Which is the best approach to build on top of shadcn/ui?

[AndreaBarghigiani]

Hi all, I've been using this fantastic library for a while now, but I have always used it in side projects and little tools with a short lifespan.

Today, I would like to leverage it to build a new product for the company I am working in. I want to make the right decision that will keep the maintainability and the ease of use, and since I have not found discussions on this topic, I would like to discuss it with you.

On every "introductory video/article" you find around the web, it's obvious that having the component living in the ui/ folder of your codebase is appreciated. To be honest, this is what I like about it too, but the thing is that many developers talk about the fact that you can customize the component yourself to let it match the design you are working on.

The fact is that while this is a fine approach, you have to change the component that comes from the library, and it will break the diff command that you get from the CLI.

I know this is experimental, but I am trying to figure out the best approach to make it work. Right now, I see those different paths in front of me:

1. customize the component itself - by removing/adding the classes I need even if this will not keep the compatibility with diff
2. build my components on top of the shadcn/ui - this will let me customize them and keep the compatibility with the diff command, even though I believe I'll not be able to keep untouched all of them
3. don't use shadcn/ui at all - this will force me to use the Radix UI out of the box and "take inspiration" from the amazing work that shadcn has done here

From your experience, which approach would you take and why?

Thanks to anyone who will participate in this discussion.

[TJdhyani]

Need some love on this post.