UI Styling Skill

Comprehensive skill for creating beautiful, accessible user interfaces combining shadcn/ui components, Tailwind CSS utility styling (v3 and v4), design tokens, and canvas-based visual design systems.

Reference

• shadcn/ui: https://ui.shadcn.com/llms.txt
• Tailwind CSS: https://tailwindcss.com/docs
• Tailwind v4 migration: see references/tailwind-v4-patterns.md

Scope & Priority

• This skill is for UI implementation and styling, not standalone visual art.
• If the user requests posters, illustrations, or PNG/PDF artwork, use canvas-design instead.
• If ui-style-compliance applies, its constraints are hard requirements and take priority.

When to Use This Skill

Use when:

• Building UI with React-based frameworks (Next.js, Vite, Remix, Astro)
• Implementing accessible components (dialogs, forms, tables, navigation)
• Styling with utility-first CSS approach
• Creating responsive, mobile-first layouts
• Implementing dark mode and theme customization
• Building design systems with consistent tokens
• Generating visual designs, posters, or brand materials
• Rapid prototyping with immediate visual feedback
• Adding complex UI patterns (data tables, charts, command palettes)

Core Stack

Component Layer: shadcn/ui

• Pre-built accessible components via Radix UI primitives
• Copy-paste distribution model (components live in your codebase)
• TypeScript-first with full type safety
• Composable primitives for complex UIs
• CLI-based installation and management

Styling Layer: Tailwind CSS

• Utility-first CSS framework
• Build-time processing with zero runtime overhead
• Mobile-first responsive design
• Consistent design tokens (colors, spacing, typography)
• Automatic dead code elimination

Quick Start

Component + Styling Setup

Install shadcn/ui with Tailwind:

npx shadcn@latest init

CLI prompts for framework, TypeScript, paths, and theme preferences. This configures both shadcn/ui and Tailwind CSS.

Add components:

npx shadcn@latest add button card dialog form

Use components with utility styling:

import { Button } from "@/components/ui/button"
import { Card, CardHeader, CardTitle, CardContent } from "@/components/ui/card"

export function Dashboard() {
  return (
    <div className="container mx-auto p-6 grid gap-6 md:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3">
      <Card className="hover:shadow-lg transition-shadow">
        <CardHeader>
          <CardTitle className="text-2xl font-bold">Analytics</CardTitle>
        </CardHeader>
        <CardContent className="space-y-4">
          <p className="text-muted-foreground">View your metrics</p>
          <Button variant="default" className="w-full">
            View Details
          </Button>
        </CardContent>
      </Card>
    </div>
  )
}

Alternative: Tailwind-Only Setup

Vite projects:

npm install -D tailwindcss @tailwindcss/vite

// vite.config.ts
import tailwindcss from '@tailwindcss/vite'
export default { plugins: [tailwindcss()] }

/* src/index.css */
@import "tailwindcss";

Component Library Guide

Comprehensive component catalog with usage patterns, installation, and composition examples.

See: references/shadcn-components.md

Covers:

• Form & input components (Button, Input, Select, Checkbox, Date Picker, Form validation)
• Layout & navigation (Card, Tabs, Accordion, Navigation Menu)
• Overlays & dialogs (Dialog, Drawer, Popover, Toast, Command)
• Feedback & status (Alert, Progress, Skeleton)
• Display components (Table, Data Table, Avatar, Badge)

Theme & Customization

Theme configuration, CSS variables, dark mode implementation, and component customization.

See: references/shadcn-theming.md

Covers:

• Dark mode setup with next-themes
• CSS variable system
• Color customization and palettes
• Component variant customization
• Theme toggle implementation

Accessibility Patterns

ARIA patterns, keyboard navigation, screen reader support, and accessible component usage.

See: references/shadcn-accessibility.md

Covers:

• Radix UI accessibility features
• Keyboard navigation patterns
• Focus management
• Screen reader announcements
• Form validation accessibility

Tailwind Utilities

Core utility classes for layout, spacing, typography, colors, borders, and shadows.

See: references/tailwind-utilities.md

Covers:

• Layout utilities (Flexbox, Grid, positioning)
• Spacing system (padding, margin, gap)
• Typography (font sizes, weights, alignment, line height)
• Colors and backgrounds
• Borders and shadows
• Arbitrary values for custom styling

Responsive Design

Mobile-first breakpoints, responsive utilities, and adaptive layouts.

See: references/tailwind-responsive.md

Covers:

• Mobile-first approach
• Breakpoint system (sm, md, lg, xl, 2xl)
• Responsive utility patterns
• Container queries
• Max-width queries
• Custom breakpoints

Tailwind Customization

Config file structure, custom utilities, plugins, and theme extensions.

See: references/tailwind-customization.md

Covers:

• @theme directive for custom tokens

• Custom colors and fonts

• Spacing and breakpoint extensions

• Custom utility creation

• Custom variants

• Layer organization (@layer base, components, utilities)

• Apply directive for component extraction

• Visual communication over text

• Systematic patterns and composition

• Color, form, and spatial design

• Minimal text integration

• Museum-quality execution

• Multi-page design systems

Utility Scripts

Python automation for component installation and configuration generation.

shadcn_add.py

Add shadcn/ui components with dependency handling:

python scripts/shadcn_add.py button card dialog

tailwind_config_gen.py

Generate tailwind.config.js with custom theme:

python scripts/tailwind_config_gen.py --colors brand:blue --fonts display:Inter

Best Practices

1. Component Composition: Build complex UIs from simple, composable primitives
2. Utility-First Styling: Use Tailwind classes directly; extract components only for true repetition
3. Mobile-First Responsive: Start with mobile styles, layer responsive variants
4. Accessibility-First: Leverage Radix UI primitives, add focus states, use semantic HTML
5. Design Tokens: Use consistent spacing scale, color palettes, typography system
6. Dark Mode Consistency: Apply dark variants to all themed elements
7. Performance: Leverage automatic CSS purging, avoid dynamic class names
8. TypeScript: Use full type safety for better DX
9. Visual Hierarchy: Let composition guide attention, use spacing and color intentionally
10. Expert Craftsmanship: Every detail matters - treat UI as a craft

Reference Navigation

Component Library

• references/shadcn-components.md - Complete component catalog
• references/shadcn-theming.md - Theming and customization
• references/shadcn-accessibility.md - Accessibility patterns

Styling System

• references/tailwind-utilities.md - Core utility classes
• references/tailwind-responsive.md - Responsive design
• references/tailwind-customization.md - Configuration and extensions

Visual Design

• references/canvas-design-system.md - Design philosophy and canvas workflows

Automation

• scripts/shadcn_add.py - Component installation
• scripts/tailwind_config_gen.py - Config generation

Common Patterns

Form with validation:

import { useForm } from "react-hook-form"
import { zodResolver } from "@hookform/resolvers/zod"
import * as z from "zod"
import { Form, FormField, FormItem, FormLabel, FormControl, FormMessage } from "@/components/ui/form"
import { Input } from "@/components/ui/input"
import { Button } from "@/components/ui/button"

const schema = z.object({
  email: z.string().email(),
  password: z.string().min(8)
})

export function LoginForm() {
  const form = useForm({
    resolver: zodResolver(schema),
    defaultValues: { email: "", password: "" }
  })

  return (
    <Form {...form}>
      <form onSubmit={form.handleSubmit(console.log)} className="space-y-6">
        <FormField control={form.control} name="email" render={({ field }) => (
          <FormItem>
            <FormLabel>Email</FormLabel>
            <FormControl>
              <Input type="email" {...field} />
            </FormControl>
            <FormMessage />
          </FormItem>
        )} />
        <Button type="submit" className="w-full">Sign In</Button>
      </form>
    </Form>
  )
}

Responsive layout with dark mode:

<div className="min-h-screen bg-white dark:bg-gray-900">
  <div className="container mx-auto px-4 py-8">
    <div className="grid grid-cols-1 md:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3 gap-6">
      <Card className="bg-white dark:bg-gray-800 border-gray-200 dark:border-gray-700">
        <CardContent className="p-6">
          <h3 className="text-xl font-semibold text-gray-900 dark:text-white">
            Content
          </h3>
        </CardContent>
      </Card>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Tailwind v4 Quick Reference

For detailed v4 patterns (CSS-first @theme, OKLCH colors, @custom-variant dark mode, @utility, @starting-style animations, React 19 ref patterns), see references/tailwind-v4-patterns.md.

v3 Pattern	v4 Pattern
tailwind.config.ts	@theme in CSS
@tailwind base/components/utilities	@import "tailwindcss"
darkMode: "class"	@custom-variant dark (&:where(.dark, .dark *))
theme.extend.colors	@theme { --color-*: value }
require("tailwindcss-animate")	CSS @keyframes in @theme

v3 → v4 Migration Checklist

• Replace tailwind.config.ts with CSS @theme block
• Change @tailwind base/components/utilities to @import "tailwindcss"
• Move color definitions to @theme { --color-*: value }
• Replace darkMode: "class" with @custom-variant dark
• Move @keyframes inside @theme blocks
• Replace require("tailwindcss-animate") with native CSS animations
• Update h-10 w-10 to size-10
• Remove forwardRef (React 19 passes ref as prop)
• Consider OKLCH colors for better perception
• Replace custom plugins with @utility directives

Resources

• shadcn/ui Docs: https://ui.shadcn.com
• Tailwind CSS Docs: https://tailwindcss.com
• Radix UI: https://radix-ui.com
• Tailwind UI: https://tailwindui.com
• Headless UI: https://headlessui.com
• v0 (AI UI Generator): https://v0.dev
• CVA: https://cva.style/docs