storybook-addon-code-editor

A Storybook add-on for live editing stories. Supports React and TypeScript.

See it in action.

See an example project using this add-on.

What is it?

This is a Storybook addon that enables live editing of React components with real-time previews. Think of it like a lightweight CodeSandbox, directly in stories or MDX pages.

It uses Monaco Editor (VS Code for the browser) for an excellent TypeScript editing experience.

Get started

1. Install as a dev dependency:

npm install --save-dev storybook-addon-code-editor
# Or yarn:
yarn add --dev storybook-addon-code-editor

2. Add storybook-addon-code-editor in your .storybook/main.ts file and ensure the staticDirs, addons, and framework fields contain the following:

// .storybook/main.ts
import type { StorybookConfig } from '@storybook/react-vite';
import { getCodeEditorStaticDirs } from 'storybook-addon-code-editor/getStaticDirs';

const config: StorybookConfig = {
  staticDirs: [...getCodeEditorStaticDirs(__filename)],
  addons: ['storybook-addon-code-editor'],
  framework: {
    name: '@storybook/react-vite',
    options: {},
  },
};

export default config;

staticDirs sets a list of directories of static files to be loaded by Storybook. The editor (monaco-editor) requires these extra static files to be available at runtime.

Additional static files can be added using the getExtraStaticDir helper from storybook-addon-code-editor/getStaticDirs:

// .storybook/main.ts
import {
  getCodeEditorStaticDirs,
  getExtraStaticDir,
} from 'storybook-addon-code-editor/getStaticDirs';

const config: StorybookConfig =  {
  staticDirs: [
    ...getCodeEditorStaticDirs(__filename),
    // files will be available at: /monaco-editor/esm/*
    getExtraStaticDir('monaco-editor/esm'),

Important:

@storybook/react-vite is the only supported framework at this time.

API

Playground

Use the Playground component in MDX format.

// MyComponent.stories.mdx
import { Playground } from 'storybook-addon-code-editor'

<Playground code="export default () => <h1>Hello</h1>" />

// MyComponent.stories.mdx
import { Playground } from 'storybook-addon-code-editor';
import \* as MyLibrary from './index';
import storyCode from './MyStory.source.tsx?raw';

// TypeScript might complain about not finding this import or
// importing things from .d.ts files wihtout `import type`.
// Ignore this, we need the string contents of this file.
// @ts-ignore
import MyLibraryTypes from '../dist/types.d.ts?raw';

<Playground
  availableImports={{ 'my-library': MyLibrary }}
  code={storyCode}
  height="560px"
  id="unique id used to save edited code until the page is reloaded"
  modifyEditor={(monaco, editor) => {
    // editor docs: https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-editor/api/interfaces/monaco.editor.IStandaloneCodeEditor.html
    // monaco docs: https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-editor/api/modules/monaco.html
    editor.getModel().updateOptions({ tabSize: 2 });
    monaco.editor.setTheme('vs-dark');
    monaco.languages.typescript.typescriptDefaults.addExtraLib(
      MyLibraryTypes,
      'file:///node_modules/my-library/index.d.ts',
    );
  }}
/>

Playground props:

interface PlaygroundProps {
  availableImports?: {
    [importSpecifier: string]: {
      [namedImport: string]: any;
    };
  };
  code?: string;
  defaultEditorOptions?: Monaco.editor.IEditorOptions;
  height?: string;
  id?: string | number | symbol;
  modifyEditor?: (monaco: Monaco, editor: Monaco.editor.IStandaloneCodeEditor) => any;
}

React is automatically imported if code does not import it. React TypeScript definitions will be automatically loaded if @types/react is available.

makeLiveEditStory

Use the makeLiveEditStory function in traditional stories to show a code editor panel:

// MyComponent.stories.ts
import type { Meta, StoryObj } from '@storybook/react';
import { makeLiveEditStory } from 'storybook-addon-code-editor';
import * as MyLibrary from './index';
import storyCode from './MyStory.source.tsx?raw';

const meta = {
  // Story defaults
} satisfies Meta<typeof MyLibrary.MyComponent>;

export default meta;

type Story = StoryObj<typeof meta>;

export const MyStory: Story = {
  // Story config
};

makeLiveEditStory(MyStory, {
  availableImports: { 'my-library': MyLibrary },
  code: storyCode,
});

makeLiveEditStory options:

interface LiveEditStoryOptions {
  availableImports?: {
    [importSpecifier: string]: {
      [namedImport: string]: any;
    };
  };
  code: string;
  modifyEditor?: (monaco: Monaco, editor: Monaco.editor.IStandaloneCodeEditor) => any;
  defaultEditorOptions?: Monaco.editor.IEditorOptions;
}

setupMonaco

setupMonaco allows customization of monaco-editor.

Use this in your .storybook/preview.ts to add type definitions or integrations.

Check out examples of monaco-editor with different configurations.

// .storybook/preview.ts
import { setupMonaco } from 'storybook-addon-code-editor';

setupMonaco({
  // https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-editor/typedoc/interfaces/Environment.html
  monacoEnvironment: {
    getWorker(moduleId, label) {
      ...
    },
  },
  // onMonacoLoad is called when monaco is first loaded, before an editor instance is created.
  onMonacoLoad(monaco) {
    ...
  },
});

setupMonaco options:

interface MonacoSetup {
  monacoEnvironment?: Monaco.Environment;
  onMonacoLoad?: (monaco: Monaco) => any;
}

Contributing

Install dependencies

npm install

Run example

npm run start-example

When making changes to the library, the server needs to be manually restarted.

Run tests

npm run test

Format code

npm run format

Build library

npm run build

Commits

Use conventional commits to allow automatic versioned releases.

• fix: represents bug fixes, and correlates to a SemVer patch.
• feat: represents a new feature, and correlates to a SemVer minor.
• feat!:, or fix!:, refactor!:, etc., represent a breaking change (indicated by the !) and will result in a SemVer major.

Publishing

The automated release-please PR to the main branch can be merged to deploy a release.