@meonode/ui

Type-safe React components without JSX

A production-ready component library that replaces JSX with function-based composition, featuring direct CSS prop styling, context-based theming, automatic memoization, and full React Server Components support—powered by @emotion/react.

Core Concept

MeoNode UI eliminates JSX while maintaining full React compatibility through functional composition. Style components with CSS properties as props, leverage automatic theme resolution via React Context, and benefit from intelligent caching without manual optimization.

JSX Pattern:

<div style={{ padding: '20px', borderRadius: '12px' }}>
  <h2 style={{ fontSize: '1.5rem', marginBottom: '8px' }}>{title}</h2>
  {children}
</div>

MeoNode Pattern:

Div({
  padding: '20px',
  borderRadius: '12px',
  backgroundColor: 'theme.primary',
  children: [H2(title, { fontSize: '1.5rem', marginBottom: '8px' }), ...children],
})

Features

Function-Based Composition

Plain JavaScript functions replace JSX—no build transforms, no syntax extensions. Compose UIs as first-class function trees with full TypeScript inference.

Direct CSS-in-Props

Pass CSS properties directly to components. No separate styled-components declarations, no className juggling. All valid CSS properties work as props with full type safety.

Button('Submit', {
  padding: '12px 24px',
  backgroundColor: 'theme.primary',
  borderRadius: 8,
  transition: 'all 0.2s ease',
  css: {
    ':hover': { transform: 'scale(1.05)' },
  },
})

Advanced Portal System

Manage complex UI layers like modals, drawers, and overlays with a powerful stack-based portal system. Supports nested portals and state synchronization.

Key Features:

• Global Layout Integration: Define the provider and host at the root for app-wide access.
• Auto-Sync: Keep portal content in sync with parent state automatically.
• Nested Portals: Open portals from within other portals easily.
• Stack-based management: Automatically manages multiple overlapping layers.

// 1. Setup at Layout Level
const RootLayout = ({ children }: { children: ReactNode }) => 
  PortalProvider({
    children: [
      ...children,
      PortalHost() // Portals render here, on top of content
    ]
  })

// 2. Define data interface and portal content
interface MyData {
  count: number;
  setCount: React.Dispatch<React.SetStateAction<number>>;
}

const MyPortalContent = ({ data, close }: PortalLayerProps<MyData>) => 
  Div({
    children: [
      Text(`Count: ${data?.count}`),
      Button('Increment', { onClick: () => data?.setCount(c => c + 1) }),
      Button('Close', { onClick: close })
    ]
  })

// 3. Use anywhere in the tree
const MyComponent = () => {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)
  // Auto-sync: portal updates whenever count changes
  const portal = usePortal<MyData>({ count, setCount })

  return Div({
    children: [
      Button('Open Modal', { 
        onClick: () => portal.open(MyPortalContent) 
      })
    ]
  })
}

Context-Based Theming

Theme values resolve automatically through React Context. Reference semantic tokens anywhere without prop drilling. Supports nested themes and dynamic switching.

ThemeProvider({
  theme: {
    mode: 'dark',
    system: {
      primary: { default: '#FF6B6B', content: '#4A0000' },
      spacing: { sm: 8, md: 16, lg: 24 },
    },
  },
  children: [
    /* your app */
  ],
})

Surgical Memoization

Memoize at node-level granularity—not just entire components. Control re-renders with precision by specifying dependency arrays directly on individual nodes.

Node-Level Memoization:

const UserCard = ({ user }) =>
  Div(
    {
      padding: 16,
      children: [
        H2(user.name), // Re-renders on any prop change
        Text(user.bio),
      ],
    },
    [user.id],
  ).render() // Only re-render when user.id changes

Component-Level Memoization:

Node(ExpensiveComponent, { data }, [data.id]).render()

React Server Components Compatible

Full RSC support with proper client/server component boundaries. Use in Next.js App Router, Remix, or any RSC-enabled environment without configuration.

Emotion-Powered Styling

Built on @emotion/react for:

• Automatic critical CSS extraction
• Vendor prefixing
• Dead code elimination
• Server-side rendering support

Smart Prop Differentiation

Automatically separates style props from DOM attributes. Pass onClick, aria-*, data-* alongside CSS props—MeoNode routes them correctly.

Button('Click Me', {
  padding: '12px', // → style
  color: 'theme.primary', // → style
  onClick: handleClick, // → DOM attribute
  'aria-label': 'Submit', // → DOM attribute
  disabled: isLoading, // → DOM attribute
})

Performance Benchmarks

MeoNode is built for high-performance applications, featuring an optimized caching system and iterative rendering engine.

Layout Rendering

| Metric | Value | Description | |:------------------------|:--------|:----------------------------------------------------| | Single-Page Layout | ~9ms | Full SPA layout with header, hero, features, etc. | | 10,000 Flat Nodes | ~304ms | Rendering 10k nodes at the same level | | 10,000 Nested Nodes | ~1604ms | Deeply nested structure (single parent-child chain) |

Memory Management

| Metric | Value | Description | |:---------------------------|:-------------|:-------------------------------------------------| | Navigation Memory Leak | -7.24 MB | Memory is efficiently reclaimed after navigation | | Mount/Unmount Cycles | Stable | No leaks detected over 200 cycles | | State Updates | Efficient | Handles heavy state changes without bloating |

Form Input Performance

| Metric | Value | Description | |:----------------------|:------------|:------------------------------------------------| | Avg Response Time | 2.54 ms | 100 controlled inputs with simulated typing | | Max Response Time | 4.09 ms | Worst-case scenario remains instant | | Optimization | deps | Granular updates prevent unnecessary re-renders |

React Comparison (10k Flat Nodes)

| Implementation | Time (ms) | Initial Mem | |:------------------------|:----------|:------------| | React.createElement | ~90ms | ~230 MB | | MeoNode | ~186ms | ~344 MB |

Note: While slightly slower in raw micro-benchmarks due to the feature-rich object syntax, MeoNode excels in real-world scenarios with its intelligent caching and memory management.

Quick Start

import { ThemeProvider, Center, Column, H1, Button, Text } from '@meonode/ui'

const theme = {
  mode: 'light',
  system: {
    primary: { default: '#FF6B6B', content: '#FFFFFF' },
    base: { default: '#F8F8F8', content: '#333333' },
  },
}

const App = () =>
  ThemeProvider({
    theme,
    children: [
      Center({
        padding: 40,
        backgroundColor: 'theme.base',
        children: Column({
          gap: 24,
          children: [
            H1('MeoNode UI', {
              fontSize: '3rem',
              color: 'theme.primary',
            }),
            Text('Type-safe React without JSX', {
              fontSize: '1.2rem',
              color: 'theme.base.content',
            }),
            Button('Get Started', {
              backgroundColor: 'theme.primary',
              color: 'theme.primary.content',
              padding: '12px 24px',
              borderRadius: 8,
              cursor: 'pointer',
              onClick: () => console.log('Started!'),
            }),
          ],
        }),
      }),
    ],
  }).render()

Architecture

Component Factory System Node factory + Component wrapper + semantic elements (Div, Button, etc.) enable both rapid prototyping and sophisticated component architectures.

Theme Resolution Engine Context-based theme propagation with automatic value resolution. Nested theme objects inherit and override parent values without explicit passing.

CSS Engine @emotion/react provides CSS-in-JS with automatic optimization, critical CSS extraction for SSR, and zero-runtime overhead in production builds.

Why MeoNode UI?

For Teams Building Design Systems:

• Context-based theme propagation
• Semantic token system ensures visual consistency
• Component composition patterns scale naturally
• Full TypeScript support catches design token errors

For Performance-Critical Applications:

• Emotion's CSS optimization and caching
• Surgical memoization at node granularity
• SSR-ready with critical CSS extraction
• RSC compatibility for modern React architectures

For Developer Productivity:

• No JSX compilation overhead
• Direct CSS-in-props reduces context switching
• Intelligent prop routing (style vs DOM attributes)
• Full autocomplete for all CSS properties
• Composable function trees with first-class JavaScript

Documentation

📚 Complete Documentation & Examples

🎮 Interactive Playground

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our contributing guidelines.

License

MIT © Ukasyah Rahmatullah Zada

📖 Full Documentation • 🐛 Issues • * 💬 Discussions*