Vansh Chaurasiya

Posted on May 18

You’re Using ShadCN Wrong ❌ – Here’s the Right Way to Customize It!

#webdev #shadcn #frontend

ShadCN has taken the developer community by storm—and for good reason. It brings you beautifully built UI components powered by Tailwind CSS and Radix UI, ready to plug and play. But let me ask you something honestly...

Are you using ShadCN the way it’s meant to be used?

Chances are: No.

I’ve been there too—dropping in components and rolling with the default styling, thinking “it looks good enough.” But here’s the truth:

ShadCN is not meant to be used as-is. It’s designed to be customized!

Let’s break down why most developers skip customization, what ShadCN is doing under the hood, and how you can easily customize it in minutes.

🧠 Why Don't We Customize ShadCN?

There are two main reasons:

It works out of the box – so we don’t need to tweak anything.
It looks confusing under the hood – global CSS variables, HSL values, Tailwind config overrides... it's a lot for beginners.

When you peek into the default globals.css, you might see something like this:

And in your tailwind.config.ts, you’ll see a maze of hsl(var(--something)):

Most devs (me included, once upon a time) see this and just... leave it.

But what if I told you that customizing ShadCN is easier than you think?

💡 What ShadCN Is Doing Behind the Scenes

Let’s demystify what’s going on:

1. CSS Variables in `globals.css`

ShadCN defines a series of custom CSS variables under :root and .dark:

:root {
  --background: 0 0% 100%;
  --foreground: 240 10% 3.9%;
  ...
}

.dark {
  --background: 240 10% 3.9%;
  --foreground: 0 0% 98%;
  ...
}

Notice the format? These are HSL values, a color format like hex or RGB—but much easier to tweak. You can control:

Hue (color)
Saturation (intensity)
Lightness (brightness)

These variables define everything from background, foreground, borders, inputs, to custom chart colors. They serve as centralized tokens for your entire theme.

2. Tailwind Integration in `tailwind.config.ts`

ShadCN doesn’t stop at CSS variables. It then extends Tailwind’s theme using those variables:

colors: {
  background: 'hsl(var(--background))',
  foreground: 'hsl(var(--foreground))',
  card: {
    DEFAULT: 'hsl(var(--card))',
    foreground: 'hsl(var(--card-foreground))',
  },
  ...
}

This makes those CSS variables usable directly in your Tailwind utility classes like bg-background, text-primary, border-input, etc.

🎯 Why this is brilliant: update the color in one place, and every component styled with Tailwind updates automatically. One tweak, global effect.

✨ How to Customize ShadCN Easily (The Right Way)

Now that you understand the “why” and the “how”... let’s talk about customizing ShadCN without pain.

Here's the secret sauce:

🛠 TweakCN – Your ShadCN Customizer

TweakCN is a powerful visual tool built specifically to:

Preview your theme in light & dark mode
Customize all the core tokens visually
Export ready-to-paste CSS variables
Avoid fiddling with confusing HSL values manually

✅ Steps to Customize:

Visit https://tweakcn.com
Play around with the visual color pickers
Copy the generated CSS
Paste it into your globals.css
You’re done 🎉

No more guessing HSL values. No more digging through component code. TweakCN makes ShadCN theming a breeze.

🎨 Why You Should Customize Your UI

Let’s be real: Every other site using ShadCN looks the same.

But your app has its own identity, audience, and brand. A unique look goes a long way.

It shows attention to detail.
It aligns with your product’s purpose.
It sets your UI apart from the sea of clones.

And with ShadCN’s setup + TweakCN, customizing takes minutes, not hours.

🏁 Wrapping Up

Here’s what you should take away:

✅ ShadCN is meant to be customized
✅ It uses CSS variables + Tailwind extensions to keep things consistent
✅ TweakCN makes customizing it dead simple
✅ Your UI deserves more than just the default look

So next time you spin up a ShadCN-based project, don’t settle for defaults.

Build a UI that reflects your product, your style, and your vision.

Go try it out now 👉 https://tweakcn.com

🗣️ I'd Love to Hear From You

Have you customized ShadCN in a cool way? Got tips or color palettes to share? Drop them in the comments or DM me on X (Twitter) – let's inspire more beautiful UIs together 💬
X - Linkedin - GitHub - Portfolio