Show HN: Basecoat – shadcn/UI components, no React required

hunvreus | 124 points

> Why I built it: after moving from a Next.js stack back to Flask + Tailwind + HTMX, I missed shadcn/ui and didn’t want walls of Tailwind classes (like Flowbite or Preline).

I understand that Next.js can feel bloated, especially when used as a static site generator or within a classic JAMStack setup.

Basecoatui reminds me a bit of Bootstrap during the golden era of Ruby on Rails.

I took a look at the Git repository and tried to find an automated solution to convert shadcn to plain HTML but didn't find anything suitable. Is there a script available for this, or was this done manually?

exiguus | 19 hours ago

Looks nice! Can you add a CDN option? Would be nice for a quick start to play around.

Also, reminds me of https://franken-ui.dev

replwoacause | a day ago

Very cool! Are you manually porting all components or are you using some sort of automated process?

WilcoKruijer | 19 hours ago

Awesome. Using Vue/Tailwind, I'm definitely interested in this. Maybe you could try to add examples of integrations with others frameworks? I'll play with it and give you my 2 cents.

BenderV | a day ago

This is great! I really like the style of shadcn/ui.

Recently I’ve been using ChatGPT to convert shadcn components to JinjaX. Will definitely give yours a try!

pxheller | 5 hours ago

Looks great!

One suggestion would be adding a focus trap, such as when a Dialog opens. It's nice to use the tab key to move around the Dialog (inputs and buttons). Currently focus leaves to the page behind. It might be as simple as adding https://alpinejs.dev/plugins/focus#x-trap

gsanderson | 20 hours ago

This is exactly what I was wanting to reach for, wanted my chrome extension UI to match my react website. Appreciate your work!

hamish-b | 7 hours ago

Really great! A major downside of moving from SPA's back to vanilla JS is how much you lose in terms of UI components.

I've normally done DaisyUI + Tailwind + Rails but it never feels quite right. Basecoat is a really nice step forward.

I have to imagine the author is planning to charge for a premium package at some point, but given that a huge % of development is spent on UI design, I'd be more than happy to pay for a year of updates.

czhu12 | 18 hours ago

Why did you decide going old school using Alpine.js instead of using plain vanilla web components?

o_m | 20 hours ago

Nice job! I've tried dozens of frameworks with various languages, but always return to Django+Tailwind+HTMX+Alpine.

4m1rk | 14 hours ago

There’s a huge need for this, thank you! I build server-rendered marketing sites and there’s a huge gulf between the jQuery and React era.

juddlyon | 16 hours ago

So if I understand correctly all JS is custom-written Alpine JS components.

And all CSS is custom classes that use Tailwind @apply, I'm not sure why, can someone elaborate.

diiiimaaaa | 19 hours ago

This is awesome. I did the same and have been using AlpineJS Pines UI library. Been pretty happy with it! But will take a look at this

Jonovono | 18 hours ago

Absolutely love this. Wanted to do this myself but never enough to get started. You're a legend.

diordiderot | 16 hours ago

FYI I don't think all of your styles are loading on the page. Tried safari and firefox and it doesn't look right.

jmisavage | 19 hours ago

Would you be interested in getting rid of Tailwind and have the styling strictly with SASS mixins?

rglullis | 17 hours ago

This is great! The HTMX community needs more friendly UI kits like this.

klaussilveira | 17 hours ago

Can someone eli5 how this is different from something like bootstrap?

boxed | 19 hours ago

Thank you! I was searching for this exact thing the other week.

tegdude | 19 hours ago

This looks awesome. Thanks a lot!

akka47 | 12 hours ago

This is great! Thanks for implementing this!

urbanisierung | 17 hours ago

Glad you shared this. Looks nice!

anon1094 | 16 hours ago
[deleted]
| 19 hours ago

Now you just need to remove Tailwind

pacmanche | 21 hours ago

I dig it. Love this

campak | 20 hours ago

this is awesome, thanks for creating it

jacktheturtle | 18 hours ago

This looks great. I've never used React so had never heard of shadcn, and annoyingly I've just got to the point in a side project where pulling out DaisyUI and replacing it with this might be a bit of a chore.

drcongo | 16 hours ago

>> Works with any backend

Have you fully tested it with Solaris or AIX? /s

zeroq | 19 hours ago