Kevin's Design System

Instead of continually building the same components for each project, I've created a design system that I can use across my projects.

It is intended to be minimal, extensible, and unopinionated, heavily inspired by Tailwind components.

Built with React, Tailwind CSS, Headless UI, and Storybook.

Documentation

Browse the hosted component library at components.kevindiem.com.

For GitHub-first navigation, each Storybook-backed component also has a co-located Markdown doc in the repo. Start with COMPONENTS.md.

Installation

npm install @kgdiem/components

Usage

Import the components and styles into your project.

import { Button, Input } from "@kgdiem/components";
import "@kgdiem/components/styles.css";

<Button>Click me</Button>
<Input placeholder="Enter your name" />

Theming

Semantic colors are exposed as Tailwind utilities (bg-primary, text-textMuted, etc.) backed by CSS custom properties. Override the variables and every component that uses those tokens updates automatically — no fork required.

Quick start: change primary and brand

Import the library styles, then set --components-color-* on :root:

/* src/index.css */
@import "tailwindcss";
@import "@kgdiem/components/styles.css";

@layer base {
  :root {
    --components-color-primary: rgb(100 80 200);
    --components-color-brand: rgb(67 56 202);
  }
}

Any valid CSS color works — rgb(), hex, oklch(), etc.:

:root {
  --components-color-primary: #6450c8;
  --components-color-brand: oklch(0.55 0.2 280);
}

Example: full primary palette

Buttons and inputs use the full primary scale (base, hover, active, subtle). Override the related tokens together for a coherent look:

@layer base {
  :root {
    /* base action color */
    --components-color-primary: rgb(79 70 229);
    --components-color-primaryHover: rgb(67 56 202);
    --components-color-primaryActive: rgb(55 48 163);

    /* tinted backgrounds for tertiary buttons, selected list items, etc. */
    --components-color-primarySubtle: rgb(238 242 255);
    --components-color-primaryMuted: rgb(199 210 254);

    /* focus rings on inputs, buttons, and controls */
    --components-color-focus: rgb(79 70 229);
  }
}

Example: dark app shell

Override surface and text tokens for a dark layout while keeping your brand primary:

@layer base {
  :root {
    --components-color-bg: rgb(15 23 42);
    --components-color-surface: rgb(30 41 59);
    --components-color-surfaceMuted: rgb(51 65 85);
    --components-color-text: rgb(248 250 252);
    --components-color-textMuted: rgb(148 163 184);
    --components-color-textSubtle: rgb(100 116 139);
    --components-color-border: rgb(71 85 105);
    --components-color-borderSubtle: rgb(51 65 85);

    /* keep your brand primary unchanged, or override it too */
    --components-color-primary: rgb(56 189 248);
  }
}

Example: scoped override

Set variables on a container to theme a section without affecting the rest of the app:

.marketing-preview {
  --components-color-primary: rgb(220 38 38);
  --components-color-brand: rgb(185 28 28);
}

<div className="marketing-preview">
  <Button>Uses the red palette inside this container only</Button>
</div>

Available color tokens

Each token maps to a CSS variable named --components-color-{token}:

Group	Tokens
Background & surface	bg, surface, surfaceRaised, surfaceMuted
Text	text, textMuted, textSubtle, textInverse
Border	border, borderSubtle, borderStrong
Primary	primary, primaryHover, primaryActive, primarySubtle, primaryMuted
Semantic	success, successSubtle, warning, warningSubtle, danger, dangerSubtle, info, infoSubtle
Other	focus, brand

Defaults and helpers are exported from @kgdiem/components/tokens:

import {
  COMPONENTS_COLOR_TOKENS,
  componentsColorVar,
} from "@kgdiem/components/tokens";

componentsColorVar("primary"); // "--components-color-primary"
COMPONENTS_COLOR_TOKENS.primary; // "15 118 150" (default RGB channels)

Opacity modifiers (focus:ring-focus/25, text-textInverse/80) work with overridden colors — Tailwind applies them via color-mix() against the same CSS variables.

Compile Tailwind yourself

Use @kgdiem/components/theme.css instead of styles.css when your app compiles Tailwind and you only need the token definitions:

@import "tailwindcss";
@import "@kgdiem/components/theme.css";

@layer base {
  :root {
    --components-color-primary: rgb(100 80 200);
  }
}

Build-time overrides (Tailwind preset)

If you extend Tailwind with the library preset, merge token values at build time with createComponentsPreset():

import { createComponentsPreset } from "@kgdiem/components/tailwind-config";

export default {
  presets: [
    createComponentsPreset({
      colors: {
        primary: "100 80 200",
        brand: "rgb(67 56 202)",
      },
    }),
  ],
  content: ["./src/**/*.{js,ts,jsx,tsx}"],
};

Pass RGB channels (100 80 200) or a full rgb(...) value. Omitted tokens keep the default CSS-variable-backed values, so runtime overrides still work for those tokens.