Manual setup for a minimal Storybook

If you’re having issues with the cli or you just want to know what you’re installing then this is for you. I’ve put together what I consider the minimal setup. From there you can browse addons and docs to see how to enhance your setup.

Heres a video of me following the same steps:

I’ll use bun here but replace with any package manager.

Also this example uses react with vite. If you’re using a different framework you can swap @storybook/react and @storybook/react-vite for the alternative.

Packages

Heres the minimal packages you’ll need to get started with a react storybook.

bun add @storybook/react @storybook/react-vite @storybook/addon-essentials storybook

Scripts

Add to your scripts in package.json

"storybook": "storybook dev -p 6006",
"build-storybook": "storybook build"

Configuration files

Add a .storybook folder with a main.ts and preview.ts.

main.ts

Find the docs here

// .storybook/main.ts
import type { StorybookConfig } from "@storybook/react-vite";

const config: StorybookConfig = {
  stories: ["../src/**/*.mdx", "../src/**/*.stories.@(js|jsx|mjs|ts|tsx)"],
  addons: ["@storybook/addon-essentials"],
  framework: {
    name: "@storybook/react-vite",
    options: {},
  },
  docs: {
    autodocs: "tag",
  },
};
export default config;

preview.ts

Start here to learn about the preview

// .storybook/preview.ts
import type { Preview } from "@storybook/react";

const preview: Preview = {
  parameters: {
    controls: {
      matchers: {
        color: /(background|color)$/i,
        date: /Date$/i,
      },
    },
  },
};

export default preview;

Example story

Lets add a component file

// src/Button.tsx
export const Button = ({ text }: { text: string }) => {
  return <button>{text}</button>;
};

Then we create a stories file and import it there.

Look here to learn about writing stories

// src/Button.stories.tsx
import { Button } from "./Button";

export default {
  component: Button,
};

export const Primary = {
  args: {
    text: "Primary Button",
  },
};

Run it!

Now run this to see your storybook in action.

bun run storybook

The final product should look like this:

All done!

Thats the basics, now I recommend you explore the docs to learn more about how to customize storybook for your needs. Especially look into interactions they are really nice.

Find me here: twitter: @Danny_H_W github: dannyhw