Stop Building Components From Scratch: Your Production-Ready Component Library Blueprint

Your team keeps rebuilding the same components. Button variants. Form inputs. Modal dialogs. Loading states. Each project starts with the same tedious component scaffolding, and accessibility always gets pushed to "later" (which never comes).

The Component Library Problem

Building components isn't hard. Building maintainable, accessible, performant components that scale across teams is. Most component libraries either:

Lock you into rigid design systems you can't customize
Sacrifice accessibility for developer convenience
Ship massive bundles that kill your performance budget
Break when you need to customize beyond basic props
Lack proper TypeScript support, turning runtime errors into debugging nightmares

You need components that work like Lego blocks: composable, reliable, and built for the long haul.

Your Complete Component Library Architecture

These Cursor Rules establish a bulletproof component library foundation that solves the real problems: accessibility-first design, zero-runtime styling, composable APIs, and enterprise-grade testing.

Here's what you get:

// Accessible by default, fully typed, composable
<Dialog>
  <DialogTrigger asChild>
    <Button variant="primary" size="md">Open Settings</Button>
  </DialogTrigger>
  <DialogContent>
    <DialogHeader>
      <DialogTitle>User Preferences</DialogTitle>
    </DialogHeader>
    <Form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
      <FormField name="email" label="Email" required />
      <FormActions>
        <Button type="submit">Save Changes</Button>
      </FormActions>
    </Form>
  </DialogContent>
</Dialog>

Every component ships with ARIA attributes, keyboard navigation, focus management, and screen reader support—no extra configuration needed.

Key Productivity Gains

Stop Writing Accessibility Code

// Before: Manual ARIA management
const [isOpen, setIsOpen] = useState(false);
const [focusedIndex, setFocusedIndex] = useState(-1);
// 50+ lines of keyboard handlers, focus traps, aria-describedby...

// After: Built-in accessibility
<Dropdown items={menuItems} onSelect={handleSelect} />

Time saved: 2-3 hours per interactive component

Zero-Runtime Styling That Actually Works

// CSS-in-JS that generates at build time, not runtime
export const buttonStyles = style({
  base: {
    display: 'inline-flex',
    alignItems: 'center',
    fontSize: tokens.fontSize.sm,
  },
  variants: {
    size: {
      sm: { padding: '8px 12px' },
      md: { padding: '12px 16px' },
      lg: { padding: '16px 24px' }
    }
  }
});

Performance impact: <5kB per component, zero runtime style injection

TypeScript That Prevents Bugs, Not Creates Them

interface ButtonProps {
  variant: 'primary' | 'secondary' | 'ghost';
  size?: 'sm' | 'md' | 'lg';
  isLoading?: boolean;
  isDisabled?: boolean;
  children: React.ReactNode;
  onClick?: (event: MouseEvent<HTMLButtonElement>) => void;
}

// Exhaustive type checking catches missing cases at compile time
const getButtonVariant = (variant: ButtonProps['variant']) => {
  switch (variant) {
    case 'primary': return primaryStyles;
    case 'secondary': return secondaryStyles;
    case 'ghost': return ghostStyles;
    default: 
      const _exhaustive: never = variant; // TypeScript error if case missing
      throw new Error(`Unhandled variant: ${variant}`);
  }
};

Real Developer Workflows

Morning Standup → Shipping Components

Scenario: Your PM wants a new notification system by Friday.

# Generate component scaffolding
cursor-generate notification-toast

# Auto-generated structure:
src/components/toast/
├── Toast.tsx           # Component logic
├── Toast.css.ts        # Zero-runtime styles  
├── Toast.stories.tsx   # Storybook documentation
├── Toast.test.tsx      # Accessibility tests
└── index.ts           # Clean exports

Implementation time: 15 minutes instead of 2+ hours

Design System Updates Across Projects

// Update design tokens once
export const tokens = {
  colors: {
    primary: {
      50: '#eff6ff',
      500: '#3b82f6',
      900: '#1e3a8a'
    }
  }
};

// All components automatically inherit changes
// No manual CSS updates across 12 different button implementations

Accessibility Compliance Without Overhead

// Every component includes accessibility tests
it('supports keyboard navigation', async () => {
  render(<Dropdown items={mockItems} />);
  
  await userEvent.tab(); // Focus trigger
  await userEvent.keyboard('{ArrowDown}'); // Open menu
  await userEvent.keyboard('{ArrowDown}'); // Navigate items
  await userEvent.keyboard('{Enter}'); // Select item
  
  expect(mockOnSelect).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expectedItem);
});

// axe-core runs in CI - failing accessibility fails the build

Implementation: Your 30-Minute Setup

1. Project Foundation

npm create vite@latest my-component-lib -- --template react-ts
cd my-component-lib

# Install the full stack
npm install @radix-ui/react-* tailwindcss @vanilla-extract/css
npm install -D storybook jest @testing-library/react playwright

2. Configure Cursor with These Rules

Copy the complete Cursor Rules configuration into your .cursorrules file. This gives you:

Automatic accessibility patterns
Performance-optimized build setup
Comprehensive testing scaffolding
TypeScript strictness that prevents runtime errors

3. Create Your First Component

// src/components/button/Button.tsx
import { forwardRef } from 'react';
import { clsx } from 'clsx';
import { buttonStyles } from './Button.css';

interface ButtonProps extends React.ButtonHTMLAttributes<HTMLButtonElement> {
  variant?: 'primary' | 'secondary' | 'ghost';
  size?: 'sm' | 'md' | 'lg';
  isLoading?: boolean;
}

export const Button = forwardRef<HTMLButtonElement, ButtonProps>(
  ({ variant = 'primary', size = 'md', isLoading = false, className, children, ...props }, ref) => {
    return (
      <button
        ref={ref}
        className={clsx(buttonStyles({ variant, size }), className)}
        aria-busy={isLoading}
        disabled={isLoading || props.disabled}
        {...props}
      >
        {isLoading ? <Spinner aria-hidden /> : null}
        {children}
      </button>
    );
  }
);

4. Document and Test

// Button.stories.tsx - Generated automatically
export default {
  component: Button,
  parameters: {
    a11y: { disable: false }, // Accessibility panel enabled
  }
};

export const Interactive = () => (
  <div className="space-y-4">
    <Button variant="primary">Primary Button</Button>
    <Button variant="secondary" size="lg">Large Secondary</Button>
    <Button isLoading>Loading State</Button>
  </div>
);

Expected Results & Impact

Team Velocity

Component development: 75% faster with accessibility built-in
Design system updates: Deploy once, update everywhere
Bug reduction: 60% fewer runtime errors with strict TypeScript

Technical Metrics

Bundle size: <5kB per component (gzipped)
Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA compliance out of the box
Performance: <50ms mount time, optimized re-renders
Test coverage: 90%+ with automated accessibility testing

Developer Experience

// IntelliSense shows exact props, variants, and accessibility requirements
<Button
  variant="primary" // TypeScript autocomplete
  size="md"         // All options suggested
  onClick={handler} // Properly typed event handlers
  aria-label="Save document" // Accessibility hints included
>
  Save Changes
</Button>

Your components become the foundation other teams want to use, not the liability they avoid. Stop rebuilding. Start scaling.

The complete Cursor Rules configuration handles the complexity—you focus on shipping features that matter.

Accessible React Component Library Rules