost:8000. Edit src/pages/index.js and save; the browser will hot-reload. Use the GraphiQL tool at localhost:8000/___graphql to test data queries.
FAQ
Is this starter free?
Yes, it's a public GitHub repository. No pricing information is mentioned on the page.
How do I create a site with this starter?
Use the Gatsby CLI: gatsby new my-admin-tool-starter https://github.com/willcode4food/gatsby-starter-paperbase.
What is GraphiQL in Gatsby?
GraphiQL is an in-browser IDE for GraphQL queries. Gatsby provides it at http://localhost:8000/___graphql during development so you can explore the data layer.
How many stars does the repository have?
The repository already has 42 stars, indicating it's a small but recognized starter.
