sb-stories

sb-stories — one component, its real states

The default Build mode. The component exists in src/components/; you write its visible-states story.

Before authoring (ask yourself)

• Is it actually used? Check components.real[] in .storybook/project-inventory.json. If it's in dead[], remove it — don't write a story. If it's vendor (shadcn ui/), deprioritize.
• Which states change behavior/appearance materially? Refuse Cartesian combinations. Per-primitive minimum tables in references/anti-patterns.md (Button 8, Input 8, Modal 5, Form 6). Read .storybook/component-states.json instead of guessing — if it's missing, generate it first: scripts/extract-states.sh. (Bigger extraction context: references/extraction-workflow.md.) To render all those states on one canvas, use the StateGrid wrapper (variants × states → StateMatrix) from sb-wrappers — don't hand-roll the grid. These are the component-time wrappers; the data wrappers (ProjectInventory / DesignSystemHealth / AppFlowGraph …) come after their own steps.
• Which states does THIS app actually ship? Read .storybook/component-usage.json (sb-inventory's extract-component-usage.sh — generate it if missing). Use props.<prop>.values to prioritize the variants real call sites pass; for anything in declaredButUnused (e.g. variant=danger never used), still author the state for completeness but tag it ['usage:unused'] and note "not used in this app" — don't pad the catalog with states prod never renders.
• You don't author per-component docs by hand — they're composed once. Every component's autodocs page already gains a "Real usage in this app" band: the UsageSection block (wired once into preview.ts docs.page by sb-setup) renders a "Where it's used" map per component — the pages it lands on, what nests it, what it renders, the tokens it pulls — read from the usage graph (component-pages.json). So when you add a story, don't hand-add a usage block; just run refresh-usage.sh so the graph is current and the band populates. To explore the whole graph interactively (any token / component / page → everywhere it's used, clickable), scaffold the UsageExplorer wrapper (sb-wrappers). Details + the docs.page composition live in sb-inventory (§ "Real usage in autodocs") and sb-setup (docs-page composition).
• Factory? YES if 3+ stories share a data shape. Read .storybook/prop-shapes.json (candidates flagged with liveUsages) — if missing, run scripts/extract-prop-shapes.sh first. Then scripts/scaffold-factory.sh <Type> <import-path> and fill the deterministic stub (references/factory-patterns.md); otherwise inline args.
• Title taxonomy? Match storySort.order; if the project has none, pick one via references/directory-structure.md.
• Does a play actually earn its place? Only write one for an interaction, async data, a portal, a CSS-driven state, or accessibility — never a bare toBeVisible() (anti-pattern 34). And the project needs exactly one CssCheck (anti-pattern 33): one story asserting a real getComputedStyle token value, the only proof the shared preview loaded the app's CSS. Both come from npx storybook ai setup's prompt; validate-stories.sh check 13 + the project tally enforce them.
• A "playground" / showcase story is Controls-driven, not click/hover. If a reviewer asks "what is this playground story — can I click or hover it?": a playground is the default story with its Controls panel — you change args (variant, size, state) in the Controls tab and the canvas re-renders. It is NOT canvas interaction; hover/focus/active live in a StateGrid interaction matrix (addon-pseudo-states), and scripted click→assert flows live in a play function. So: Controls = try props · pseudo-states = hover/focus columns · play = a real interaction. Say which one the story is.
• Is the Controls panel wired? A component story must expose a usable Controls panel — it's the reviewer's prop sandbox and powers the autodocs ArgTypes table. The react-vite default (react-docgen) does NOT infer TS unions into selects, so declare argTypes for every enum/union prop (control: 'select'|'inline-radio' + options), group with table.category, hide escape-hatch / non-serializable props (className, refs, icon / callback / data props), and disable controls on render-only showcase stories (parameters: { controls: { disable: true } }). Full pattern + the docgen gotcha: references/without-mcp.md §13. (The panel itself must be visible — sb-setup writes a manager.ts with showPanel: true; sb-audit's audit-controls.sh flags any component story missing this wiring.)

Authoring source (mutually exclusive — load exactly one)

grep -q '@storybook/addon-mcp' package.json && test -f .mcp.json && echo WITH_MCP || echo WITHOUT_MCP

• WITH_MCP → references/with-mcp.md (MCP injects CSF3 conventions; you focus on judgment).
• WITHOUT_MCP → references/without-mcp.md (13 verification gaps + 4 critical SB10 patterns).
• Controlled components (Switch/Toggle/Checkbox/Tabs/Accordion/Select) start from templates/controlled-component-story.tsx — the useArgs sync is what AI gets wrong.

Where the file goes (ASK first — don't scatter the repo). Read storiesLocation from .storybook/audit/status.md (the single rule lives in CONTEXT.md §STORIES LOCATION).

• If it's unset (e.g. the repo already had Storybook so sb-setup never asked), STOP and ASK the user before writing any story — never guess, never co-locate silently. Use AskUserQuestion (Claude) / request_user_input (Codex), or a numbered list where no blocking tool exists:

  Where should I save the stories? (everything else already lives under .storybook/.)

  1. .storybook/stories/ (recommended — one place, isolated; src/ untouched, one removable folder)
  2. Co-located src/**/<Name>.stories.tsx (for a project you own long-term)
  3. A custom folder (you name it — still kept to that one place) Then record it in .storybook/audit/status.md as storiesLocation: <isolated|colocated|PATH>, make sure main.ts stories includes that path, and proceed. Recommend option 1.

• isolated (or .storybook/stories/) → write under .storybook/stories/ mirroring the tree (.storybook/stories/components/CourseCard.stories.tsx), importing the component via the @/ alias.
• colocated → src/components/<X>/<X>.stories.tsx. A custom path → write there, every story.

Whatever the answer, all stories go to that one location — never a mix.

Title (the in-Storybook path, separate from the file path): match .storybook/preview.ts storySort.order; else Components/<Domain>/<Name>. An Overview / Spec / hub story is an entry point — pin it to the top of its root via storySort.order (a root-level hub first; a per-feature Overview/Spec first in its group's sub-order with a '*' tail), never let it sort alphabetically into the middle of the content it summarizes. See references/directory-structure.md → "Overview / spec / hub".

Pages — real-page capture (Mode A)

For a page (a route/view under pages/ · app/ · routes/ · views/) do NOT recreate it. Run scripts/page-patterns.py <root> first — per page it reports importable, component, layout, dataHook + dataType (the mock signal), sections (render order, ui/ excluded), gridHint; plus sharedSections[]. Then pick the mode off importable:

• importable: true (page has a default-export component) → import the real page as-is and mock ONLY its data layer. Scaffold with scripts/scaffold-page-story.py <root> <page-suffix>: it emits a Pages/<Name> story that imports the real page + wires the detected provider (Inertia usePage / router / store), with props seeded from a factory keyed on dataType (scripts/scaffold-factory.sh <dataType> <import-path>, per references/factory-patterns.md). Add one story per materially-different data state (empty / populated / error) — different factory inputs, never different markup. Never re-author the page's JSX (anti-pattern 27): the layout, columns, and components are the real page's, not yours.
• importable: false (assembled inline / no single component) → fall back to Page Composition (references/composition-patterns.md Pattern 4): assemble from the real sections — still factory-backed, still real components.

sharedSections[] (a section rendered by ≥2 pages) are the reusable page-pattern pieces — give each its own Components/* story so pages compose them, not duplicate them.

Overlays (Dialog / Modal / Sheet / Drawer / Popover) in autodocs

An open overlay portals a position:fixed inset-0 overlay to document.body. Rendered inline on the autodocs page (as the Primary block does), that overlay escapes over the whole Docs page — Title, the "Real usage" section, Controls all vanish behind a blank backdrop. So for any overlay component with autodocs, scope the story to its own iframe:

parameters: {
  layout: 'fullscreen',
  docs: { story: { inline: false, height: '640px' } },  // portal stays inside the frame; Docs prose stays readable
}

The story view (one story, full canvas) is unaffected — this is only for the Docs page. Don't reach for it on non-overlay components (inline rendering is lighter).

The page's own dataHook is just its data; the preview must also supply the provider TREE + root CSS the page renders under. Read those from .storybook/runtime.json (scripts/discover-runtime.py) — providers[], rootCss, portals[], network.needsMsw — they're set up once in the shared preview by sb-setup, so a page story rarely re-wires them. Never re-derive by shell scan what a script already wrote to .storybook/*.json — cite the field.

Batch (several components)

Write one story per component (each covering only its real states), then gate each with scripts/validate-stories.sh. On Claude Code you can speed a batch up by writing components in parallel with the Agent tool, but it's the same work — no special sub-agent needed.

Gate before done

SKILL=${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}}
CORE=${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}}
"$CORE/scripts/validate-stories.sh" path/to/Foo.stories.tsx
# --strict adds tsc + eslint · --diff lints only changed stories
# For the "give me confidence" verdict (setup readiness preflight + conformance in one),
# run "$SKILL/scripts/check-story-ready.sh" path/to/Foo.stories.tsx instead — CONFIDENT when discovery JSONs are present.

Exits non-zero on any FAIL — fix before continuing. If you wrote a play, also dispatch the judgment sub-agent (see references/validate-workflow.md); bash can't verify a play is meaningful. To make stories an agent-runnable CLI gate (headless vitest + a11y), see references/test-wiring.md.