shadcn

shadcn/ui

A framework for building ui, components and design systems. Components are added as source code to the user's project via the CLI.

IMPORTANT: Run all CLI commands using the project's package runner: npx shadcn@latest, pnpm dlx shadcn@latest, or bunx --bun shadcn@latest — based on the project's packageManager. Examples below use npx shadcn@latest but substitute the correct runner for the project.

For a new project, use Bun by default. Existing projects retain their configured package manager.

Current Project Context

Run shadcn@latest info --json with the project's package runner and read the returned config and component list. Do not assume shell interpolation inside a skill runs on every client. Use shadcn@latest docs <component> for docs resolved to the project's base.

Principles

1. Use existing components first. Use npx shadcn@latest search to check registries before writing custom UI. Check community registries too.
2. Compose, don't reinvent. Settings page = Tabs + Card + form controls. Dashboard = Sidebar + Card + Chart + Table.
3. Use built-in variants before custom styles. variant="outline", size="sm", etc.
4. Use semantic colors. bg-primary, text-muted-foreground — never raw values like bg-blue-500.

Critical Rules

Use these as defaults for this design system; preserve explicit project requirements. Each links to a file with Incorrect/Correct code pairs.

Styling & Tailwind → styling.md

• className for layout, not styling. Never override component colors or typography.
• No space-x-* or space-y-*. Use flex with gap-*. For vertical stacks, flex flex-col gap-*.
• Use size-* when width and height are equal. size-10 not w-10 h-10.
• Use truncate shorthand. Not overflow-hidden text-ellipsis whitespace-nowrap.
• No manual dark: color overrides. Use semantic tokens (bg-background, text-muted-foreground).
• Use cn() for conditional classes. Don't write manual template literal ternaries.
• No manual z-index on overlay components. Dialog, Sheet, Popover, etc. handle their own stacking.

Forms & Inputs → forms.md

• Forms use FieldGroup + Field. Never use raw div with space-y-* or grid gap-* for form layout.
• InputGroup uses InputGroupInput/InputGroupTextarea. Never raw Input/Textarea inside InputGroup.
• Buttons inside inputs use InputGroup + InputGroupAddon.
• Option sets (2–7 choices) use ToggleGroup. Don't loop Button with manual active state.
• FieldSet + FieldLegend for grouping related checkboxes/radios. Don't use a div with a heading.
• Field validation uses data-invalid + aria-invalid. data-invalid on Field, aria-invalid on the control. For disabled: data-disabled on Field, disabled on the control.

Component Structure → composition.md

• Items always inside their Group. SelectItem → SelectGroup. DropdownMenuItem → DropdownMenuGroup. CommandItem → CommandGroup.
• Use the installed base's composition API. Radix uses asChild; Base UI uses render. For React Aria, fetch the Aria component docs rather than applying either pattern automatically. Check the base field from shadcn@latest info. → base-vs-radix.md
• Dialog, Sheet, and Drawer always need a Title. DialogTitle, SheetTitle, DrawerTitle required for accessibility. Use className="sr-only" if visually hidden.
• Use the relevant Card slots. Add header, description and footer only when their content exists.
• Button has no isPending/isLoading. Compose with Spinner + data-icon + disabled.
• TabsTrigger must be inside TabsList. Never render triggers directly in Tabs.
• Avatar always needs AvatarFallback. For when the image fails to load.

Use Components, Not Custom Markup → composition.md

• Use existing components before custom markup. Check if a component exists before writing a styled div.
• Callouts use Alert. Don't build custom styled divs.
• Empty states use Empty. Don't build custom empty state markup.
• Toast follows the project base. Use toast from the toast component for Base UI projects. Use toast() from sonner for Radix and React Aria projects.
• Use Separator instead of <hr> or <div className="border-t">.
• Use Skeleton for loading placeholders. No custom animate-pulse divs.
• Use Badge instead of custom styled spans.

Icons → icons.md

• Icons in Button use data-icon. data-icon="inline-start" or data-icon="inline-end" on the icon.
• No sizing classes on icons inside components. Components handle icon sizing via CSS. No size-4 or w-4 h-4.
• Pass icons as objects, not string keys. icon={CheckIcon}, not a string lookup.

Chat & Messaging → chat.md

• Chat UI composes the chat primitives. Conversations use MessageScroller, rows use Message, surfaces use Bubble. Never hand-rolled bubble divs or a raw scroll container.
• MessageScroller owns scroll behavior. Streaming follow, anchoring, and jump-to-latest (MessageScrollerButton) are built in. Don't write a useStickToBottom/ResizeObserver hook.
• Attachments use Attachment; system notes and dividers use Marker. Not Item cards or Separator + a label.

CLI

• Never decode preset codes or build preset URLs manually. Use npx shadcn@latest preset decode <code>, preset url <code>, or preset open <code>. For project-aware preset detection, use npx shadcn@latest preset resolve.
• Apply preset codes directly with the CLI. Use npx shadcn@latest apply <code> for existing projects, or npx shadcn@latest init --preset <code> when initializing.

Key Patterns

These are the most common patterns that differentiate correct shadcn/ui code. For edge cases, see the linked rule files above.

// Form layout: FieldGroup + Field, not div + Label.
<FieldGroup>
  <Field>

Component Selection

Key Fields

The info --json project context contains these key fields:

• aliases → use the actual alias prefix for imports (e.g. @/, ~/), never hardcode.
• isRSC → when true, components using useState, useEffect, event handlers, or browser APIs need "use client" at the top of the file. Always reference this field when advising on the directive.
• tailwindVersion → "v4" uses @theme inline blocks; "v3" uses tailwind.config.js.
• tailwindCssFile → the global CSS file where custom CSS variables are defined. Always edit this file, never create a new one.
• style → component visual treatment (e.g. nova, vega).
• base → primitive library (radix, base or aria). Affects component APIs and available props.
• iconLibrary → determines icon imports. Use lucide-react for lucide, @tabler/icons-react for tabler, etc. Never assume lucide-react.
• resolvedPaths → exact file-system destinations for components, utils, hooks, etc.
• framework → routing and file conventions (e.g. Next.js App Router vs Vite SPA).
• packageManager → use this for any non-shadcn dependency installs (e.g. pnpm add date-fns vs npm install date-fns).
• preset → resolved preset code and values for the current project. Use npx shadcn@latest preset resolve --json when you only need preset information.

See cli.md — info command for the full field reference.

Component Docs, Examples, and Usage

Run npx shadcn@latest docs <component> to get the URLs for a component's documentation, examples, and API reference. Fetch these URLs to get the actual content.

When creating, fixing, debugging, or using a component, always run npx shadcn@latest docs and fetch the URLs first. This ensures you're working with the correct API and usage patterns rather than guessing.

Workflow

1. Get project context — run shadcn@latest info --json with the project runner.
2. Check installed components first — before running add, always check the components list from project context or list the resolvedPaths.ui directory. Don't import components that haven't been added, and don't re-add ones already installed.
3. Find components — npx shadcn@latest search.
4. Get docs and examples — run npx shadcn@latest docs <component> to get URLs, then fetch them. Use npx shadcn@latest view to browse registry items you haven't installed. To preview changes to installed components, use npx shadcn@latest add --diff.
5. Install or update — npx shadcn@latest add. When updating existing components, use --dry-run and --diff to preview changes first (see Updating Components below).
6. Fix imports in third-party components — After adding components from community registries (e.g. @bundui, @magicui), check the added non-UI files for hardcoded import paths like @/components/ui/.... These won't match the project's actual aliases. Use npx shadcn@latest info to get the correct ui alias (e.g. @workspace/ui/components) and rewrite the imports accordingly. The CLI rewrites imports for its own UI files, but third-party registry components may use default paths that don't match the project.
7. Review added components — After adding a component or block from any registry, always read the added files and verify they are correct. Check for missing sub-components (e.g. SelectItem without SelectGroup), missing imports, incorrect composition, or violations of the Critical Rules. Also replace any icon imports with the project's iconLibrary from the project context (e.g. if the registry item uses lucide-react but the project uses hugeicons, swap the imports and icon names accordingly). Fix all issues before moving on.
8. Choose the registry from context — use the project's configured registry or @shadcn for standard components. Ask when competing sources materially change the requested result.
9. Switching presets — Ask the user first: overwrite, partial, merge, or skip?
   • Inspect current preset: npx shadcn@latest preset resolve. Use --json when you need structured values.
   • Inspect incoming preset: npx shadcn@latest preset decode <code>. Use preset url <code> or preset open <code> to share or open the preset builder.
   • Overwrite: npx shadcn@latest apply <code>. Overwrites detected components, fonts, and CSS variables.
   • Partial: npx shadcn@latest apply <code> --only theme,font. Updates only the selected preset parts without reinstalling UI components. Supported values are theme and font; comma-separated combinations are allowed. icon is intentionally not supported, because icon changes may require full component reinstall and transforms.
   • Merge: npx shadcn@latest init --preset <code> --force --no-reinstall, then run npx shadcn@latest info to list installed components, then for each installed component use --dry-run and --diff to smart merge it individually.
   • Skip: npx shadcn@latest init --preset <code> --force --no-reinstall. Only updates config and CSS, leaves components as-is.
   • Important: Always run preset commands inside the user's project directory. apply only works in an existing project with a components.json file. The CLI automatically preserves the current base (base, radix or aria) from components.json. If you must use a scratch/temp directory (e.g. for --dry-run comparisons), pass --base <current-base> explicitly — preset codes do not encode the base.

Design Systems from DESIGN.md

When the user asks for a design system from a DESIGN.md (or a brand spec), with or without a preset, follow design-system.md end to end:

1. init --preset <code> --template <vite|next> --name <app> --no-monorepo -y. Without a preset code, pick the closest style and pass --base base --preset <style>. Then add --all -y.
2. Read the DESIGN.md frontmatter, Do's and Don'ts, and Known Gaps before editing.
3. Map its tokens onto the shadcn variables in tailwindCssFile. Pin the radius scale, shadows, fonts and type-* utilities.
4. Restyle components by editing their cva variants. Change control heights together.
5. Build the design system page per design-system-page.md: contrast-checked color roles, type specimens, pinned state matrices, edge cases, do/don't pairs, recipes. Check coverage with scripts/showcase-coverage.mjs.
6. Verify in a browser: typecheck, no console errors, loads at the top, no horizontal overflow, dark mode.

Updating Components

When the user asks to update a component from upstream while keeping their local changes, use --dry-run and --diff to intelligently merge. NEVER fetch raw files from GitHub manually — always use the CLI.

1. Run npx shadcn@latest add <component> --dry-run to see all files that would be affected.
2. For each file, run npx shadcn@latest add <component> --diff <file> to see what changed upstream vs local.
3. Decide per file based on the diff:
   • No local changes → safe to overwrite.
   • Has local changes → read the local file, analyze the diff, and apply upstream updates while preserving local modifications.
   • User says "just update everything" → use --overwrite, but confirm first.
4. Never use --overwrite without the user's explicit approval.

Quick Reference

Named presets: nova, vega, maia, lyra, mira, luma, sera, rhea (checked 2026-10-01; see the current preset definitions). Templates: next, vite, start, react-router, astro (all support --monorepo) and laravel (not supported for monorepo) Preset codes: Version-prefixed base62 strings (e.g. a2r6bw or b0), from ui.shadcn.com.

Detailed References

• rules/forms.md — FieldGroup, Field, InputGroup, ToggleGroup, FieldSet, validation states
• rules/composition.md — Groups, overlays, Card, Tabs, Avatar, Alert, Empty, Toast, Separator, Skeleton, Badge, Button loading
• rules/chat.md — MessageScroller, Message, Bubble, Attachment, Marker; streaming, anchoring, jump-to-latest
• rules/icons.md — data-icon, icon sizing, passing icons as objects
• rules/styling.md — Semantic colors, variants, className, spacing, size, truncate, dark mode, cn(), z-index
• rules/base-vs-radix.md — asChild vs render, Select, ToggleGroup, Slider, Accordion
• cli.md — Commands, flags, presets, templates
• registry.md — Authoring source registries, include, item definitions, dependencies, GitHub registry rules
• customization.md — Theming, CSS variables, extending components
• design-system.md: DESIGN.md (with or without a preset) to a themed app: style picking, token mapping, radius, fonts, type scale, control heights, showcase traps, verification
• design-system-page.md: What goes on a design system page and how: foundations, component tiers, pinned state matrices, contrast pairs, edge cases, do/don't, recipes