Combobox
A text input that filters a list. Built on `@base-ui/react/combobox`: Base UI owns the filtering (`Intl.Collator`-backed `useFilter`), the combobox/listbox ARIA pairing, VIRTUAL focus (the input keeps DOM focus and `aria-activedescendant` moves), single +…
Preview
Rendered from the story the storybook (a11y) CI gate runs axe against — the preview can't show something that hasn't been verified.
Install
Two equivalent paths — the URL works in any shadcn-CLI setup; the alias works once you've registered @interlace in your components.json.
npx shadcn@latest add https://ds.interlace.tools/r/combobox.jsonnpx shadcn@latest add @interlace/comboboxBehavior
What this component does — the keyboard path, the measured colour, the text equivalent and the states it can be in. Every figure below is read out of the test or the source that enforces it by scripts/build-behavior-map.mjs, so nothing here can outlive the gate that keeps it true.
6 steps, 5 key presses — replayed on every PR by the play function of KeyboardFlow. Axe cannot press a key, so this — not the a11y scan — is what proves the component is operable without a mouse.
- 1The input advertises the listbox it owns
- 2Typing opens the popup and filtersTab
- 3ArrowDown highlights WITHOUT moving DOM focusArrowDown
- 4Enter commits the highlighted item and closesEnter
- 5Escape on a closed popup clears the fieldEscape
- 6Escape while open closes the popup, not the pageEscape
Escape is locked, not merely exercised. This primitive is in KEYBOARD_DRIVEN + MUST_ASSERT_ESCAPE — deleting the dismissal assertion from the story fails overlay-nav-keyboard-lock, so the path above cannot quietly stop being tested.
Measured contrast
packages/ui/__tests__/theme-contract-lock.test.ts ↗Every semantic colour pair this component's own source uses, measured against the shipped hexes in all 4 theme × scheme combinations. The tightest is input on card at 3.11:1 (interlace · dark), against a floor of 3:1.
| Pair | interlacelight | interlacedark | harborlight | harbordark | Floor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| input on cardcontrol border inside a card | 3.62:1 | 3.11:1 | 3.62:1 | 3.85:1 | 3.0:1SC 1.4.11 |
| input on backgroundcontrol border (SC 1.4.11) | 3.62:1 | 3.35:1 | 3.43:1 | 4.25:1 | 3.0:1SC 1.4.11 |
| destructive on backgrounddestructive tint on the page surface | 8.31:1 | 10.43:1 | 7.60:1 | 10.03:1 | 3.0:1SC 1.4.11 |
| muted-foreground on backgroundsecondary copy | 9.41:1 | 11.32:1 | 7.82:1 | 9.52:1 | 4.5:1SC 1.4.3 |
| destructive on carddestructive tint inside a card | 8.31:1 | 9.66:1 | 8.02:1 | 9.09:1 | 3.0:1SC 1.4.11 |
| muted-foreground on cardsecondary copy in a card | 9.41:1 | 10.48:1 | 8.25:1 | 8.64:1 | 4.5:1SC 1.4.3 |
| ring on backgroundfocus ring (SC 2.4.13) | 8.80:1 | 11.79:1 | 8.39:1 | 10.03:1 | 3.0:1SC 1.4.11 |
| primary on backgroundprimary tint on the page surface | 8.80:1 | 11.79:1 | 8.39:1 | 10.03:1 | 3.0:1SC 1.4.11 |
| ring on cardfocus ring inside a card | 8.80:1 | 10.92:1 | 8.86:1 | 9.10:1 | 3.0:1SC 1.4.11 |
| primary-foreground on primarycopy on a primary face | 8.80:1 | 11.79:1 | 8.86:1 | 10.03:1 | 4.5:1SC 1.4.3 |
| primary on cardprimary tint inside a card | 8.80:1 | 10.92:1 | 8.86:1 | 9.10:1 | 3.0:1SC 1.4.11 |
| accent-foreground on accenthover/highlight face | 8.98:1 | 10.46:1 | 8.95:1 | 9.65:1 | 4.5:1SC 1.4.3 |
| secondary-foreground on secondarysecondary button face | 15.58:1 | 14.51:1 | 14.63:1 | 14.04:1 | 4.5:1SC 1.4.3 |
| popover-foreground on popovercopy in a popover | 19.65:1 | 15.71:1 | 18.72:1 | 14.69:1 | 4.5:1SC 1.4.3 |
| foreground on backgroundbody copy | 19.65:1 | 16.97:1 | 17.74:1 | 16.19:1 | 4.5:1SC 1.4.3 |
Text pairs are held to 4.5:1 (WCAG 2.2 SC 1.4.3); borders, rings and chart axes to 3:1 (SC 1.4.11 non-text). Bold is the worst cell in the row — the one a brand fork has to keep an eye on.
Text equivalent
packages/ui/src/primitives/combobox.tsx ↗A chart's alt text is not a sentence about the chart — the equivalent of the data is the data. This is what a screen reader gets, read out of the source the install writes into your tree.
Ships sr-only copy for what the visual carries by position, colour or icon alone — a label, not a full data equivalent.
Runtime contract
packages/ui/vitest.config.ts ↗Where it renders, how narrow it survives, and whether its lines are inside the coverage gate — three answers a consumer needs before the paste, not after the bug.
- Render boundary
'use client'Hydrates. It brings JavaScript to any route that imports it — put the boundary here, not at the page.
- Minimum viewport
MIN_VIEWPORT = 320Declared, not assumed. Below 320 CSS px the preflight contract draws a dev-mode outline — how to switch it on.
- Coverage gate
not in the gateThe 100% gate currently covers
src/charts/**/*.{ts,tsx}andsrc/lib/**/*.{ts,tsx}andsrc/primitives/{button-variants,data-state-model,meter-scale,skeleton-variants}.tsandsrc/primitives/{alert,aspect-ratio,avatar,badge,box,breadcrumb,button,callout,card,checkbox,container,data-state,focus-ring,grade-badge,grid,input,label,meter,pagination,published-date,reading-time,section,section-boundary,separator,skip-link,stack,stat-strip,tag,textarea,typography,visually-hidden}.tsx. This file is outside it — the glob widens in phase 7.2.
History
This component is at v1.0.0, first shipped in @interlace/ui 1.1.0. The version is stamped as a banner into the file the install writes, so the copy in your tree says which one you have — compare it with the number above before deciding whether to re-run the install.
@interlace/ui 1.1.01 entry
- Addedminor
New
ComboboxandCommandPalette.ComboboxmirrorsSelectpart-for-part, plus one part that is ours rather than Base UI's:ComboboxControl, arelativerow. Base UI has no concept of "the input plus the affordances docked inside its border", and without itComboboxClearandComboboxTriggersit beside the field instead of in it. The root is aliased rather than wrapped so the<Value, Multiple>generics survive at the call site.CommandPaletteis a composition, not a new primitive:DialogContentsupplies the portal, backdrop, focus trap, Escape and focus restore, wrapped aroundCombobox.Rootin **inline** mode. That flag is load-bearing — without it the combobox handles Escape for a popup that is not open and the dialog never closes, a WCAG 2.1.2 keyboard trap.closeOnSelectcloses by clicking a hiddenDialogCloserather than callingsetOpen, so it routes through Base UI's own close path:onOpenChangefires with a real reason, focus restores exactly as for Escape, and the uncontrolled case works. The ⌘K binding is a separate opt-in hook. A design system should not seize a global chord on mount from every app that installs it. Three rows of the keyboard contract differ fromSelectand are the ones callers get wrong: Home/End move the text caret rather than the highlight; Escape on a _closed_ popup clears the input and the selection; focus never enters the list — it is virtual focus viaaria-activedescendant.Components
Import
22 named exports — pull the parts you need.
import { Combobox, ComboboxChip, ComboboxChipRemove, ComboboxChips, ComboboxClear, ComboboxCollection, ComboboxCompose, ComboboxContent, ComboboxControl, ComboboxEmpty, ComboboxGroup, ComboboxGroupLabel, ComboboxIcon, ComboboxInput, ComboboxItem, ComboboxList, ComboboxPortal, ComboboxSeparator, ComboboxStatus, ComboboxTrigger, ComboboxValue, MIN_VIEWPORT } from '@/components/ui/combobox';Anatomy
Extracted from the primitive's JSDoc header. The source is the only documentation that can't drift.
Combobox (Root) (no DOM — state + filtering)
├─ ComboboxChips (multiple only)
│ └─ ComboboxChip → ComboboxChipRemove
├─ ComboboxControl (ours — relative row, no Base UI part)
│ ├─ ComboboxInput (input — data-min-viewport=320)
│ ├─ ComboboxClear (button, keepMounted=false)
│ └─ ComboboxTrigger → ComboboxIcon (optional open button)
└─ ComboboxContent (portal → positioner → popup)
├─ ComboboxEmpty (renders only when 0 results)
├─ ComboboxStatus (polite live region — async lists)
└─ ComboboxList
├─ ComboboxGroup → ComboboxGroupLabel
├─ ComboboxItem (repeats)
└─ ComboboxSeparatorAPI reference
Parsed from the type declarations in the source — the same file the install writes into your tree, so this table can't drift from the component you get.
ComboboxComposeProps
| Prop | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| items* | readonly ComboboxComposeItem[] | The full, unfiltered list. Base UI filters it against the query. |
| placeholder | string | Placeholder for the text input. |
| emptyMessage | React.ReactNode | Shown when the query matches nothing. |
| defaultValue | ComboboxComposeItem | null | Accessible name for the input. Required — the field has no visible label. */ 'aria-label'?: string; /** Initially selected item. Uncontrolled. |
| value | ComboboxComposeItem | null | Selected item. Controlled — pair with `onValueChange`. |
| onValueChange | (value: ComboboxComposeItem | null) => void | Fired with the newly selected item, or `null` when cleared. |
| name | string | Form field name — projected onto the hidden input. |
| disabled | boolean | Ignore all interaction. |
| clearable | boolean | Show a clear button once the field has a value. |
| className | string | Override the control className (width). |
Accessibility
Every story for this component is rendered headlessly and checked with axe-core (wcag2aa, wcag22aa, best-practice, ACT) on every PR. That gate has no continue-on-error, so what ships has zero known violations.
What follows is what static analysis can see. Axe cannot press a key and never sees an overlay open, so the operable-without-a-mouse claim lives in Behavior instead, where the keyboard path is replayed step by step.
- Focus + keyboard behaviour
- Owned by @base-ui/react/combobox — focus trapping, dismissal and typeahead come from the headless primitive, not from us.
- Focus ring (WCAG 2.2 SC 2.4.13)
- Inherited from the preflight focus contract shipped in @interlace/theme.
- Reduced motion
- No animation to gate.
- ARIA in the source
role="status"aria-invalidaria-labelaria-live
Examples
10 more states from the same story file.
R-rule compliance
Every primitive in @interlace/ui models to the portable 26-rule floor enforced by the componentApi ESLint preset. The cells below pin exactly where each rule applies in this file.
| Rule | Concept | Where |
|---|---|---|
| R4 | Extends Base UI part props | each wrapper extends its Base UI part's props |
| R6 | data-slot per part | `combobox-input` / `-control` / `-popup` / `-item` / … |
| R7 | className merged + ...rest | `cn(BASE, className)` + `{...props}` on every part |
| R8 | No `isXxx` prefix on booleans | `multiple`, `disabled`, `readOnly` — inherited, no `is` |
| R11 | Composition over prop-drilling | items are children; `ComboboxCompose` is the escape hatch |
| R12 | Reuse over wrap | Base UI owns filtering, ARIA, virtual focus, chips |
| R14 | Controlled + uncontrolled | `value`/`onValueChange` + `defaultValue`, ditto `inputValue` |
| R17 | API parity with shadcn | part names mirror shadcn's Command/Combobox surface |
| R18 | Tailwind only | zero inline `style` |
| R19 | Tokens only | semantic colour tokens throughout — no raw hex |
| R20 | AA contrast | table above — every composite measured |
| R25 | Client component | required — Base UI Combobox ships client hooks |
| R26 | A11y from upstream | combobox/listbox ARIA + the full keyboard model |
Minimum viewport
This primitive declares MIN_VIEWPORT = 320 CSS px (DESIGN_PRINCIPLES #14). When mounted in a container narrower than this, the preflight contract draws a dev-mode outline so the regression is visible during local development.
<body data-interlace-dev>...</body>
Add the data-interlace-dev attribute to the body in development builds only — preflight then outlines any primitive whose container is below its declared data-min-viewport.
Dependencies
- Base UI primitive
- @base-ui/react/combobox
- Lucide icons
CheckIconChevronDownIconXIcon
- NPM dependencies
@base-ui/reactlucide-react
- Registry dependencies
Source
The full implementation — components/ui/combobox.tsx once installed.
'use client';
import * as React from 'react';
// @interlace/combobox v1.0.0 — Interlace design system.
// Docs, props and live preview: https://ds.interlace.tools/c/combobox
// What changed since: https://ds.interlace.tools/c/combobox#history
// Generated banner — keep it, the upgrade diff reads this version.
/**
* @interlace/ui — Combobox
*
* A text input that filters a list. Built on `@base-ui/react/combobox`: Base UI
* owns the filtering (`Intl.Collator`-backed `useFilter`), the
* combobox/listbox ARIA pairing, VIRTUAL focus (the input keeps DOM focus and
* `aria-activedescendant` moves), single + multiple selection, chips, and the
* whole keyboard model. We own the surface — size, tokens, focus ring, target
* sizes.
* Mirrors: https://ui.shadcn.com/docs/components/combobox
*
…641 more lines…Registry JSON
The raw registry record — what the shadcn CLI fetches.