React UI with shadcn/ui + Radix + Tailwind

Building beautiful, accessible user interfaces shouldn't require reinventing the wheel every time. That's exactly what shadcn/ui solves – it's a revolutionary approach to component libraries that gives you the flexibility of custom components with the reliability of battle-tested primitives.

Unlike traditional component libraries that lock you into their design decisions, shadcn/ui takes a radically different approach. Instead of installing a package, you copy and paste components directly into your codebase. This means you own the code, you control the styling, and you can customize everything to match your exact needs.

Built on top of Radix UI's accessible primitives and styled with Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui represents the perfect balance between developer experience and design flexibility. It's quickly become the go-to choice for developers who want to ship fast without sacrificing quality.

Prerequisites

Before diving in, make sure you're comfortable with:

• React: Familiar with components, hooks, and modern React patterns
• TypeScript: Basic understanding of types and interfaces
• Tailwind CSS: Know how to work with utility classes and responsive design
• Next.js: Understanding of basic Next.js concepts (we'll be building examples)
• Node.js: Latest LTS version installed

Don't worry if you're not an expert in all of these – we'll guide you through everything step by step. The focus is on learning shadcn/ui specifically, and we'll explain relevant concepts as we encounter them.

What you'll build & learn in this course

This course is designed to take you from zero to shipping production-ready UI components. You'll understand not just how to use shadcn/ui, but why it works the way it does, how to extend it, and how to create your own component ecosystem.

Here's what we'll cover across seven comprehensive sections:

Chapter 1: Intro to Modern UI Libraries

We'll start by understanding the evolution of component libraries and why shadcn/ui represents such a significant shift in how we think about UI development. You'll learn about the core concepts that make shadcn/ui unique, understand the components.json configuration file, and see how everything fits together in the modern React ecosystem. We'll also explore the power of Radix UI primitives, where you'll learn to read primitive anatomy, understand common patterns, and appreciate the accessibility features built into every component.

Chapter 2: Getting Started with shadcn/ui

Time to get hands-on! You'll scaffold a new Next.js project, set up shadcn/ui from scratch, and add your first components. We'll dive deep into shadcn/ui's design philosophy, explore the relationship between shadcn/ui and Radix, and learn how to override styles with Tailwind. You'll also master the important skill of updating and maintaining components as your project evolves.

Chapter 3: Writing Your Own Components

Learn how to extend shadcn/ui with your own custom components. You'll discover how to write comprehensive tests for UI components, create your own component registry files, and even publish your components for others to use. You'll master use-controllable-state for state management, functional children patterns, CSS variables for dynamic functionality, Tailwind's arbitrary groups for synthetic props, and compound components for advanced composition. These skills will elevate your component architecture to a professional level.

The shadcn/ui Philosophy

What makes shadcn/ui special isn't just what it does – it's how it thinks about the problem of component libraries. Traditional libraries give you components as black boxes. shadcn/ui gives you the blueprints.

This approach means:

• You own your code: No vendor lock-in, no mysterious dependencies
• Full customization: Every part of every component can be modified
• Learn by doing: You'll understand how components work because you can see and modify the source
• Production ready: Built on proven foundations with accessibility and performance in mind

Ready to transform your UI development?

By the end of this course, you'll have the skills and confidence to build beautiful, accessible interfaces that users love and developers enjoy maintaining. You'll understand not just the "how" but the "why" behind modern component architecture.

Let's begin this journey into the future of UI development!