Building an Enterprise-Grade Tags Input Component with ShadCN UI + React

#programming #react #tailwindcss #shadcn

Managing tags (skills, categories, labels, etc.) is a common requirement in modern web apps. But most tags input components out there are either too simple or lack flexibility for enterprise-grade use cases.

So, I built a ShadCN UI Tags Input Component — a fully customizable, accessible, and TypeScript-first tags input built on top of:

⚛️ React 18+
🎯 TypeScript
📝 React Hook Form
🎞 Framer Motion (smooth animations)
🎨 ShadCN/UI + TailwindCSS

This post walks you through why and how to use it in your own projects.

✨ Why Another Tags Input?

The goals were simple:

✅ Enterprise-grade validation (with React Hook Form)

✅ Seamless keyboard support (Enter/Backspace navigation)

✅ Smooth animations with Framer Motion

✅ ShadCN/UI compatibility out of the box

✅ Fully accessible (ARIA-compliant)

🛠 Installation

You’ll need a few peer dependencies:

npm install lucide-react class-variance-authority clsx tailwind-merge cmdk framer-motion react-hook-form

Then add required ShadCN components:

npx shadcn@latest add form input badge

Finally, copy the Tags Input component into your project:

cp components/tags-input-field.tsx your-project/src/components/

💻 Usage Example

Here’s a minimal setup using React Hook Form + the TagsInputField component:

import { TagsInputField } from "@/components/tags-input-field";
import { useForm, FormProvider } from "react-hook-form";

function MyForm() {
  const form = useForm({
    defaultValues: {
      skills: [],
    },
  });

  return (
    <FormProvider {...form}>
      <form onSubmit={form.handleSubmit(console.log)}>
        <TagsInputField
          name="skills"
          label="Skills"
          placeholder="Enter your skills"
        />
      </form>
    </FormProvider>
  );
}