@derneuere/visual-react

A React-based visual CMS engine. You register your own React components in a registry, and visual-react turns them into editable pages: content is a serializable Instance tree (component name + props + nested children), edited through an iframe canvas (true-WYSIWYG: your app renders the page inside an iframe while the surrounding editor stays in full control) — either with the bundled Mantine editor or with your own chrome built on the headless hooks. Pages load and save through pluggable storage adapters (REST, GitHub, or your own).

Building blocks

• Instance tree — pages are plain JSON: { instanceId, component, props } with children nested in props. Pure tree utils (moveInstance, computeDropPosition, page tree helpers) are exported and unit-tested.
• Component registry — register any React component with metadata and editable props; the engine never imports your components itself.
• Editor state — EditorProvider / useEditor (selection, editing mode, keyboard shortcuts), headless and UI-free.
• Storage adapters — FetchStorageAdapter (REST), GitHubStorageAdapter (commits pages to a repo), content migration helpers, or bring your own.
• Bundled editor — /editor: canvas-only Mantine editor (since 0.4.0) — palette + layer tree, component picker, property panel, undo/redo, dnd-kit drags onto the iframe canvas, and Edit | Desktop | Mobile device previews on one never-remounting iframe. Pass your canvas route as canvasSrc; chrome strings are localizable via the labels prop.
• Iframe canvas — /canvas: typed same-origin bridge, overlay-drawn selection/hover/drop indicators, device presets with scale-to-fit, and optional dnd-kit glue (/canvas/dnd). See docs/canvas.md.
• Headless editor hooks — build your own editor UI: useEditorDnd (/editor/dnd) for the full drag-and-drop orchestration, useInstanceFields for a typed property panel, useInstancePath (breadcrumbs), useEditorHistory (undo/redo), and the createPageRoot/unwrapPageRoot page wrapper. See docs/headless-editor.md.

Repository layout

• / (repo root) — the @derneuere/visual-react npm package (source in src/, library build via Vite)
• examples/demo — a full TanStack Start example app: the canvas-only editor (/editor with its /canvas-frame iframe route), file-based page storage, static export scripts, and the Playwright e2e suite
• examples/backend — an optional Python example backend (server-side page storage API)

Installation

npm install @derneuere/visual-react

react and react-dom v19 are the only required peers. The editor entry needs additional optional peers (see the matrix below).

Entry points

The package is split so the headless core stays dependency-free:

Import	Contents	Extra dependencies needed
@derneuere/visual-react	Headless core: component registry, editor state (EditorProvider, useEditor, keyboard shortcuts), undo/redo (useEditorHistory), headless property panel (useInstanceFields), breadcrumbs (useInstancePath), page-root wrapper (createPageRoot/unwrapPageRoot), storage adapters + migration, auth, static mode, templates, tree/page utils (moveInstance, computeDropPosition, …), ComponentLoader, ContentTag, WrapInstanceProvider	none — only react/react-dom
@derneuere/visual-react/editor	The bundled canvas-only editor: Editor (requires canvasSrc), chrome building blocks (sidebars, layer tree, palette, picker modal, property panel), the static render pieces ComponentRenderer / Block, Draggable, RichTextEditor	the optional peers below
@derneuere/visual-react/editor/dnd	Headless dnd orchestration for custom editors (useEditorDnd, usePaletteDraggable, useTreeDroppable) — see docs/headless-editor.md	@dnd-kit/core, @dnd-kit/sortable
@derneuere/visual-react/editor.css	Stylesheet for the editor entry (import it once alongside /editor)	—
@derneuere/visual-react/canvas	Iframe canvas: CanvasBridge (iframe side), CanvasHost (parent side), the typed bridge protocol, CANVAS_DEVICE_PRESETS — see docs/canvas.md	none — only react/react-dom
@derneuere/visual-react/canvas/dnd	dnd-kit glue for the canvas (useCanvasDnd): palette drags onto the iframe via virtual droppables	@dnd-kit/core

Peer dependency matrix

Peer	Required?	Needed by
react, react-dom (v19)	required	everything
@mantine/core, @mantine/hooks, @mantine/tiptap	optional	/editor
@tabler/icons-react	optional	/editor
@tiptap/react, @tiptap/starter-kit, @tiptap/extension-link, @tiptap/pm	optional	/editor (rich text)
@dnd-kit/core, @dnd-kit/sortable, @dnd-kit/utilities	optional	/editor; @dnd-kit/core + @dnd-kit/sortable for /editor/dnd; @dnd-kit/core for /canvas/dnd
@tanstack/react-query	optional	/editor
react-error-boundary	optional	/editor

The editor entry also imports @mantine/core/styles.css itself, so /editor is bundler-only (Vite, webpack, …).

Quickstart

Headless core (.)

Rendering and state without any editor UI — e.g. for the public, read-only side of your site:

import {
  ComponentRegistryProvider,
  EditorProvider,
  StorageAdapterProvider,
  FetchStorageAdapter,
  useComponentRegistry,
} from "@derneuere/visual-react";

function App({ children }) {
  return (
    <ComponentRegistryProvider>
      <EditorProvider>
        <StorageAdapterProvider adapter={new FetchStorageAdapter()}>
          {children}
        </StorageAdapterProvider>
      </EditorProvider>
    </ComponentRegistryProvider>
  );
}

Bundled editor (./editor)

The editor is canvas-only (since 0.4.0): it edits the page through an iframe canvas. Create a bare canvas route in your app and pass its URL:

// /canvas-frame — the canvas route, rendered inside the iframe
import { useComponentRegistry, StaticModeProvider } from "@derneuere/visual-react";
import { CanvasBridge } from "@derneuere/visual-react/canvas";
import { ComponentRenderer } from "@derneuere/visual-react/editor";

function CanvasFrame() {
  const { hasChildren, getComponentProps } = useComponentRegistry();
  return (
    <CanvasBridge
      isContainer={hasChildren}
      getInstanceLabel={(i) => getComponentProps(i.id)?.name ?? i.id}
      renderPage={({ content }) => (
        <StaticModeProvider>
          <main>
            <ComponentRenderer items={content} />
          </main>
        </StaticModeProvider>
      )}
    />
  );
}

// editor route — inside the provider stack above:
import { Editor } from "@derneuere/visual-react/editor";
import "@derneuere/visual-react/editor.css";

<Editor canvasSrc="/canvas-frame" />
// localize the chrome: <Editor canvasSrc="…" labels={{ publish: "Veröffentlichen" }} />

Iframe canvas (./canvas)

The canvas splits editing across two routes of your app: a bare iframe route that renders the page with CanvasBridge, and the editor route that embeds it with CanvasHost:

// /canvas-frame — rendered inside the iframe
import { CanvasBridge } from "@derneuere/visual-react/canvas";

<CanvasBridge
  renderPage={({ content }) => <PageRenderer content={content} />}
  isContainer={(instance) => hasChildSlots(instance)}
/>

// editor route — the parent
import { CanvasHost, CANVAS_DEVICE_PRESETS } from "@derneuere/visual-react/canvas";

<CanvasHost
  src="/canvas-frame"
  content={tree}
  selectedInstanceId={selectedId}
  editing
  onSelectInstance={setSelectedId}
/>

Full walkthrough (including drag-and-drop from a palette via /canvas/dnd): docs/canvas.md. Working example: examples/demo routes /editor and /canvas-frame.

Examples

• examples/demo — complete TanStack Start integration: component registration via ComponentLoader, file-based page storage API routes, the canvas-only editor, static export, Playwright e2e tests.
• examples/backend — Python (nanodjango) backend showing server-side page storage + auth behind FetchStorageAdapter.

Development

npm install        # runs "prepare" = full library build (vite + tsc types)
npm test           # vitest unit tests
npm run build      # ESM bundles per entry (dist/)
npm run build:types

Node 22+ recommended. The Playwright e2e suite lives in examples/demo:

cd examples/demo && npm install && npx playwright test

Because the demo consumes the package via file:../.., its Vite config dedupes react/@mantine/*/@dnd-kit/* across the link boundary — keep that pattern if you consume the package as a file: or git dependency.

Releases

Current version: 0.4.0.

To cut a release:

1. Bump version in package.json and update CHANGELOG.md.
2. Either publish locally:

   npm run build && npm run build:types
   npm publish --access public

3. Or via CI: set the NPM_TOKEN repository secret once, then push a v* tag (e.g. v0.2.1) — .github/workflows/release.yml builds and publishes automatically.

License

MIT © 2026 derneuere