devtools.fm: Developer Tools, Open Source, Software Development Jeppe Reinhold - Storybook Modernization
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Jan 5, 2026 Jeppe Reinhold, a core contributor to Storybook at Chromatic, shares insights on major advancements in Storybook’s architecture. He discusses the shift to Vite for speed enhancements, ESM migration, and dramatic dependency reduction. Jeppe highlights how the Component Story Format has evolved, enabling better testing and tooling. He also unveils the integration of AI with MCP servers, allowing coding agents to interact with component libraries effectively. The conversation dives into how these innovations make Storybook an essential tool for modern UI development.
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Performance Reboot Through Vite And Slimming
- Moving Storybook from Webpack to Vite and making loading lazy produced a dramatic startup speed improvement.
- The team also reduced package count and optimized dependencies repeatedly to shrink runtime size.
Static Story Format Unlocks Speed
- CSF (Component Story Format) enabled static analysis so Storybook can list stories without executing user code.
- CSF3's static exports allow immediate sidebar population and much faster workflows for large story collections.
Develop Components In Isolation
- Use Storybook as a sidecar app to develop components in isolation rather than only inside your main app.
- Isolate UI units to speed iteration and simplify debugging of component states like modal forms.