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Publish to NPM
Learn how to publish Astro components to NPM
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import { Steps } from '@astrojs/starlight/components'; import { FileTree } from '@astrojs/starlight/components';

Building a new Astro component? Publish it to npm!

Publishing an Astro component is a great way to reuse your existing work across your projects, and to share with the wider Astro community at large. Astro components can be published directly to and installed from NPM, just like any other JavaScript package.

Looking for inspiration? Check out some of our favorite themes and components from the Astro community. You can also search npm to see the entire public catalog.

:::tip[Don't want to go it alone?] Check out Astro Community's component template for a community-supported, out-of-the-box template! :::

Quick Start

To get started developing your component quickly, you can use a template already set up for you.

# Initialize the Astro Component template in a new directory
npm create astro@latest my-new-component-directory -- --template component
# yarn
yarn create astro my-new-component-directory --template component
# pnpm
pnpm create astro@latest my-new-component-directory -- --template component

Creating a package

:::note[Prerequisites] Before diving in, it will help to have a basic understanding of:

To create a new package, configure your development environment to use workspaces within your project. This will allow you to develop your component alongside a working copy of Astro.

- my-new-component-directory/ - demo/ - ... for testing and demonstration - package.json - packages/ - my-component/ - index.js - package.json - ... additional files used by the package

This example, named my-project, creates a project with a single package, named my-component, and a demo/ directory for testing and demonstrating the component.

This is configured in the project root’s package.json file:

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "workspaces": ["demo", "packages/*"]
}

In this example, multiple packages can be developed together from the packages directory. These packages can also be referenced from demo, where you can install a working copy of Astro.

npm create astro@latest demo -- --template minimal
# yarn
yarn create astro demo --template minimal
# pnpm
pnpm create astro@latest demo -- --template minimal

There are two initial files that will make up your individual package: package.json and index.js.

package.json

The package.json in the package directory includes all of the information related to your package, including its description, dependencies, and any other package metadata.

{
  "name": "my-component",
  "description": "Component description",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "homepage": "https://github.com/owner/project#readme",
  "type": "module",
  "exports": {
    ".": "./index.js",
    "./astro": "./MyAstroComponent.astro",
    "./react": "./MyReactComponent.jsx"
  },
  "files": ["index.js", "MyAstroComponent.astro", "MyReactComponent.jsx"],
  "keywords": ["astro", "withastro", "astro-component", "...", "..."]
}

description

A short description of your component used to help others know what it does.

{
  "description": "An Astro Element Generator"
}

type

The module format used by Node.js and Astro to interpret your index.js files.

{
  "type": "module"
}

Use "type": "module" so that your index.js can be used as an entrypoint with import and export .

homepage

The url to the project homepage.

{
  "homepage": "https://github.com/owner/project#readme"
}

This is a great way to direct users to an online demo, documentation, or homepage for your project.

exports

The entry points of a package when imported by name.

{
  "exports": {
    ".": "./index.js",
    "./astro": "./MyAstroComponent.astro",
    "./react": "./MyReactComponent.jsx"
  }
}

In this example, importing my-component would use index.js, while importing my-component/astro or my-component/react would use MyAstroComponent.astro or MyReactComponent.jsx respectively.

files

An optional optimization to exclude unnecessary files from the bundle shipped to users via npm. Note that only files listed here will be included in your package, so if you add or change files necessary for your package to work, you must update this list accordingly.

{
  "files": ["index.js", "MyAstroComponent.astro", "MyReactComponent.jsx"]
}

keywords

An array of keywords relevant to your component, used to help others find your component on npm and in any other search catalogs.

Add astro-component or withastro as a special keyword to maximize its discoverability in the Astro ecosystem.

{
  "keywords": ["astro-component", "withastro", "... etc", "... etc"]
}

:::tip Keywords are also used by our integrations library! See below for a full list of keywords we look for in NPM. :::

index.js

The main package entrypoint used whenever your package is imported.

export { default as MyAstroComponent } from './MyAstroComponent.astro';

export { default as MyReactComponent } from './MyReactComponent.jsx';

This allows you to package multiple components together into a single interface.

Example: Using Named Imports

---
import { MyAstroComponent } from 'my-component';
import { MyReactComponent } from 'my-component';
---
<MyAstroComponent />
<MyReactComponent />

Example: Using Namespace Imports

---
import * as Example from 'example-astro-component';
---
<Example.MyAstroComponent />
<Example.MyReactComponent />

Example: Using Individual Imports

---
import MyAstroComponent from 'example-astro-component/astro';
import MyReactComponent from 'example-astro-component/react';
---
<MyAstroComponent />
<MyReactComponent />

Developing your package

Astro does not have a dedicated "package mode" for development. Instead, you should use a demo project to develop and test your package inside of your project. This can be a private website only used for development, or a public demo/documentation website for your package.

If you are extracting components from an existing project, you can even continue to use that project to develop your now-extracted components.

Testing your component

Astro does not currently ship a test runner. (If you are interested in helping out with this, join us on Discord!)

In the meantime, our current recommendation for testing is:

1. Add a test `fixtures` directory to your `demo/src/pages` directory.

  1. Add a new page for every test that you'd like to run.

  2. Each page should include some different component usage that you'd like to test.

  3. Run astro build to build your fixtures, then compare the output of the dist/__fixtures__/ directory to what you expected.

    • my-project/demo/src/pages/__fixtures__/
      • test-name-01.astro
      • test-name-02.astro
      • test-name-03.astro

Publishing your component

Once you have your package ready, you can publish it to npm using the npm publish command. If that fails, make sure that you have logged in via npm login and that your package.json is correct. If it succeeds, you're done!

Notice that there was no build step for Astro packages. Any file type that Astro supports natively, such as .astro, .ts, .jsx, and .css, can be published directly without a build step.

If you need another file type that isn't natively supported by Astro, add a build step to your package. This advanced exercise is left up to you.

Integrations Library

Share your hard work by adding your integration to our integrations library!

:::tip Do you need some help building your integration, or just want to meet other integrations builders? We have a dedicated #integrations channel on our Discord server. Come say hi! :::

package.json data

The library is automatically updated weekly, pulling in every package published to NPM with the astro-component or withastro keyword.

The integrations library reads the name, description, repository, and homepage data from your package.json.

Avatars are a great way to highlight your brand in the library! Once your package is published you can file a GitHub issue with your avatar attached and we will add it to your listing.

:::tip Need to override the information our library reads from NPM? No problem! File an issue with the updated information and we'll make sure the custom name, description, or homepage is used instead. :::

Collections

In addition to the required astro-component or withastro keyword, special keywords are also used to automatically organize packages. Including any of the keywords below will add your integration to the collection in our integrations library.

collection keywords
Accessibility a11y, accessibility
Adapters astro-adapter
Analytics analytics
CSS + UI css, ui, icon, icons, renderer
Frameworks renderer
Performance + SEO performance, perf, seo, optimization

Share

We encourage you to share your work, and we really do love seeing what our talented Astronauts create. Come and share what you create with us in our Discord or mention @astrodotbuild in a Tweet!