@portabletext/react

Render Portable Text with React.

Migrating from @sanity/block-content-to-react? Refer to the migration docs.

Table of contents

• Installation
• Basic usage
• Styling
• Customizing components
• Available components
  • types
  • marks
  • block
  • list
  • listItem
  • hardBreak
  • unknown components
• Disable warnings / Handling unknown types
• Rendering Plain Text
• Sanity TypeGen Compatibility
  • A re-usable CustomPortableText component
  • Choosing what to feed InferValue<T>
  • InferComponents vs InferStrictComponents
• Manually Typing Portable Text

Installation

npm install --save @portabletext/react

Basic usage

import {PortableText} from '@portabletext/react'

<PortableText
  value={[/* array of portable text blocks */]}
  components={/* optional object of custom components to use */}
/>

Styling the output

The rendered HTML does not have any styling applied, so you will either render a parent container with a class name you can target in your CSS, or pass custom components if you want to control the direct markup and CSS of each element.

Customizing components

Default components are provided for all standard features of the Portable Text spec, with logical HTML defaults. You can pass an object of components to use, both to override the defaults and to provide components for your custom content types.

Provided components will be merged with the defaults. In other words, you only need to provide the things you want to override.

Note: Make sure the object does not change on every render - eg do not create the object within a React component, or if you do, use useMemo to ensure referential identity between renders for better performance.

const myPortableTextComponents = {
  types: {
    image: ({value}) => <img src={value.imageUrl} />,
    callToAction: ({value, isInline}) =>
      isInline ? (
        <a href={value.url}>{value.text}</a>
      ) : (
        <div className="callToAction">{value.text}</div>
      ),
  },

  marks: {
    link: ({children, value}) => {
      const rel = !value.href.startsWith('/') ? 'noreferrer noopener' : undefined
      return (
        <a href={value.href} rel={rel}>
          {children}
        </a>
      )
    },
  },
}

const YourComponent = (props) => {
  return <PortableText value={props.value} components={myPortableTextComponents} />
}

Available components

These are the overridable/implementable keys:

types

An object of React components that renders different types of objects that might appear both as part of the input array, or as inline objects within text blocks - eg alongside text spans.

Use the isInline property to check whether or not this is an inline object or a block.

The object has the shape {typeName: ReactComponent}, where typeName is the value set in individual _type attributes.

Example of rendering a custom image object:

import {PortableText} from '@portabletext/react'
import urlBuilder from '@sanity/image-url'
import {getImageDimensions} from '@sanity/asset-utils'

// Barebones lazy-loaded image component
const SampleImageComponent = ({value, isInline}) => {
  const {width, height} = getImageDimensions(value)
  return (
    <img
      src={urlBuilder()
        .image(value)
        .width(isInline ? 100 : 800)
        .fit('max')
        .auto('format')
        .url()}
      alt={value.alt || ''}
      loading="lazy"
      style={{
        // Display alongside text if image appears inside a block text span
        display: isInline ? 'inline-block' : 'block',

        // Avoid jumping around with aspect-ratio CSS property
        aspectRatio: width / height,
      }}
    />
  )
}

const components = {
  types: {
    image: SampleImageComponent,
    // Any other custom types you have in your content
    // Examples: mapLocation, contactForm, code, featuredProjects, latestNews, etc.
  },
}

const YourComponent = (props) => {
  return <PortableText value={somePortableTextInput} components={components} />
}

marks

Object of React components that renders different types of marks that might appear in spans. Marks can either be simple "decorators" (eg emphasis, underline, italic) or full "annotations" which include associated data (eg links, references, descriptions).

If the mark is a decorator, the component will receive a markType prop which has the name of the decorator (eg em). If the mark is an annotation, it will receive both a markType with the associated _type property (eg link), and a value property with an object holding the data for this mark.

The component also receives a children prop that should (usually) be returned in whatever parent container component makes sense for this mark (eg <a>, <em>).

// `components` object you'll pass to PortableText w/ optional TS definition
import {PortableTextComponents} from '@portabletext/react'

const components = {
  marks: {
    // Ex. 1: custom renderer for the em / italics decorator
    em: ({children}) => <em className="text-gray-600 font-semibold">{children}</em>,

    // Ex. 2: rendering a custom `link` annotation
    link: ({value, children}) => {
      const target = (value?.href || '').startsWith('http') ? '_blank' : undefined
      return (
        <a href={value?.href} target={target} rel={target === '_blank' && 'noindex nofollow'}>
          {children}
        </a>
      )
    },
  },
} satisfies PortableTextComponents

block

An object of React components that renders portable text blocks with different style properties. The object has the shape {styleName: ReactComponent}, where styleName is the value set in individual style attributes on blocks (normal being the default).

import {PortableText, PortableTextReactComponents} from '@portabletext/react'

// `components` object you'll pass to PortableText
const components = {
  block: {
    // Ex. 1: customizing common block types
    normal: ({children}) => <p className="text-sm">{children}</p>,
    h1: ({children}) => <h1 className="text-2xl">{children}</h1>,
    blockquote: ({children}) => <blockquote className="border-l-purple-500">{children}</blockquote>,

    // Ex. 2: rendering custom styles
    customHeading: ({children}) => (
      <h2 className="text-lg text-primary text-purple-700">{children}</h2>
    ),
  },
} satisfies Partial<PortableTextReactComponents>

The block object can also be set to a single React component, which would handle block styles of any type.

list

Object of React components used to render lists of different types (bullet vs number, for instance, which by default is <ul> and <ol>, respectively).

Note that there is no actual "list" node type in the Portable Text specification, but a series of list item blocks with the same level and listItem properties will be grouped into a virtual one inside of this library.

const components = {
  list: {
    // Ex. 1: customizing common list types
    bullet: ({children}) => <ul className="mt-xl">{children}</ul>,
    number: ({children}) => <ol className="mt-lg">{children}</ol>,

    // Ex. 2: rendering custom lists
    checkmarks: ({children}) => <ol className="m-auto text-lg">{children}</ol>,
  },
}

The list property can also be set to a single React component, which would handle lists of any type.

listItem

Object of React components used to render different list item styles. The object has the shape {listItemType: ReactComponent}, where listItemType is the value set in individual listItem attributes on blocks.

const components = {
  listItem: {
    // Ex. 1: customizing common list types
    bullet: ({children}) => <li style={{listStyleType: 'disclosure-closed'}}>{children}</li>,

    // Ex. 2: rendering custom list items
    checkmarks: ({children}) => <li>✅ {children}</li>,
  },
}

The listItem property can also be set to a single React component, which would handle list items of any type.

hardBreak

Component to use for rendering "hard breaks", eg \n inside of text spans.

Will by default render a <br />. Pass false to render as-is (\n)

unknownMark

React component used when encountering a mark type there is no registered component for in the components.marks prop.

unknownType

React component used when encountering an object type there is no registered component for in the components.types prop.

unknownBlockStyle

React component used when encountering a block style there is no registered component for in the components.block prop. Only used if components.block is an object.

unknownList

React component used when encountering a list style there is no registered component for in the components.list prop. Only used if components.list is an object.

unknownListItem

React component used when encountering a list item style there is no registered component for in the components.listItem prop. Only used if components.listItem is an object.

Disabling warnings / handling unknown types

When the library encounters a block, mark, list or list item with a type that is not known (eg it has no corresponding component in the components property), it will by default print a console warning.

To disable this behavior, you can either pass false to the onMissingComponent property, or give it a custom function you want to use to report the error. For instance:

import {PortableText} from '@portabletext/react'

<PortableText
  value={[/* array of portable text blocks */]}
  onMissingComponent={false}
/>

// or, pass it a function:

<PortableText
  value={[/* array of portable text blocks */]}
  onMissingComponent={(message, options) => {
    myErrorLogger.report(message, {
      // eg `someUnknownType`
      type: options.type,

      // 'block' | 'mark' | 'blockStyle' | 'listStyle' | 'listItemStyle'
      nodeType: options.nodeType
    })
  }}
/>

Rendering Plain Text

This module also exports a function (toPlainText()) that will render one or more Portable Text blocks as plain text. This is helpful in cases where formatted text is not supported, or you need to process the raw text value.

For instance, to render an OpenGraph meta description for a page:

import {toPlainText} from '@portabletext/react'

const MetaDescription = (myPortableTextData) => {
  return <meta name="og:description" value={toPlainText(myPortableTextData)} />
}

Or to generate element IDs for headers, in order for them to be linkable:

import {PortableText, toPlainText, PortableTextComponents} from '@portabletext/react'
import slugify from 'slugify'

const LinkableHeader = ({children, value}) => {
  // `value` is the single Portable Text block of this header
  const slug = slugify(toPlainText(value))
  return <h2 id={slug}>{children}</h2>
}

const components = {
  block: {
    h2: LinkableHeader,
  },
} satisfies PortableTextComponents

Sanity TypeGen Compatibility

When you use Sanity TypeGen, @portabletext/react infers everything for you - which custom types, marks, block styles, and list styles your handlers receive, and what shape their value props have - directly from your queries. No manual generics or hand-written type unions needed.

The library exposes three utility types to make this ergonomic:

• InferValue<T> - derives a Portable Text array value type from any TypeGen query result type.
• InferComponents<T> - forgiving component map type, mirrors the inline components prop inference.
• InferStrictComponents<T> - strict component map type, requires inferred handlers and rejects unknown ones.

A re-usable CustomPortableText component

This is the recommended pattern for a single Portable Text renderer that you reuse across your app. InferValue<SanityQueries[keyof SanityQueries]> collects every Portable Text item shape returned by every registered TypeGen query into an array value type, and InferStrictComponents forces you to define a handler for each of them.

import type { SanityQueries} from '@sanity/client'
import {createImageUrlBuilder} from '@sanity/image-url'
import {
  PortableText,
  type InferStrictComponents,
  type InferValue,
} from '@portabletext/react'

const builder = createImageUrlBuilder(...)

// Array value type for every Portable Text item shape across all registered queries.
type PortableTextValue = InferValue<SanityQueries[keyof SanityQueries]>

export function CustomPortableText({value}: {value: PortableTextValue}) {
  const components = {
    types: {
      // `value` is fully typed from the inferred image variant.
      image: ({value}) => <img src={builder.image(value).url()} alt={value.alt || ''} />,
    },
    // Add `types`, `marks`, `block`, `list` etc. handlers as your schema requires.
  } satisfies InferStrictComponents<PortableTextValue>
  //   ^ TypeScript errors when the schema gains a custom type, block, mark, or list
  //     style without a matching handler defined here.

  return <PortableText components={components} value={value} />
}

You can drop this component in anywhere a TypeGen-typed Portable Text array shows up:

import {createClient} from '@sanity/client'
import {defineQuery} from 'groq'

const client = createClient(...)


export default async function Page({slug}: {slug: string}) {
  const postQuery = defineQuery(`*[_type == "post" && slug.current == $slug][0]{title,content}`)
  const data = await client.fetch(postQuery, {slug})

  if (!data) return notFound()

  return (
    <article>
      <h1>{data.title}</h1>
      {Array.isArray(data.content) && <CustomPortableText value={data.content} />}
    </article>
  )
}

Choosing what to feed InferValue<T>

InferValue<T> is meant for re-usable wrapper components that accept Portable Text via a value prop. You feed it a TypeGen-generated query result type (or union of them) so the component covers every shape it might be asked to render. It returns the array value type directly, so type PortableTextValue = InferValue<...> can be used as the value prop type without adding [] yourself.

Feed InferValue query result types, not Sanity schema types. Schema types describe how content is stored in Sanity, not how it's queried. For example, an inlineAuthor value with an author reference is stored as {_type: 'inlineAuthor', author: {_ref: string, _type: 'reference'}}, but a query that follows the reference with author-> will return {_type: 'inlineAuthor', author: {_id: string, _type: 'author', ...}}. Always type from query results.

There are three common strategies:

Preferred: every registered query

import {type SanityQueries} from '@sanity/client'

type PortableTextValue = InferValue<SanityQueries[keyof SanityQueries]>

This auto-updates as you add or remove queries, so you don't have to come back and adjust the prop type later. Requires overloadClientMethods in sanity.cli.ts#typegen (on by default).

Fallback: specific named queries

If SanityQueries[keyof SanityQueries] produces too large a union and slows down type-checking, narrow it to the specific query results that contain Portable Text fields:

import type {AuthorQueryResult, PostQueryResult} from './sanity.types'

type PortableTextValue = InferValue<AuthorQueryResult | PostQueryResult>

You'll have to keep this union in sync as you add or change queries; that trade-off is the cost of skipping the wide one.

Alternative: a scoped mock query

You can define a focused GROQ query inside CustomPortableText purely for type generation. TypeGen registers it in SanityQueries like any other, but you only feed its result type into InferValue, keeping the union tight:

import {type SanityQueries} from '@sanity/client'
import {defineQuery} from 'groq'

const mockQuery = defineQuery(`*[_type in ["author", "category", "post"]]{
  _type == "author" => {bio},
  _type == "category" => {description},
  _type == "post" => {content},
}`)

function CustomPortableText({value}: {value: InferValue<SanityQueries[typeof mockQuery]>}) {
  // ...
}

Use this when SanityQueries[keyof SanityQueries] is too slow but you don't want to maintain a hand-written union of named query results either.

Don't combine the mock query with SanityQueries[keyof SanityQueries] - the mock query gets added to SanityQueries and bloats the union you're trying to avoid. Pick one strategy or the other.

InferComponents vs InferStrictComponents

Both utilities derive component handler types from a value type. They differ in how strict they are.

InferComponents<T> - forgiving. Mirrors the same inference behavior as inlining components directly on <PortableText>:

• All handlers are optional.
• Extra handlers for types not present in T are allowed (they fall back to any).
• Best for: incremental migration, partial coverage, schemas that change often.

import {PortableText, type InferComponents} from '@portabletext/react'

const components = {
  types: {
    image: ({value}) => <img src={builder.image(value).url()} alt={value.alt || ''} />,
    // Optional: legacy types not in the current schema are allowed.
  },
} satisfies InferComponents<typeof data.content>

InferStrictComponents<T> - strict. Treats your schema as the contract:

• Custom types, marks, block styles, and list styles inferred from T are required.
• Handlers for keys that aren't inferred from T are rejected.
• Default handlers (em, strong, link, normal, h1-h6, bullet, number, etc.) remain optional - the library renders them by default.
• Best for: production-grade renderers where missing or stale handlers should fail TypeScript.

import {PortableText, type InferStrictComponents} from '@portabletext/react'

const components = {
  types: {
    image: ({value}) => <img src={builder.image(value).url()} alt={value.alt || ''} />,
    // Omit `image` and TypeScript errors.
    // Add `legacyEmbed` and TypeScript errors.
  },
} satisfies InferStrictComponents<typeof data.content>

Pick InferComponents when you want flexibility, and InferStrictComponents when you want TypeScript to scream the moment your schema and your renderer go out of sync.

Manually Typing Portable Text

If you're not using Sanity TypeGen, Portable Text data can be typed using the @portabletext/types package.

Basic usage

Use PortableTextBlock without generics for loosely typed defaults.

import {PortableTextBlock} from '@portabletext/types'

interface MySanityDocument {
  portableTextField: (PortableTextBlock | SomeBlockType)[]
}

Narrow types, marks, inline-blocks and lists

PortableTextBlock supports generics, and has the following signature:

interface PortableTextBlock<
  M extends PortableTextMarkDefinition = PortableTextMarkDefinition,
  C extends TypedObject = ArbitraryTypedObject | PortableTextSpan,
  S extends string = PortableTextBlockStyle,
  L extends string = PortableTextListItemType,
> {}

Create your own, narrowed Portable text type:

import {PortableTextBlock, PortableTextMarkDefinition, PortableTextSpan} from '@portabletext/types'

// MARKS
interface FirstMark extends PortableTextMarkDefinition {
  _type: 'firstMark'
  // ...other fields
}

interface SecondMark extends PortableTextMarkDefinition {
  _type: 'secondMark'
  // ...other fields
}

type CustomMarks = FirstMark | SecondMark

// INLINE BLOCKS

interface MyInlineBlock {
  _type: 'myInlineBlock'
  // ...other fields
}

type InlineBlocks = PortableTextSpan | MyInlineBlock

// STYLES

type TextStyles = 'normal' | 'h1' | 'myCustomStyle'

// LISTS

type ListStyles = 'bullet' | 'myCustomList'

// CUSTOM PORTABLE TEXT BLOCK

// Putting it all together by specifying generics
// all of these are valid:
// type CustomPortableTextBlock = PortableTextBlock<CustomMarks>
// type CustomPortableTextBlock = PortableTextBlock<CustomMarks, InlineBlocks>
// type CustomPortableTextBlock = PortableTextBlock<CustomMarks, InlineBlocks, TextStyles>
type CustomPortableTextBlock = PortableTextBlock<CustomMarks, InlineBlocks, TextStyles, ListStyles>

// Other BLOCKS that can appear inbetween text

interface MyCustomBlock {
  _type: 'myCustomBlock'
  // ...other fields
}

// TYPE FOR PORTABLE TEXT FIELD ITEMS
type PortableTextFieldType = CustomPortableTextBlock | MyCustomBlock

// Using it in your document type
interface MyDocumentType {
  portableTextField: PortableTextFieldType[]
}

License

MIT © Sanity.io