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seek-oss/playroom

4,572TypeScriptAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5Setup · moderate

TLDR

A browser-based tool for prototyping UI components in real JSX code, showing how your design system's components look across multiple themes and screen sizes simultaneously.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What It Does
      Live JSX preview
      Multiple themes
      Multiple viewports
    How It Works
      Point at components
      Config file setup
      Static deployment
    Features
      Shareable URLs
      Code snippets
      Team collaboration
    Setup
      npm dev dependency
      Config file
      Context wrapper
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Preview how your design system components look across multiple themes and screen sizes at once.

USE CASE 2

Share a component prototype with teammates by copying a URL that encodes the current code state.

USE CASE 3

Build predefined code snippets for your team to browse and insert with a live preview.

USE CASE 4

Prototype page layouts using your existing component library without setting up a full project.

Tech stack

TypeScriptReactJSX

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires an existing React component library, components needing context providers need a custom wrapper configured.

No license information is mentioned in the explanation.

In plain English

Playroom is a browser-based tool that lets you prototype and experiment with UI components using real code from your own design system. You write JSX (a syntax that looks like HTML mixed with JavaScript) and Playroom instantly shows how your components look across different screen sizes and visual themes at the same time, side by side in the same window. The tool is built to sit alongside an existing component library. You configure it by pointing it at your components folder, and optionally defining a list of themes and viewport widths to preview. Once running, you can write snippets of code in the editor and immediately see the result rendered in each combination of theme and screen size you defined. There is no install required for people using Playroom in a team because it can be deployed as a static bundle to any web server. Sharing work is done by copying the URL, which encodes the current code so anyone with the link can open the exact same state in their browser. The tool also supports predefined code snippets that team members can browse and insert, each with a live preview as you hover over them. Setup involves adding Playroom as a development dependency via npm, adding two scripts to your package.json for starting and building, and creating a configuration file that specifies where your components live and what options to enable. A custom wrapper component can be provided if your components require context providers such as a theme or localization setup. Playroom is maintained by the team at SEEK and is published as an open source npm package. It is aimed at teams that have already built a design system and want a faster way to prototype layouts and interactions without leaving real code behind.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I set up Playroom for a React component library so I can preview components across light and dark themes?
Prompt 2
Configure Playroom to show my components at mobile, tablet, and desktop viewport widths side by side.
Prompt 3
Show me how to add predefined code snippets to Playroom so my team can browse reusable layout patterns.
Prompt 4
How do I wrap my Playroom setup with a ThemeProvider so components that need context render correctly?
Prompt 5
Deploy Playroom as a static site to a web server so the whole team can use it without running it locally.
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