Reference
Theme guides, the maintenance workflow, and the reasoning behind Control UI — everything beyond the install path.
With your agent
One prompt that makes the agent already open in your project read the repository, install from the registry, wire the CSS, run the doctor, and design the theme with you.
The skill installed with every pack: the token contract and the working rules, refreshed by every update, so later sessions build without the prompt.
Inspect and install registry items through HTTP, MCP, shadcn manifests, markdown negotiation, and machine-readable docs.
Theme
Author complete token-driven Control UI skins with slots, adornments, motion controls, and one shared component source.
Re-value the token contract over an installed pack, or own a full pack of three files, then reach the component knobs beneath.
Edit theme tokens category by category and watch real components repaint as you go.
Audit canonical theme colors plus rendered popup, badge, and active-tab states, then run the same checks from the CLI.
Maintain
Why Control UI
An owned-source registry of primitives, agent surfaces, complete blocks, and swappable skins.
Runtime ownership, skin layering, customization paths, and registry derivation.
What you own at each layer, what stays proprietary, and what leaving costs — measured, not promised.
shadcn registry, token, and ownership conventions without writing to components/ui.
Both ship open-source React source through the shadcn CLI. The difference starts after install: a typed knob contract, skins that re-value it wholesale, and every supported skin mode audited against WCAG AA on every commit.
Eight production options compared by ownership model, theming system, and agent-specific surfaces — from shadcn/ui and AI Elements to MUI to Control UI.