Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are known for their low desorption temperatures, making them ideal for sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH), as they do not require much heat to release water. Still, their water yield is often limited by slow or inconsistent desorption, owing to inherent materials characteristics, poor sunlight or non-uniform heating through the material. To boost heating and encourage uniform desorption, photothermal materials have been added to MOF sorbents, but these often decrease other performance attributes, like water adsorption. In an Advanced Functional Materials paper, researchers adhered a ‘photothermal bridge’ — a Ni–Ni3S2 core–shell mesh — atop a MOF with inefficient desorption. The photothermal Ni3S2 shell captures sunlight and turns it into heat, whereas the thermally conductive Ni core whisks that heat evenly across the sorbent. The mesh design improves desorption rate and uniformity, with less impact on adsorption compared with other Ni–Ni3S2 architectures such as foams, foils and granules. This work underscores the importance of designing every component of a sorbent material to optimize performance.