dowel

An opinionated React component library. One look, well made. No config, no forking, no theme bikeshedding.

dowel.sh · MIT

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A dowel is the small precision-turned pin that joins two pieces of wood. Identical, unglamorous, load-bearing. That is what a component is.

pnpm add dowel

import "dowel/dowel.css";
import { Button } from "dowel";

<Button variant="primary">Ship it</Button>;

That is the whole setup. No Tailwind, no PostCSS config, no preset, no components.json, no copy-in generator.

What dowel is

• A real package. Import components, bump a version, get the fixes. Your UI does not drift across apps.
• Opinionated on purpose. There is no per-component override API. Retheming is two CSS variables: --dowel-hue and --dowel-accent.
• Light and dark from day one, in one stylesheet, by class, data attribute or system preference.
• Accessible by construction. Behaviour comes from Base UI; every component is keyboard-tested and axe-checked.

What dowel is not

Not headless, not framework-agnostic, not a Tailwind plugin, not customisable per component. If you need a different button, dowel is the wrong library — that is the point.

Credit

dowel is an homage to the craft of Linear. Their interface is the clearest argument I know that density, restraint and one well-chosen hue beat a hundred configuration options.

I studied the visual language — the colour relationships, the type scale, the 28px control rhythm, the two elevation tiers — and reimplemented it from measurements. dowel ships none of Linear's assets: not their logo, not their icons, not their licensed typefaces.

dowel is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Linear.

Built by Karn Gyan under karnstack.

Status

Pre-1.0 and moving. The API will change between minor versions until it has lived in enough real apps to deserve a 1.0.0.

Licence

MIT