How to set up Storybook with Next.js and Tailwind CSS

Introduction

Storybook is a great way to maintain and preview isolated components. I usually add it as a 'nice-to-have' feature. During set up, I found that the resource about setting up a storybook with Next.js and Tailwind CSS is scarce. There are a bunch of bugs, and finding the solution is like finding a needle in a haystack. Hopefully, this tutorial can help you set it up smoothly.

Version

This step-by-step tutorial is written with Storybook v6.4.9 & TypeScript, if you found the tutorial is not working after some minor update, please leave a comment below.

Initializing Storybook

This command will install the storybook to your Next.js repository, there will be a prompt asking if you want to additionally install an eslint plugin, I suggest you to accept.

npx -y sb init --builder webpack5
bash

Installing PostCSS Add-ons

Tailwind CSS needs PostCSS to work, so we need to integrate it with Storybook using one of their pre-built add-ons.

yarn add -D @storybook/addon-postcss
bash

Adding Webpack as a resolution dependency

We need this to ensure the webpack is installed as a dependency, somehow this will cause a bug if we don’t install it

Append this to your package.json

// package.json

"resolutions": {
    "webpack": "^5"
}
json

Then install the webpack resolutions with

yarn
bash

Replace .storybook/main.js

Here is the custom main.js config that you can use

// .storybook/main.js

const path = require('path');

module.exports = {
  stories: ['../src/**/*.stories.mdx', '../src/**/*.stories.@(js|jsx|ts|tsx)'],
  /** Expose public folder to storybook as static */
  staticDirs: ['../public'],
  addons: [
    '@storybook/addon-links',
    '@storybook/addon-essentials',
    {
      /**
       * Fix Storybook issue with PostCSS@8
       * @see https://github.com/storybookjs/storybook/issues/12668#issuecomment-773958085
       */
      name: '@storybook/addon-postcss',
      options: {
        postcssLoaderOptions: {
          implementation: require('postcss'),
        },
      },
    },
  ],
  core: {
    builder: 'webpack5',
  },
  webpackFinal: (config) => {
    /**
     * Add support for alias-imports
     * @see https://github.com/storybookjs/storybook/issues/11989#issuecomment-715524391
     */
    config.resolve.alias = {
      ...config.resolve?.alias,
      '@': [path.resolve(__dirname, '../src/'), path.resolve(__dirname, '../')],
    };

    /**
     * Fixes font import with /
     * @see https://github.com/storybookjs/storybook/issues/12844#issuecomment-867544160
     */
    config.resolve.roots = [
      path.resolve(__dirname, '../public'),
      'node_modules',
    ];

    return config;
  },
};
js

I've provided some comments about the bug fixes with the link.

Confirm the stories and staticDirs if they match up with your folder structure. By specifying staticDirs we can use assets from public folders.

Replace .storybook/preview.js

// .storybook/preview.js

import '../src/styles/globals.css';
import * as NextImage from 'next/image';

const OriginalNextImage = NextImage.default;

Object.defineProperty(NextImage, 'default', {
  configurable: true,
  value: (props) => <OriginalNextImage {...props} unoptimized />,
});

export const parameters = {
  actions: { argTypesRegex: '^on[A-Z].*' },
  controls: {
    matchers: {
      color: /(background|color)$/i,
      date: /Date$/,
    },
  },
  previewTabs: {
    'storybook/docs/panel': { index: -1 },
  },
};
js

I like the docs panel to be the default so I added the previewTabs config. You can remove it if you want.

This file will load the Tailwind CSS from globals.css and mock NextImage to work with Storybook.

Running the storybook

Run yarn storybookto start up the dev server.

Then you can start adding some story, here is an example

Story example

// src/components/buttons/__stories__/Button.stories.tsx

import { ComponentMeta, ComponentStory } from '@storybook/react';
import * as React from 'react';
import { HiSearch } from 'react-icons/hi';

import Button from '@/components/buttons/Button';

export default {
  title: 'Components/Buttons/Button',
  component: Button,
  argTypes: {
    children: {
      control: { type: 'text' },
    },
  },
} as ComponentMeta<typeof Button>;

const Template: ComponentStory<typeof Button> = (args) => <Button {...args} />;

export const Default = Template.bind({});
Default.args = {
  children: 'Button',
  variants: 'primary',
};

export const WithIcon = Template.bind({});
WithIcon.args = {
  children: (
    <div className='flex items-center gap-2'>
      <HiSearch />
      <span>Search</span>
    </div>
  ),
};
tsx

Type Definition

type ButtonProps = {
  /** Button children element */
  children: React.ReactNode;
  /** Show loading spinner and disable button */
  isLoading?: boolean;
  /** Button color variant */
  variants?: 'primary' | 'secondary';
  /** Disable the button and add not-allowed cursor */
  disabled?: boolean;
} & React.ComponentPropsWithoutRef<'button'>;
tsx

If you are using TypeScript, you can directly add JSDoc to the type definition, and it will automatically generate the props description 🤯

Screenshot

Awesome.

Deploying on Vercel

To deploy on Vercel, you need to create a separate deployment with your Next.js page, then add this custom configuration

Hate config? Use my starter & expansion

This is a battery-packed starter with installable expansion just by using a single command in the terminal.

Check out the ts-nextjs-tailwind-starter!

Storybook Expansion

I created this expansion to easily configure the project, this will do all of the above tutorials, suitable to be used with my starter, you probably can use it to an existing project. No promise ✌

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/theodorusclarence/expansion-pack/main/storybook/trigger.sh | bash -s
bash

Expansion pack repository

Plop Generator

The expansion pack is also equipped with a plop generator to easily create a storybook file for your component