I built a React component library

Welcome to the blog, and the first post of what I hope will be many. I've been working on jal-co/ui, a set of polished React components you can install with one command through shadcn's registry system, or copy yourself into your projects.

The motivation was simple: I kept rebuilding the same things across projects… A GitHub stars button. A code block with syntax highlighting. An API reference table. Different projects, same patterns, slightly different implementations each time. I wanted a single source I could pull from, make sure all my projects looked uniform, and know the quality of the code.

The part I care most about isn't any single component. It's the consistency across all of them. Accessible by default. Strong in the default state. Realistic demo content. Aligned docs. When components are meant to be copied and adapted, every prop name matters. Every default has to hold up without configuration. Weak structure can't hide behind decorative styling, especially when working with AI code agents: consistency and rules are paramount.

The docs site became its own project: a catalog with card previews, dark/light screenshot generation, an /llms.txt endpoint for AI discoverability, and small touches like an animated sidebar and theme switcher, all of which, true to the mission, are available as registry items. Maybe people will use them to build their own registry docs… sorta meta.

It's open source (github), and I promise to never paywall it. Enjoy it, use it, let me know if you need something else in it. Or don't use it, and just tell me how nice it looks, please.

Till next time,

Justin