NovaUI – A Shadcn/UI-inspired component library for React Native

1 point

4 months ago

I've been frustrated with the current React Native UI library ecosystem for a while. Most libraries follow the same pattern: install the package, import components, accept their opinions on styling and behavior, and fight the abstraction whenever you need something custom.

shadcn/ui changed this mental model for web — instead of installing a black box, you copy the component source directly into your project. You own it, you modify it, no fighting abstractions.

I wanted the same experience for React Native, so I built NovaUI.

How it works: - Components are copied into your codebase, not imported from node_modules - Built on NativeWind (Tailwind CSS for React Native) for styling - Fully accessible out of the box - Zero runtime dependencies beyond NativeWind itself

It's been live for 24 hours — 4,000 visitors and 800 npm installs so far, which was unexpected for a solo project.

The docs and component code are fully open-source.

https://www.novaui.org

Happy to answer any technical questions about the architecture decisions, especially around the NativeWind integration and accessibility implementation.