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Foldkit UI

Overview

Foldkit UI is a set of headless, accessible UI components. You provide markup and styling through a toView callback. Foldkit UI provides attribute bundles, keyboard behavior, and state management where the interaction requires it.

Installation

@foldkit/ui is a separate package from foldkit. Projects scaffolded by create-foldkit-app from an example that uses UI components already include it. Its peer dependencies are foldkit and effect, which every Foldkit project already has. Add it to any other project with:

npm install @foldkit/ui

Component Categories

Components are either stateful Submodels or stateless render helpers.

Stateful Submodels, including Menu, Listbox, Combobox, Calendar, Dialog, and Popover, have their own Model, Message union, update, and OutMessage. Embed them with h.submodel and fold their OutMessages into the parent update.

Stateless render helpers, including Button, Input, Textarea, Select, Checkbox, Switch, Disclosure, Fieldset, and Nav, take a ViewConfig and your builder and return Html. They bundle ARIA, data, and event attributes for DOM elements that you render. They need no child Model or h.submodel wiring. The builder determines the Message type returned by their callbacks, so you do not provide a Message type argument.

The Kind column below identifies each component category.

Components

ComponentKindDescription
ButtonHelperAccessible button with consistent ARIA attributes and data-attribute hooks for styling.
InputHelperText input with ARIA label/description linking and data-attribute hooks.
TextareaHelperMulti-line text input with ARIA label/description linking and data-attribute hooks.
CheckboxHelperToggle with accessible labeling, keyboard support, indeterminate state, and optional form integration.
FieldsetHelperGroups related form controls with a legend and description. Disabled state propagates to all children.
Radio GroupSubmodelRadio options with roving tabindex, keyboard navigation, read-only navigation, and per-option label/description linking.
SwitchHelperOn/off toggle with accessible labeling, keyboard support, and optional form integration.
SliderSubmodelNumeric range input with pointer drag, keyboard step / page / home / end navigation, and ARIA slider semantics.
SelectHelperNative select wrapper with ARIA label/description linking and data-attribute hooks.
ListboxSubmodelCustom select dropdown with persistent selection, keyboard navigation, typeahead search, and read-only browsing.
ComboboxSubmodelAutocomplete input with filtering, keyboard navigation, custom rendering, and read-only browsing.
DialogSubmodelModal dialog using native <dialog> with focus trapping, backdrop, and scroll locking.
MenuSubmodelDropdown menu with keyboard navigation, typeahead search, and aria-activedescendant focus.
PopoverSubmodelFloating panel with arbitrary content and natural Tab navigation.
DisclosureHelperShow/hide toggle for building collapsible sections like FAQs and accordions.
TabsSubmodelTabbed interface with keyboard navigation, Home/End support, and wrapping.
NavHelperStateless, URL-driven navigation landmark whose items are links, marking the current destination with aria-current="page".
Drag and DropSubmodelSortable lists and cross-container movement with pointer tracking, keyboard navigation, auto-scrolling, and screen reader announcements.
File DropSubmodelFile input with drag-and-drop support, configurable accept patterns, and multiple-file mode. Emits typed OutMessages for received files and non-file drops.
CalendarSubmodelInline calendar grid with 2D keyboard navigation, locale-aware headers, min/max constraints, and disabled-date support. Foundation for date pickers.
Date PickerSubmodelInput paired with a popover Calendar. Inherits the calendar’s constraint and keyboard-navigation support, with programmatic open/close and setters.
AnimationSubmodelCoordinates CSS enter/leave animations via a state machine and data attributes. Works with both CSS transitions and CSS keyframe animations. Sends an OutMessage when the leave animation completes.
Hover IntentSubmodelHeadless hover and focus behavior for a trigger and panel, with delayed pointer opening and a closing grace period. The consumer owns semantics, positioning, and styling.

Underneath the floating components sits Anchor, the positioning runtime Listbox, Combobox, Menu, Popover, Tooltip, and Date Picker share. It is neither a helper nor a Submodel, so it has no row above. Reach for it directly only when you are building an anchored component none of those cover.

Showcase

The UI Showcase demonstrates every component with styled, interactive examples. Use its source to see parent-child wiring, OutMessage folds, and view composition in one application.