headless-tooltip

A lightweight, customizable tooltip component for React with zero styling opinions. Built with accessibility in mind.

Perfect for modern web applications. Works seamlessly with React 17, 18, and 19. Built with TypeScript and accessibility in mind.

🎮 Live Demo | 📦 NPM Package

If you find Headless-Tooltip useful, please consider giving it a ⭐

Table of Contents

• Features
• Installation
• Basic Usage
• API Reference
• Accessibility
• Advanced Usage
• Animation Example
• Contributing

Features

• 🎨 Truly headless: No predefined styles, full control over tooltip appearance
• ♿ Accessible: Follows WAI-ARIA Tooltip Pattern
• 🧩 Flexible: Supports custom content, including HTML and React components
• 📱 Responsive: Automatically adapts to different screen sizes
• 🔄 Interactive mode: Optional interactive tooltips that remain visible when hovering
• 🏹 Customizable arrow: Optional arrow that can be styled and positioned
• 🌐 Placement options: 12 different placement positions for tooltip
• ⌨️ Keyboard friendly: Fully keyboard accessible with proper focus management
• ✨ Animation ready: Built-in support for CSS transitions and animations
• 🎭 State-based styling: CSS data attributes for different tooltip states

Installation

npm

npm install headless-tooltip

yarn

yarn add headless-tooltip

pnpm

pnpm add headless-tooltip

Basic Usage

import { Tooltip } from 'headless-tooltip';

function Example() {
  return (
    <Tooltip content="This is a tooltip message">
      <button>Hover me</button>
    </Tooltip>
  );
}

Styled Example

import { Tooltip } from 'headless-tooltip';

function StyledExample() {
  return (
    <Tooltip
      content={<span>This is a tooltip message</span>}
      placement="bottom"
      arrow={true}
      className="max-w-80 rounded-lg bg-gray-900 px-3 py-2 text-xs font-normal text-white"
      arrowClassName="bg-gray-900"
    >
      <button className="px-4 py-2 bg-blue-500 text-white rounded">
        Hover me
      </button>
    </Tooltip>
  );
}

API Reference

Props

| Prop | Type | Default | Description | | -------------------------- | ------------------------- | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | children | React.ReactNode | (required) | The element that triggers the tooltip | | content | React.ReactNode | (required) | The content to be displayed in the tooltip | | placement | Placement | 'top' | Tooltip placement relative to the trigger element | | className | string | '' | Additional CSS classes to apply to the tooltip | | offset | number | 4 | Distance between tooltip and trigger element in pixels | | zIndex | number | undefined | Z-index value for the tooltip | | open | boolean | undefined | Control tooltip visibility (makes it a controlled component) | | openDelay | number | 300 | Delay in ms before showing the tooltip | | closeDelay | number | 200 | Delay in ms before hiding the tooltip | | disableInteractive | boolean | false | If true, tooltip will close when mouse leaves trigger | | onOpenChange | (open: boolean) => void | undefined | Callback when tooltip visibility changes | | portalContainer | HTMLElement | document.body | DOM element where tooltip portal will be rendered | | arrow | boolean | false | Whether to show an arrow pointing to the trigger | | arrowSize | number | 12 | Size of the arrow in pixels | | arrowClassName | string | undefined | Additional CSS classes to apply to the arrow | | transition | object | undefined | Configuration for tooltip enter/exit animations | | transition.enable | boolean | false | Whether to enable transition animations | | transition.enterDuration | number | 300 | Duration of the enter animation in milliseconds | | transition.exitDuration | number | 300 | Duration of the exit animation in milliseconds |

Placement Types

The placement prop accepts the following values:

• 'top'
• 'right'
• 'bottom'
• 'left'
• 'top-start'
• 'top-end'
• 'right-start'
• 'right-end'
• 'bottom-start'
• 'bottom-end'
• 'left-start'
• 'left-end'

Accessibility

This tooltip implementation follows the WAI-ARIA Tooltip Pattern to ensure accessibility compliance:

• Uses appropriate ARIA attributes (role="tooltip", aria-describedby)
• Supports keyboard navigation with proper focus management
• Dismissible with Escape key
• Works with screen readers
• Triggered by both hover and focus events

Browser Support

The component is compatible with all modern browsers:

• Chrome (and Chromium-based browsers)
• Firefox
• Safari
• Edge

Advanced Usage

Controlled Mode

import { useState } from 'react';
import { Tooltip } from 'headless-tooltip';

function ControlledExample() {
  const [isOpen, setIsOpen] = useState(false);

  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={() => setIsOpen(!isOpen)}>Toggle Tooltip</button>

      <Tooltip
        content="This is a controlled tooltip"
        open={isOpen}
        onOpenChange={setIsOpen}
      >
        <button>Hover me too</button>
      </Tooltip>
    </div>
  );
}

Interactive Tooltip

import { Tooltip } from 'headless-tooltip';

function InteractiveExample() {
  return (
    <Tooltip
      content={
        <div>
          <p>Interactive tooltip with a button:</p>
          <button onClick={() => alert('Clicked!')}>Click me</button>
        </div>
      }
      disableInteractive={false}
    >
      <button>Hover for interactive tooltip</button>
    </Tooltip>
  );
}

Animation Example

import { Tooltip } from 'headless-tooltip';
import './animations.css';

function ZoomTooltip() {
  return (
    <Tooltip
      content="This tooltip zooms in and out!"
      className="tooltip-base zoom-in-out"
      transition={{
        enable: true,
        enterDuration: 400,
        exitDuration: 400,
      }}
    >
      <button>Hover for zoom animation</button>
    </Tooltip>
  );
}

/* animations.css */
.tooltip-base {
  background: #333;
  color: white;
  padding: 8px 12px;
  border-radius: 6px;
  font-size: 14px;
}

/* Zoom In/Out Animation */
.zoom-in-out[data-enter] {
  opacity: 0;
}

.zoom-in-out[data-entering] {
  opacity: 1;
  animation: zoomIn 400ms ease-out;
}

.zoom-in-out[data-exiting] {
  animation: zoomOut 400ms ease-in;
}

/* Keyframe Animations */
@keyframes zoomIn {
  0% {
    opacity: 0;
    transform: scale(0.3);
  }
  50% {
    opacity: 1;
  }
  100% {
    opacity: 1;
    transform: scale(1);
  }
}

@keyframes zoomOut {
  0% {
    opacity: 1;
    transform: scale(1);
  }
  50% {
    opacity: 1;
    transform: scale(0.3);
  }
  100% {
    opacity: 0;
    transform: scale(0.3);
  }
}

Contributing

Contributions are always welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT