# React Styleguidist — Isolated React Component Documentation

> React Styleguidist is a development environment and documentation generator for React components that renders live-editable examples alongside prop tables and markdown docs.

## Install

Save as a script file and run:

# React Styleguidist — Isolated React Component Documentation

## Quick Use
```bash
# Install
npm install --save-dev react-styleguidist
# Start the dev server
npx styleguidist server
# Build a static style guide
npx styleguidist build
```

## Introduction
React Styleguidist generates a living style guide from your React components. It extracts prop types and JSDoc comments automatically, renders live-editable code examples from Markdown files, and serves everything in an interactive development environment that makes component documentation effortless.

## What React Styleguidist Does
- Auto-generates prop documentation tables from PropTypes, TypeScript, or Flow definitions
- Renders live, editable code examples that update in real time
- Organizes components into sections with Markdown-based descriptions
- Provides an isolated rendering sandbox for each component example
- Supports custom webpack configuration for project-specific build setups

## Architecture Overview
Styleguidist scans your source tree for component files, extracts metadata using react-docgen, and parses companion Markdown files for code examples. At dev time, a webpack-based dev server compiles and serves the style guide as a single-page React application. Each code example runs in an isolated context using a sandboxed editor powered by CodeMirror, enabling live editing without affecting other examples on the page.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Configure via `styleguide.config.js` at the project root
- Specify component glob patterns to control which files are documented
- Add `Readme.md` or `ComponentName.md` files next to components for examples
- Use `webpackConfig` to reuse your existing project webpack setup
- Build a static HTML site with `styleguidist build` for deployment to any host

## Key Features
- Live editor: modify example code and see results instantly in the browser
- Prop tables: auto-extracted from PropTypes, TypeScript interfaces, or Flow types
- Section organization: group components logically with nested Markdown sections
- Theme customization: override styles and layout via a theme configuration object
- Hot module replacement: component changes reflect immediately during development

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **Storybook** — More ecosystem plugins and addons; Styleguidist is simpler with Markdown-first documentation
- **Docz** — MDX-based documentation; Styleguidist uses plain Markdown with embedded JSX examples
- **Ladle** — Vite-native Storybook alternative; Styleguidist is webpack-based
- **Cosmos** — Focuses on component fixtures; Styleguidist emphasizes prose documentation alongside examples

## FAQ
**Q: Does it work with TypeScript?**
A: Yes. It uses react-docgen-typescript to extract prop types and descriptions from TypeScript interfaces.

**Q: Can I use it alongside Storybook?**
A: Yes. They serve different purposes and can coexist. Styleguidist focuses on written documentation while Storybook focuses on interactive component states.

**Q: Does it support CSS Modules or styled-components?**
A: Yes. Since it uses your project's webpack config, any styling approach that works in your build also works in Styleguidist.

**Q: Can I customize the look of the generated site?**
A: Yes. The theme object in `styleguide.config.js` lets you override colors, fonts, spacing, and layout.

## Sources
- https://github.com/styleguidist/react-styleguidist
- https://react-styleguidist.js.org

---
Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/asset-87be2133
Author: Script Depot