Styled Starter is an open-source boilerplate that combines React, Next.js, Styled System, and Catalog to bootstrap new web projects with a design theme, a built-in styleguide, and browser testing already configured.
What is Styled Starter?
Styled Starter is a starter kit for building React applications with Next.js as the React framework, Styled System for theme-driven styling, and Catalog for generating living styleguides. It is published on GitHub by johnpolacek and offers a docs/demo site hosted on GitHub Pages at johnpolacek.github.io/styled-starter. The repository’s stated purpose is to get projects going with a design theme, built-in styleguide and browser testing.
Key Features
- Next.js framework — Uses Next.js for server-rendered React pages, giving you file-based routing and a production-ready build pipeline.
- Styled System styling — Styled System provides theme-aware style props, so you can define design tokens (spacing, colors, typography) and use them consistently across components.
- Catalog styleguide — Catalog is integrated as a living styleguide tool that documents UI components and their variants automatically from your codebase.
- Cross-browser testing — Browser testing is set up through Sauce Labs, a cross-browser testing platform, so you can verify the app on multiple browsers during development.
- Continuous integration — A Travis CI build status badge is included, indicating the project comes with a CI configuration for automated builds and tests.
- Documentation site — A ready-made docs/demo site is built and deployed to GitHub Pages, so you have a public reference for the starter’s components and usage.
- Design theme included — The kit ships with a predefined design theme, letting you start with a cohesive visual system instead of building one from scratch.
Who is it for?
- React developers starting a new project who want a pre-configured Next.js setup with a theme and styleguide rather than wiring everything manually.
- Front-end teams that need a living styleguide to keep components documented and consistent across a project or organization.
- Open-source maintainers who want to demonstrate a component library with a public docs site and cross-browser testing already integrated.
What can you do with Styled Starter?
- Spin up a new themed app — Clone the starter, run it locally, and get a React/Next.js app that already has the design theme and styleguide in place.
- Document components — Use Catalog to generate a living styleguide that displays your components with their variations, making it easy for other developers to reuse them.
- Run browser tests — Leverage the Sauce Labs integration to run cross-browser tests and catch layout or behavior differences before shipping.
FAQ
What stack does Styled Starter use?
Styled Starter uses React with Next.js as the framework, Styled System for styling, and Catalog for styleguide generation. It also includes configuration for Travis CI and Sauce Labs for automated builds and cross-browser testing.
Is Styled Starter free?
Yes, it is an open-source project on GitHub, so the starter kit is free to use. There is no mention of paid tiers or licenses on the page, and you can clone or fork the repository.
What is the demo/docs site?
The docs and demo are hosted at johnpolacek.github.io/styled-starter. That site shows the starter’s components, theme, and usage examples.
Who maintains Styled Starter?
The GitHub repository is authored by johnpolacek, and it has about 79 stars at the time of this writing. The project is publicly maintained on GitHub.
