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

144 points hunvreus | 5 comments | 13 May 25 11:22 UTC | HN request time: 0.843s | source

Basecoat ports the upcoming shadcn/ui v4 [1] to plain HTML + Tailwind (no React):

- Live demo & documentation: https://basecoatui.com

- MIT‑licensed and free: https://github.com/hunvreus/basecoat/

- Works with any backend (Flask, Django, Rails, PHP, etc.) or static site.

- Fully theme‑compatible with shadcn/ui [2].

- Uses a sliver of Alpine.js only for a few interactive bits (e.g. combobox). Swap in your own JS if you prefer.

- Dead simple to use, just drop in a class here and there:

  <button class="btn" data-tooltip="This is a tooltip text">Click me</button>
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).

Feedback is most welcome: bugs, requests for components, criticism.

[1]: https://v4.shadcn.com/

[2]: https://basecoatui.com/installation/#install-theming

[3]: https://pagescms.org

1. boxed ◴[13 May 25 16:57 UTC] No.43975067[source]▶
Can someone eli5 how this is different from something like bootstrap?
replies(2): >>43975192 #>>43975330 #
2. wafadaar ◴[13 May 25 17:07 UTC] No.43975192[source]▶
Bootstrap is a completely different framework with a different design language (one that many may precieve as out of fashion). This library/framework allows folks to use ShadCN (a component library) similar to Bootstrap which is only available through React/Vue/Svelte, etc.. with vanilla HTML.
replies(1): >>43975273 #
3. boxed ◴[13 May 25 17:13 UTC] No.43975273[source]▶
So it's different in visual design, but the goal here is actually to make shadcn more like bootstrap? Hmm.. I think I like that.
replies(1): >>43979013 #
4. christoff12 ◴[13 May 25 17:18 UTC] No.43975330[source]▶
crayons vs colored pencils
5. hunvreus ◴[13 May 25 23:28 UTC] No.43979013{3}[source]▶
Kinda, yeah. The goal is to make it possible for any web dev to use shadcn/ui with a regular HTML + CSS setup. No React. No Vue. Just whatever you're already using (e.g. Rails, Laravel, Django, ...).