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How to setup shadcn-svelte in a Vite project.

Add TailwindCSS

Use the Svelte CLI to add Tailwind CSS to your project.

pnpm dlx sv add tailwindcss

Edit tsconfig.json file

The current version of Vite splits TypeScript configuration into three files, two of which need to be edited. Add the baseUrl and paths properties to the compilerOptions section of the tsconfig.json and tsconfig.app.json files:

tsconfig.json
{
  "files": [],
  "references": [
    { "path": "./tsconfig.app.json" },
    { "path": "./tsconfig.node.json" }
  ],
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "paths": {
      "$lib": ["./src/lib"],
      "$lib/*": ["./src/lib/*"]
    }
  }
}

Edit tsconfig.app.json file

Add the following code to the tsconfig.app.json file to resolve paths, for your IDE:

tsconfig.app.json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    // ...
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "paths": {
      "$lib": ["./src/lib"],
      "$lib/*": ["./src/lib/*"]
    }
  }
}

Update vite.config.ts

Add the following code to the vite.config.ts so your app can resolve paths without error:

vite.config.ts
import path from "path";
 
export default defineConfig({
  // ... other options
  resolve: {
    alias: {
      $lib: path.resolve("./src/lib"),
    },
  },
});

Run the CLI

pnpm dlx shadcn-svelte@latest init

Configure components.json

You will be asked a few questions to configure components.json:

Which base color would you like to use? › Slate
Where is your global CSS file? (this file will be overwritten) › src/app.css
Configure the import alias for lib: › $lib
Configure the import alias for components: › $lib/components
Configure the import alias for utils: › $lib/utils
Configure the import alias for hooks: › $lib/hooks
Configure the import alias for ui: › $lib/components/ui

That's it

You can now start adding components to your project.

pnpm dlx shadcn-svelte@latest add button

The command above will add the Button component to your project. You can then import it like this:

<script lang="ts">
  import { Button } from "$lib/components/ui/button/index.js";
</script>
 
<Button>Click me</Button>