shadcn-guide

Installation
SKILL.md

shadcn/ui Guide

Purpose

shadcn/ui is not a component library — it's a system to build your own component library. Components are copied into your project as open source code you fully own and control. Two primitive variants are available: Base UI (by MUI) and Radix UI (default).

Core Principles: Open Code, Composition, Distribution (schema + CLI), Beautiful Defaults, AI-Ready.

Upstream updates: shadcn/ui follows a headless component architecture. The core receives fixes by updating dependencies (e.g. radix-ui, input-otp). The topmost layer (closest to your design system) stays open for modification and is not coupled with the library implementation.

Do NOT use this guide for Chakra UI, Material UI (MUI), Ant Design, or vanilla Tailwind CSS without shadcn/ui context — those have different installation, theming, and component APIs.

Quick Start

# Initialize a new project (or add to existing)
npx shadcn@latest init
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8
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17
First Seen
Feb 24, 2026