kbar

kbar is a simple plug-n-play React component to add a fast, portable, and extensible command + k interface to your site.

Background

Command + k interfaces are used to create a web experience where any type of action users would be able to do via clicking can be done through a command menu.

With macOS's Spotlight and Linear's command + k experience in mind, kbar aims to be a simple abstraction to add a fast and extensible command + k menu to your site.

Features

Built in animations and fully customizable components
Keyboard navigation support; e.g. control + n or control + p for the navigation wizards
Keyboard shortcuts support for registering keystrokes to specific actions; e.g. hit t for Twitter
Nested actions enable creation of rich navigation experiences; e.g. hit backspace to navigate to the previous action
Performance as a first class priority; tens of thousands of actions? No problem.
A simple data structure which enables anyone to easily build their own custom components

Usage

Have a fully functioning command menu for your site in minutes. First, install kbar.

npm install kbar

There is a single provider which you will wrap your app around; you do not have to wrap your entire app; however, there are no performance implications by doing so.

// app.tsx
import { KBarProvider } from "kbar";

function MyApp() {
  return <KBarProvider>// ...</KBarProvider>;
}

Let's add a few default actions. Actions are the core of kbar – an action define what to execute when a user selects it.

  const actions = [
    {
      id: "blog",
      name: "Blog",
      shortcut: ["b"],
      keywords: "writing words",
      perform: () => (window.location.pathname = "blog"),
    },
    {
      id: "contact",
      name: "Contact",
      shortcut: ["c"],
      keywords: "email",
      perform: () => (window.location.pathname = "contact"),
    },
  ]

  return (
    <KBarProvider actions={actions}>
      // ...
    </KBarProvider>
  );
}

Next, we will pull in the provided UI components from kbar:

// app.tsx
import {
  KBarProvider,
  KBarPortal,
  KBarPositioner,
  KBarAnimator,
  KBarSearch,
  useMatches,
  NO_GROUP
} from "kbar";

// ...
  return (
    <KBarProvider actions={actions}>
      <KBarPortal> // Renders the content outside the root node
        <KBarPositioner> // Centers the content
          <KBarAnimator> // Handles the show/hide and height animations
            <KBarSearch /> // Search input
          </KBarAnimator>
        </KBarPositioner>
      </KBarPortal>
      <MyApp />
    </KBarProvider>;
  );
}

At this point hitting cmd+k will animate in a search input and nothing more.

kbar provides a few utilities to render a performant list of search results.

useMatches at its core returns a list of results based on the current search query, grouped by action.section
KBarResults handles virtualizing your results

Combine the two utilities to create a powerful search interface:

import {
  // ...
  KBarResults,
  useMatches,
  NO_GROUP,
} from "kbar";

// ...
// <KBarAnimator>
//   <KBarSearch />
<RenderResults />;
// ...

function RenderResults() {
  const groups = useMatches();
  const flattened = React.useMemo(
    () =>
      groups.reduce((acc, curr) => {
        acc.push(curr.name);
        acc.push(...curr.actions);
        return acc;
      }, []),
    [groups]
  );

  return (
    <KBarResults
      items={flattened.filter((i) => i !== NO_GROUP)}
      onRender={({ item, active }) =>
        typeof item === "string" ? (
          <div>{item}</div>
        ) : (
          <div
            style={{
              background: active ? "#eee" : "transparent",
            }}
          >
            {item.name}
          </div>
        )
      }
    />
  );
}

Hit cmd+k (or ctrl+k) and you should see a primitive command menu. kbar allows you to have full control over all aspects of your command menu – refer to the docs to get an understanding of further capabilities. Looking forward to see what you build.

Contributing to kbar

Contributions are welcome!

New features

Please open a new issue so we can discuss prior to moving forward.

Bug fixes

Please open a new Pull Request for the given bug fix.

Nits and spelling mistakes

Please open a new issue for things like spelling mistakes and README tweaks – we will group the issues together and tackle them as a group. Please do not create a PR for it!

tobiasfoerg / kbar