content-modeling-best-practices

# Content Modeling Best Practices Principles for designing structured content that's flexible, reusable, and maintainable. These concepts apply to any headless CMS but include Sanity-specific implementation notes. ## When to Apply Reference these guidelines when: - Starting a new project and designing the content model - Evaluating whether content should be structured or free-form - Deciding between references and embedded content - Planning for multi-channel content delivery - Refactoring existing content structures ## Core Principles 1. **Content is data, not pages** — Structure content for meaning, not presentation 2. **Single source of truth** — Avoid content duplication 3. **Future-proof** — Design for channels that don't exist yet 4. **Editor-centric** — Optimize for the people creating content ## References Start with the reference that matches the modeling decision in front of you, instead of loading every topic at once. See `references/` for detailed guidance on specific topics: - `references/separation-of-concerns.md` — Separating content from presentation - `references/reference-vs-embedding.md` — When to use references vs embedded objects - `references/content-reuse.md` — Content reuse patterns and the reuse spectrum - `references/taxonomy-classification.md` — Flat, hierarchical, and faceted classification