---
title: Components
description: The third primitive: a small, curated set of accessible components composed from tokens and element styles.
---

> LoamUI documentation, generated from the same source as the live page —
> treat it as authoritative for `@loamui/core`.

# Components

The third of LoamUI's three primitives, built on the two beneath it. [Tokens](/docs/tokens) supply the colour and scale; [element styles](/docs/element-styles) supply the native baseline. Most of a component's look is decided before its own stylesheet exists, which is why the set stays small: components add the anatomy a bare element cannot, and nothing more.

## When to reach for one

Reach for a component when a native element needs structure it does not have on its own: a field that wires a label, description and error together; a dialog that traps focus; a menu with roving keyboard focus. For everything else, the two primitives beneath already carry the styling, so you compose the rest yourself rather than installing a component for it.

## What makes a LoamUI component

- **Context decides, props don't.** No size, variant or colour props. A region declares its intent and the components inside adapt; the container's width decides how they size.
- **Compose, don't configure.** Compound components expose their parts, element substitution goes through the `render` prop, and icons and loaders are detected children, not slot props.
- **Accessible by construction.** Real semantics, keyboard support and a shared focus-visible ring come from the platform, then the component wires the ARIA the platform leaves to you.

## Finding your way

The components are grouped by job in the sidebar: **Inputs**, **Data display**, **Feedback**, **Disclosures** and **Navigation**. Every page shows live examples, the real CSS that ships, and guidance on when to use it and when not.

> Because components are built from tokens and element styles, your own components can be too. A scoped class on a semantic element, styled with tokens, is a component in your codebase that themes through the cascade and needs no library at all.