Guide

Building Your Own Component Library

Published by Josh Briley on March 16, 2026

This guide walks through building a component library from scratch with Vite, React 19, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS 4. It covers architectural decisions, design tokens, layout primitives, interactive components, overlays and feedback, Storybook documentation, testing, and packaging for distribution.

Introduction: Build your own component library
A step-by-step guide to building an accessible, token-driven React component library from an empty directory to a deployed Storybook.
Introduction: Build your own component library
The architecture before the code
This chapter covers the decisions you need to make before you write a single line of code.
The architecture before the code
Project setup
This chapter gets you from an empty directory to a working development environment with Vite, React 19, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS 4. No components yet, just the foundation.
Project setup
Design tokens from scratch
This chapter builds the token system that every component and layout primitive will reference.
Design tokens from scratch
Your first layout primitive: Stack
The Stack is the most frequently used layout primitive you'll build.
Your first layout primitive: Stack
The rest of the layout system
You have the pattern down from the Stack chapter. This chapter applies that same pattern seven more times.
The rest of the layout system
Typography: Heading, Text, and Prose
This chapter adds three components that enforce typographic consistency through the same token system that drives the rest of the library.
Typography: Heading, Text, and Prose
Accessible components with React Aria
This chapter introduces React Aria and uses it to build three interactive components: Button, IconButton, and Input.
Accessible components with React Aria
Form components
This chapter builds Select, Checkbox, CheckboxGroup, RadioGroup, and Switch. Each one follows the React Aria hook pattern from the previous chapter.
Form components
Overlays and feedback
This chapter builds Dialog, Tooltip, Alert, Badge, Card, and Tabs
Overlays and feedback
Storybook as your documentation layer
This chapter configures Storybook 10 and establishes the story conventions that make the documentation useful.
Storybook as your documentation layer
Testing accessible components
This chapter covers the testing tools and what to test for each component type.
Testing accessible components
Packaging and distribution
Your library works in Storybook. Your tests pass. Now you need to package it so other projects can install and use it.
Packaging and distribution
What comes next
This chapter covers the next steps for scaling the system.
What comes next