reclassify

reclassify allows you to construct className strings directly in JSX without using libraries like clsx and classNames.

// Before:
<button className={
  clsx("btn", "btn-primary", { "btn-disabled": isLoading })
}>
  Save
</button>

// After:
<button className={
  // No need for clsx
  ["btn", "btn-primary", { "btn-disabled": isLoading }]
}>
  Save
</button>

It constructs className strings for intrinsic elements only. Custom components keep their declared className prop types.

Why use this

• No imports needed: You no longer have to import clsx or classnames in every file, the JSX runtime handles classname construction automatically for all intrinsic elements.
• Type-safe: TypeScript knows that className on intrinsic elements accepts arrays, objects, and nested combinations. No as string casts or loose typing.
• Drop-in setup: One tsconfig.json change (jsxImportSource) and your entire app is covered. No Babel plugins, no wrappers, no HOCs. It's also backwards-compatible.
• Familiar syntax: If you've used clsx, classnames, Vue's :class, or Svelte's class: directive, the array/object pattern already feels natural.

Install

npm install reclassify # Requires React >= 17 (automatic JSX runtime)

Usage

<div className="plain-string" /> // Good ol' strings
<div className={["btn", "btn-primary"]} /> // Arrays
<div className={{ active: true, disabled: false }} /> // Objects
<div className={["btn", { active: isActive }, ["nested"]]} /> // Arrays containing objects

There are two common ways to use reclassify, depending on whether you are using TypeScript or Babel to compile:

TypeScript

Set jsxImportSource when using the automatic JSX runtime:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "jsx": "react-jsx",
    "jsxImportSource": "reclassify"
  }
}

You can also opt in per file:

/** @jsxImportSource reclassify */

They will type-check cleanly.

Babel

Configure @babel/preset-react with the automatic runtime and importSource:

{
  "presets": [
    [
      "@babel/preset-react",
      {
        "runtime": "automatic",
        "importSource": "reclassify"
      }
    ]
  ]
}

[!NOTE]

If you're upgrading from older API names:

• classify was renamed to cx,
• defaultClassify was renamed to cxDefault,
• configure({ fn }) was renamed to configure({ cx }).

Intrinsic JSX className handling is otherwise unchanged.

How it works

Under the hood, reclassify is a custom JSX runtime for React that lets you pass arrays and objects as className on intrinsic elements.

When you set jsxImportSource: "reclassify" or Babel importSource: "reclassify", your JSX compiles against reclassify's runtime instead of React's default runtime. This is similar to how Preact works.

By default, reclassify uses clsx for className string construction.

At runtime, reclassify wraps React's jsx, jsxs, and jsxDEV functions and checks each element before it is created:

1. If the element is an intrinsic element like <div> or <button>, reclassify looks at its className.
   1. If className is already a string, the props are passed through unchanged.
   2. If className is an array, object, or other supported value, reclassify calls cx() to turn it into the final string React expects.
2. If you called configure({ cx }), cx points to your provided function and reclassify uses it instead of the default clsx-based implementation.

Custom components are not rewritten. They keep their existing className prop contract unless they call cx() themselves.

On the type side, reclassify also widens className for intrinsic JSX elements so TypeScript accepts the same array/object values that the runtime can classify.

Once configured, intrinsic elements accept arrays and objects for className with full TypeScript support — no type errors:

Custom construction

If you want to replace the built-in class construction function, before your app starts rendering JSX, call configure() once with your custom implementation. It returns a function that restores the previous construction function.

Here's an example using the cn util commonly-found in shadcn projects.

import { configure } from "reclassify";
import { cn } from "@/lib/utils";

const restore = configure({ cx: cn });

// Later, if needed (e.g. in tests):
restore();

If you want to use tailwind-merge directly, compose it with cxDefault() so reclassify still handles arrays and objects before Tailwind class conflict resolution runs:

import { configure, cxDefault, type ClassValue } from "reclassify";
import { twMerge } from "tailwind-merge";

configure({
  cx(value: ClassValue) {
    return twMerge(cxDefault(value));
  },
});

// <div className={["px-2", "px-4", { "text-sm": false, "text-lg": true }]}>
// => <div className="px-4 text-lg">

Where to call configure()

configure() changes reclassify's internal construction function, which is stored at the module level (app-wide mutable state), so call it during startup rather than per component:

• Client-side rendering / SPAs (e.g. default Vite): Call it in your main entry module before render()
• Server-side rendering (e.g. Next.js): Call it in the earliest server entry and earliest client entry that render JSX (e.g. root layout component)

If your custom function wants to build on the default behavior, you can import cxDefault and use it:

import { configure, cxDefault, type ClassValue } from "reclassify";

configure({
  cx(value: ClassValue) {
    const constructed = cxDefault(value);
    return constructed ? `custom ${constructed}` : "custom";
  },
});

Manual construction

If you want the same behavior in custom components, the underlying function can be imported via cx:

import { cx } from "reclassify";

cx(["btn", 42, { active: true, disabled: false }, ["nested"]]);
// => "btn 42 active nested"

If a custom cx function is provided via configure(), the imported cx function points to that.

Supported values

• Non-empty strings are kept as-is. Empty strings are dropped.
• Truthy numbers are stringified and kept.
• Arrays are flattened depth-first.
• Objects contribute keys whose values are truthy.
• Standalone falsy values like false, 0, "", null, undefined, and NaN are ignored.

Workspace development

This repository uses Vite+ (vp) on top of a pnpm workspace. Get started with Vite+ here.

The publishable library stays at the root, with example apps in apps/vite and apps/next.

Useful commands:

• vp pack builds the library package.
• vp test runs the library test suite.
• vp check runs formatting, linting, and type-aware checks.
• vp run dev runs the library watcher with the Vite example app.
• vp run dev:next runs the library watcher with the Next.js example app.
• vp run build:vite typechecks and builds the Vite example app.
• vp run build:next builds the Next.js example app.
• vp run build:examples builds both example apps.
• vp run check runs the library validation plus both example app smoke tests.

Examples

Examples can be found in apps/:

• apps/vite: The Vite app demonstrates intrinsic className arrays and objects directly in JSX, plus a custom component that opts into the same pattern with cx.
• apps/next: The Next.js app shows the same API through a framework setup using jsxImportSource: "reclassify" in tsconfig.json.

Both apps consume reclassify through the workspace package itself rather than importing source files from outside their own package directories.

Related tools

If you're evaluating approaches to className construction, these tools are also worth knowing about.

Closest alternatives

• reclsx and clsx-react: The closest runtime-level alternatives to reclassify.
• babel-plugin-transform-jsx-classnames: A compile-time approach that is conceptually close to reclassify.

reclassify's advantage in this group is that it pairs direct-in-JSX className authoring with intrinsic-element TypeScript support and a swappable app-wide construction function via configure().

Adjacent tools

• clsx and classnames: The most common manual helpers for conditionally constructing className strings.
• class-variance-authority and tailwind-variants: Higher-level APIs for component variants and class composition.
• tailwind-merge: Useful alongside reclassify when you want Tailwind conflict resolution.

Compared with manual helper libraries like clsx and classnames, reclassify lets intrinsic JSX elements accept array and object className values directly through a custom JSX runtime instead of requiring a helper call in each component.

License

MIT