← Atlas · Topics: components, agents-and-prompts
HeroUI
- Site
- heroui.com
- Type
- component library
- Verdict
- Very useful
- Licence
- Conditional licence, mixed
mixedthe open-source libraries are free under Apache 2.0 since v3.0.3 (MIT before; repo heroui-inc/heroui, about 30.8k GitHub stars at review). HeroUI Pro sells perpetual licences in Web, Mobile and combined editions with a year of updates and AI credits; the prices load client-side and were not captured at review - Agent channels
- mcp, llms-txt, cli, api, skill
- Pricing
- freemium
- Reviewed
What it is
HeroUI is the renamed NextUI, maintained by HeroUI Inc (a Y Combinator S24 company). Version 3 is a ground-up rewrite. The web package @heroui/react (3.2.6 at review) is built on React Aria Components and Tailwind CSS v4, uses compound components (for example Card.Header), and supports React Server Components. A separate React Native library, HeroUI Native, reached 1.0.10. At review the llms.txt index listed about 72 web and 39 native component pages. The web set covers forms, overlays, calendars and date pickers, colour pickers, a virtualised table, toasts, toolbars and progress meters. The v2 docs stay online at v2.heroui.com.
When to open it
Open it for a React or React Native product that wants a polished default look with solid accessibility, and when you would rather install a versioned package than copy source into the repo. It is also one of the few libraries sharing a design language across web and native.
Most useful
- React Aria foundation: keyboard, focus and screen-reader behaviour handled for complex widgets like ComboBox, DatePicker and Table
- Theme Builder and design tokens (colours, radius) exposed as CSS variables on Tailwind v4
- Migration guides for v2 to v3, including a version written for AI assistants
- Pro: extra components, full templates (dashboard, mail, CRM, finances) and an AI chat builder
Using it with agents
Among the most agent-ready libraries in this batch. There is a root llms.txt with separate web and native indexes. The MCP packages, such as @heroui/react-mcp, are free, need no account, and come with setup guides for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf and others. Agent Skills install into .claude/skills/ or .agents/skills/. The site also offers a read-only docs agent API with an OpenAPI spec, and a CLI that can inject a compact docs index into a project for coding agents.
Watch out for
- Models trained on NextUI or HeroUI v2 will write v2 APIs; point agents at the v3 docs or migration index
- v3 is a breaking rewrite, and minor releases (such as 3.2.0) still changed Radio, Checkbox and Switch composition
- React 19+ is required for the web library
Reusable ideas
- Build styled components on a proven accessibility layer instead of writing ARIA logic yourself
- Keep web and native libraries on one token set so a brand carries across platforms
- Publish a migration guide aimed at AI assistants alongside the human one