How we cut build times by two-thirds by deleting our CMS
Blog post from Sentry
Sentry transformed its marketing site infrastructure from a legacy Gatsby system reliant on a headless CMS to a streamlined Astro framework, significantly enhancing build efficiency and reducing dependency issues. The previous setup, which included complicated plugins and restrictive schemas, led to prolonged build times and frequent failures due to external API dependencies. By adopting Astro and leveraging Vite for faster builds, Sentry reduced its build times from 14 minutes to under 4 minutes, saving approximately 15.8 hours daily. The migration also involved replacing the headless CMS with Markdown and AI-driven automation for content management, allowing for zero dependencies, unlimited schemas, and a developer-friendly, version-controlled workflow. The integration with Vercel for image processing and the use of custom AI tools for content updates further streamlined operations. Additionally, Sentry addressed API rate limit issues by using Vercel Blob to store form fields, drastically reducing API calls during builds. The result is a more resilient, efficient, and frustration-free deployment pipeline, offering improved web performance and a more productive environment for both developers and non-technical users involved in site updates.