Meet kovax-react: a typed React UI library with CSS-variable theming

Aleksey Alekseev — Thu, 14 May 2026 16:11:02 +0000

I just shipped kovax-react 0.5 — a small, typed React UI library aimed at apps that want layout primitives + forms + overlays + tables + design tokens without dragging in a framework. This post is a quick tour: what's inside, what's new, and how to try it in 60 seconds.

📦 npm: kovax-react
🧑‍💻 Repo: github.com/MrKamura/kovax
🧪 Live docs & playground: mrkamura.github.io/kovax

TL;DR

Typed design tokens (themeToken, colorToken) for colors, spacing, radii, typography, shadows, motion, z-index, breakpoints.
ThemeProvider injects CSS variables (--kx-*), supports light / dark / system color modes, scoped subtrees, palette overrides, and CSP nonce — SSR-safe with hex fallbacks.
30+ components: Box, Flex, Grid, Stack, Heading, Text, Button, Input, Textarea, Checkbox, Radio, Switch, Select / useCombobox, FormControl, Tabs, Accordion, Alert, Progress, Tooltip, Popover, Dialog, Modal, Toast, DatePicker, Table / DataTable, and now Avatar + Badge.
Deep imports for smaller bundles: kovax-react/layout, /form, /overlays, /table, /badge, /avatar, …
React 16+ peer; react-day-picker only when you use date pickers.
MIT-licensed, written in TypeScript, tested with Jest.

Install

npm install kovax-react
# only if you use the date pickers
npm install react-day-picker

Theming in 6 lines

Wrap your app once, and everything reads from CSS variables:

import { ThemeProvider, Button, themeToken } from "kovax-react";

export function App() {
  return (
    <ThemeProvider defaultColorMode="system">
      <Button color="primary" style={{ marginTop: themeToken("spacing.md") }}>
        Hello, kovax
      </Button>
    </ThemeProvider>
  );
}

Switching modes is instant — components consume var(--kx-…, fallback) under the hood, so SSR has no flash and "no provider" still renders with the original palette.

Need a brand palette? Override per side, the rest is inherited:

import { ThemeProvider, lightPalette } from "kovax-react";

const brandPrimary = {
  50: "#f5f3ff",  100: "#ede9fe", 200: "#ddd6fe", 300: "#c4b5fd",
  400: "#a78bfa", 500: "#7c3aed", 600: "#6d28d9", 700: "#5b21b6",
  800: "#4c1d95", 900: "#3b0a76",
};

<ThemeProvider
  palettes={{ light: { colors: { ...lightPalette.colors, primary: brandPrimary } } }}
/>

You can also scope a ThemeProvider to a ref — render a dark widget inside an otherwise light page (or vice-versa) without forking components.

New in 0.5

`ThemeProvider` + dark mode

colorMode: light | dark | system
useColorMode() and useTheme() hooks
target: documentElement or a RefObject for scoped theming
palettes per side, storageKey persistence, onColorModeChange callback
nonce for strict CSP

`Avatar`

Photo, initials from name, or a custom fallback (icon, emoji, anything). Sizes xs–xl, circle / rounded, semantic fallback colorScheme. Robust to broken image URLs (auto fallback on onError).

import { Avatar, HStack } from "kovax-react";

<HStack gap={12}>
  <Avatar name="Jane Doe" />               {/* → "JD" */}
  <Avatar src="/jane.jpg" alt="Jane Doe" name="Jane Doe" size="lg" />
  <Avatar name="Live" colorScheme="success" />
</HStack>

`Badge`

Compact status / count pill. Variants solid / outline / subtle, semantic colors, optional leading dot, sizes sm / md.

import { Badge, HStack } from "kovax-react";

<HStack gap={8}>
  <Badge dot color="success">Live</Badge>
  <Badge color="primary" variant="outline">Pro</Badge>
  <Badge color="neutral" size="sm">12</Badge>
</HStack>

What I actually use it for

Layout primitives (Box, HStack, VStack, Grid, Container, Sticky) keep markup boring and consistent.
Forms (FormControl, Input, Textarea, Select, useCombobox, Switch, Checkbox, Radio) play nice with react-hook-form (used in the playground demos, but not a library dep).
Overlays (Tooltip, Popover, Dialog, Modal, Toast) cover most app needs without a separate floating-ui setup.
Tables — Table.* primitives plus a DataTable with controlled sort and row headers.

Try it without installing

The live playground is statically prerendered (so SEO works) and includes Preview / Code tabs per example, EN/RU UI, and the same Markdown docs from the repo. Sections to peek at:

Components → ThemeProvider — color modes, scoped themes, brand palette overrides
Components → Avatar / Badge — the new bits
Components → Table — DataTable + sortable columns
Components → Design tokens — every palette / spacing / radius / shadow / motion / z-index / breakpoint, live

What's next

Likely candidates for 0.6: a richer Skeleton, Breadcrumb, Pagination, a Menu built on the same Popover primitives, and a small useMediaQuery exposing the design tokens' breakpoints.

If you find something missing, file an issue or PR on GitHub — or just leave a comment here, I read them all.

Thanks for reading 🙏 — happy to answer questions in the comments.

DEV Community: Aleksey Alekseev