Gatsby Theme Catalyst

Accelerate your next Gatsby project
www.gatsbycatalyst.com

Gatsby Theme Catalyst is an an opinionated set of integrated themes and starters that can be used as a boilerplate to accelerate your next Gatsby project. There is a single "core" theme in which most dependencies and utility components are contained followed by progressively more styled and refined child themes and starters. These themes use Theme-UI and MDX.

Catalyzing Start

   # create a new Gatsby site using the basic starter
    gatsby new catalyst https://github.com/ehowey/gatsby-starter-catalyst
   # change into your new directory
    cd catalyst
   # launch the site
    gatsby develop

Example sites built with Gatsby-Theme-Catalyst:

www.erichowey.dev - Based on gatsby-starter-catalyst-blog, Github Repo
www.briannasharpe.com - Based on gatsby-starter-catalyst-hydrogen, Github Repo
www.gatsbycatalyst.com - Based on gatsby-starter-catalyst and gatsby-theme-catalyst-header-side with a custom index page.

🚀 Getting Started

https://www.gatsbycatalyst.com/docs/getting-started

📖 Docs

https://www.gatsbycatalyst.com/docs/

List of themes

Theme	Demo	Description
gatsby-theme-catalyst-core	gatsby-starter-catalyst-core	This acts as the core theme on which all other themes are based. It houses a basic site architecture and components along with most commonly needed dependencies. Think of this as the foundation of a home.
gatsby-theme-catalyst-header-top	gatsby-starter-catalyst	This adds a simple header to the core theme which includes support for anchor links and smooth scrolling out of the box. Logo on the left, nav on the right.
gatsby-theme-catalyst-header-bigtop	gatsby-starter-catalyst-helium	This adds a vertivally stacked header with logo on top, title and then nav below, designed to be customized with variants.
gatsby-theme-catalyst-header-side	gatsby-starter-catalyst-blog	This adds a sidebar style header to the core theme which includes support for anchor links and smooth scrolling out of the box. Logo is stacked on top, then title, then nav.
gatsby-theme-catalyst-footer	gatsby-starter-catalyst	This adds a very basic footer to the core theme.
gatsby-theme-catalyst-blog	gatsby-starter-catalyst-blog	This provides a basic plug-and-play blog for any Catalyst based site.
gatsby-theme-catalyst-sanity	gatsby-starter-catalyst-sanity	This is a base theme for SANITY.io integration with catalyst themes and starters.
gatsby-theme-catalyst-hydrogen	gatsby-starter-catalyst-hydrogen	This is a complete site using the Catalyst set of themes. Designed to be used by a freelance writer as their portfolio. SANITY.io is used as a CMS.
gatsby-theme-catalyst-helium	gatsby-starter-catalyst-helium	This is a personal blog starter using the Catalyst set of themes as a base. Features large images, SEO optimization, social sharing support. Content is authored in MDX and git is used as the CMS.
gatsby-theme-catalyst-lithium	gatsby-starter-catalyst-lithium	This is a structurally similar theme to `helium` but visually distinct. It is also a personal blog starter using the Catalyst set of themes as a base. Features large images, SEO optimization, social sharing support. Content is authored in MDX and git is used as the CMS.
gatsby-theme-catalyst-bery	gatsby-starter-catalyst-bery	This is a peronal blog using SANITY.io as a datasource. Features a more minimal design that highlights written content. Features RSS feed, social sharing support, sortable blog categories. This is also an example of escaping from some features of Gatsby Theme Catalyst to create a custom header component.

Philosophy

Less is more

Simple Core Theme

gatsby-theme-catalyst-core was designed and built to be as simple and unstyled as possible. A barebones starting point which can be easily maintained in the future to manage dependencies on client sites.

Child themes to extend the core theme

These child-themes are focused on extending function and remain as design-agnostic as possible. Again this makes longterm maintenance easier for client sites. It is my preference to begin new projects without too much styling that has to be undone.

Starter sites to extend and style the themes

The starter sites provide a "quick start" for site development using the themes as dependencies. Currently the starter sites only provide basic implementation of the themes. It is my vision however that in time there could be more styled and complex starters released which do not need as much customization and include more rigid styling.

Contribution

This is a passion project for me that I work on in my spare time. I would love any additional feedback, suggestions and pull requests. Contributions are welcomed and encouraged.

I can be contacted via email at: eric@erichowey.dev if you have questions.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge all of the help I have gotten in working on this project from people answering questions on the GatsbyJS issues, Chris Biscardi's blog, and the work that @4lpine and @jxnblk have done documenting Theme-UI so well.

The vision for this set of themes was heavily influenced by WP Rig and Underscores from the Wordpress world. My hope was to create a similar kind of simple boilerplate that could be used as a jumping off point for custom work.

mcaj-admin/gatsby-theme-catalyst