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Types of addons

Each Storybook addon is classified into two general categories, UI-based or Presets. Each type of addons feature is documented here. Use this as a reference when creating your addon.

UI-based addons

UI-based addons allow you to customize Storybook's UI with the following elements.

Panel addons allow you to add your own UI in Storybook's addon panel. This is the most common type of addon in the ecosystem. For example, the official @storybook/actions and @storybook/a11y use this pattern.

Storybook panel

Use this boilerplate code to add a new Panel to Storybook's UI:

addon-panel/manager.js

import React from 'react';
 
import { AddonPanel } from '@storybook/components';
 
import { useGlobals, addons, types } from '@storybook/manager-api';
 
addons.register('my/panel', () => {
  addons.add('my-panel-addon/panel', {
    title: 'Example Storybook panel',
    //👇 Sets the type of UI element in Storybook
    type: types.PANEL,
    render: ({ active, key }) => (
      <AddonPanel key="panel" active={isActive}>
        <h2>I'm a panel addon in Storybook</h2>
      </AddonPanel>
    ),
  });
});

Toolbars

Toolbar addons allow you to add your own custom tools in Storybook's Toolbar. For example, the official @storybook/backgrounds and the @storybook/addon-outline use this pattern.

Storybook toolbar addon

Use this boilerplate code to add a new button to Storybook's Toolbar:

addon-toolbar/manager.js

import React from 'react';
 
import { addons, types } from '@storybook/manager-api';
 
import { Icons, IconButton } from '@storybook/components';
 
addons.register('my/toolbar', () => {
  addons.add('my-toolbar-addon/toolbar', {
    title: 'Example Storybook toolbar',
    //👇 Sets the type of UI element in Storybook
    type: types.TOOL,
    //👇 Shows the Toolbar UI element if either the Canvas or Docs tab is active
    match: ({ viewMode }) => !!(viewMode && viewMode.match(/^(story|docs)$/)),
    render: ({ active }) => (
      <IconButton active={active} title="Show a Storybook toolbar">
        <Icons icon="outline" />
      </IconButton>
    ),
  });
});

The icon element used in the example loads the icons from the @storybook/components package. See here for the list of available icons that you can use.

Tabs

Tab addons allow you to create your own custom tabs in Storybook. For example, the official @storybook/addon-docs uses this pattern.

Storybook tab addon

Use this boilerplate code to add a new Tab to Storybook's UI:

addon-tab/manager.js

import React from 'react';
 
import { addons, types } from '@storybook/manager-api';
 
addons.register('my/tab', () => {
  addons.add('my-panel-addon/tab', {
    type: types.TAB,
    title: 'Example Storybook tab',
    //👇 Checks the current route for the story
    route: ({ storyId, refId }) => (refId ? `/mytab/${refId}_${storyId}` : `/mytab/${storyId}`),
    //👇 Shows the Tab UI element in mytab view mode
    match: ({ viewMode }) => viewMode === 'mytab',
    render: () => (
      <div>
        <h2>I'm a tabbed addon in Storybook</h2>
      </div>
    ),
  });
});

Learn how to write your own addon that includes these UI elements here.

Preset addons

Storybook preset addons are grouped collections of babel, webpack, and addons configurations to integrate Storybook and other technologies. For example the official preset-create-react-app.

Use this boilerplate code while writing your own preset addon.

.storybook/my-preset.js

export default {
  managerWebpack: async (config, options) => {
    // Update config here
    return config;
  },
  webpackFinal: async (config, options) => {
    return config;
  },
  babel: async (config, options) => {
    return config;
  },
};

Learn more about the Storybook addon ecosystem