How to write custom components

This guide is about writing your own components. If you are looking for a guide on how to use Nativewind with third-party components, see the third-party components guide.

Unless you are styling a custom native component, you should never have to use cssInterop or remapProps when writing your own components. These are only used when working with third-party components.

Your first component

Nativewind works by passing class names to components. This is the same pattern as Tailwind CSS, which uses utility classes to style elements.

To create a component with default styles, simply merge the className string.

function MyComponent({ className }) {
  const defaultStyles = "text-black dark:text-white";
  return <Text className={`${defaultStyles} ${className}`} />;
}
 
<MyComponent className="font-bold" />;

You can expand this pattern to create more complex components. For example, you can create a Button component with different variants.

const variantStyles = {
  default: "rounded",
  primary: "bg-blue-500 text-white",
  secondary: "bg-white-500 text-black",
};
 
function MyComponent({ variant, className, ...props }) {
  return (
    <Text
      className={`
        ${variantStyles.default}
        ${variantStyles[variant]}
        ${className}
      `}
      {....props }
    />
  );
}

Creating your own variants can quickly become complex. We recommend using a class name management library to simplify the process.

Merging with inline styles

Nativewind will automatically merge with inline-styles. Read more about style specificity documentation.

<Text className="text-white" style={{ color: "black" }} /> // Will be black

Handling components with multiple style props

Custom components can have multiple style props. For example, a Button component may have an outerClassName and an innerClassName.

function MyComponent({ className, textClassName }) {
  return (
    <View className={className}>
      <Text className={textClassName}>Hello, Nativewind!</Text>
    </View>
  );
}

How to write custom components

Your first component

Merging with inline styles

Handling components with multiple style props

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