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Future of Storybook in 2024

Highlights from 2023 and what’s coming next

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Michael Shilman
@mshilman
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Since its inception in 2016, Storybook has grown by leaps and bounds. Despite our best efforts to “clean as we go”, the project has become sprawling. That’s why we spent much of 2023 paying down technical debt. This doesn’t generate flashy headlines, but throughout the year we’ve dramatically improved the product, while also setting the stage for a next generation of improvements to come in 2024.

Storybook 7.0

We started the year with Storybook 7.0, our first major release since 2020. This was chock full of foundational improvements:

Picking up the pace

7.0 was a massive milestone, but we didn’t stop there. To improve our ability to iterate, we started to ship 7.x releases more frequently. Over the course of nine months, we shipped six minor versions (most recently Storybook 7.6). These included:

Catching UI bugs automatically

We’ve also been hard at work turning Storybook into a testing powerhouse, allowing you to catch unexpected changes and regressions as you develop your components. Chromatic Visual Test Addon is available now in private beta. Sign up to join over 1,000 devs in early access.

Chromatic Visual Test addon for Storybook

Building community

Storybook’s London meetup. A room full of developers

We made waves not just online, but also in person! We met 100s of Storybook devs around the globe at our first-ever series of meetups, including events in Seattle, London, Paris, Pune AND Toronto! We’ll be planning more for 2024, so watch this space.

We also improved Storybook’s support community with the help of our amazing volunteers. Shoutout to everyone in our Discord Helpers Club, including:

Ahmadreza Shamimi, Belle, Burton, CuddleBunny, Danny HW, foxhoundn, Frog, George, Jen C, literalpie, María Simó, MarkB, dkwoody, hinogi, and unpunnyfuns!

To anyone who helped solve another user’s problem in 2023: we’re so grateful for your contributions and your role in our community.

Documentation ahoy!

There’s never been a better time to learn Storybook, because this year we made a bunch of improvements to our docs site.

We created docs for many of our users’ most frequently requested subjects. This includes API pages for Main configuration, ArgTypes, Component Story Format (CSF), Frameworks, CLI options, and Doc blocks.

Meanwhile, we significantly upgraded the docs site UX:

The icing on the cake: Storybook 8.0

Our next major release, Storybook 8.0, will bring significant performance improvements for every project.

We plan to release Storybook 8.0 in early 2024. Check out the full release timeline.


What’s next in 2024

After devoting so much of 2023 to maintenance, we’re excited to switch gears in 2024 to build out new product areas. We’ll have three core focuses:

  1. Application development
  2. Enhancing support for non-React frameworks
  3. Improving story generation

Application development

Our big bet for 2024 is application development. Storybook is known as a tool for isolated component development and design systems, but it can also be used to develop connected components and even full-stack applications.

We’re investing more into these scenarios from a testing standpoint. This gives devs a powerful way to exercise full application user flows but with the speed and reliability of Storybook’s isolated environment.

A demonstration of scanning different pages in Storybook

Non-React frameworks

We’re also investing in non-React frameworks. This has been a long-running effort, but what’s changing ahead of 2024 is that we’ve started collaborations with framework maintainers to ship the most aligned Storybook experience possible.

Angular: We’ve been working with the Angular Core team to ensure compatibility across major version upgrades. Next year, we plan to integrate with Angular’s new high-performance build system, among other major quality of life improvements for Angular users.

Svelte: We collaborated with Svelte’s maintainers to release first-class SvelteKit support, and have continued to improve the integration in 7.x. Along the way, they’ve urged us that users should write stories in Svelte syntax. Next year we plan to officially support Svelte CSF, among other key Svelte improvements.

Story generation

And last but not least, we want to make it easier to write stories.

One of the most exciting community developments in 2023 was StorybookGPT, a way to automatically generate stories for your components using large language models. This was developed by our friend Kaelig Deloumeau-Prigent at Netlify. We built on Kaelig’s creation by writing instructions for how you can experiment adapting this concept to any framework of your choice.

Build your own Storybook GPT
Generate stories automatically for your components

Get involved

Storybook is maintained by 1,800+ open source contributors and guided by a steering committee. If you are interested in contributing, check out Storybook on GitHub, create an issue, or submit a pull request. Donate on Open Collective. Chat with us in Discord — a maintainer is usually online. Stay up to date with Storybook news on Twitter or by signing up to our mailing list below.

Credits

Storybook 8 core team

Michael ArestadYann BragaJoão CardosoMichael ChanTom ColemanCharles de Dreuille, Norbert de LangenShaun EveningKyle GachGert HengeveldDom NguyenValentin Palkovic, Kasper PeulenChakir QatabJeppe ReinholdKai RöderMichael Shilman (me!), Joe VaughanVarun VachharIan Van SchootenDaniel WilliamsJosh WoodingVanessa Yuen

Storybook 8 contributors

@0916dhkim, @1234tgk, @42shadow42, @aditya1, @adityakrmodak, @agriffis, @akarachen, @alex-ahumada, @alexandertrefz, @almoghaimo, @amerlander, @andarist, @anneau, @artur93gev, @arup1221, @atreay, @auctumnus, @autoboxer, @barsheshet, @bartlangelaan, @bashmish, @bdriguesdev, @benmccann, @bkfarnsworth, @bodograumann, @bryanjtc, @cdedreuille, @cgatian, @chakas3, @chocoscoding, @coliff, @cprecioso, @d-koppenhagen, @danez, @danielmarcano, @dannyhw, @darleendenno, @dartess, @darth-koder007, @daves28, @decherneyge, @diamondex, @dobesv, @domyen, @dotwoodmedia, @dprcoles, @dschungelabenteuer, @dubbs, @dxb-story, @edutoit, @efrenaragon96, @eltociear, @enterframe, @epreston, @esilverm, @ethanmick, @fazulk, @felixrizzolli, @fezvrasta, @filiptammergard, @flynnfc, @foxhoundn, @francois2metz, @g-cappai, @ghidersamihaela, @gipoezcan, @github-actions[bot], @gitstart, @gitstart-storybook, @gossi, @greut, @gufah, @halitiince, @hcvdhaar, @henkerik, @hobbes7878, @hoishin, @honzahruby, @iabu94, @ianvs, @idesigncode, @imccausl, @integrayshaun, @iqbalcodes6602, @irangarcia, @j3rem1e, @jackw, @jared-christensen, @jd-oconnor, @jnschrag, @joaonunomota, @joevaugh4n, @joeycozza, @johnhunter, @jonniebigodes, @jonthenerd, @joriswitteman, @joshbolduc, @joshwooding, @jpzwarte, @jreinhold, @jrencz, @json-betsec, @julien-deramond, @junghoe, @jungpaeng, @justineloff, @justineloffbbd, @kaelig, @kasperpeulen, @kawokas, @kbazilio, @kkirby, @klescouar, @kolife01, @konsalex, @kota-kamikawa, @kripod, @krofdrakula, @kshmidt-digma, @kubijo, @kuriacka, @kylegach, @kylemeenehan, @kyletsang, @legnaleurc, @literalpie, @liwn9527, @lucavazz, @luk-z, @machycek, @madarauchiha-314, @magicismight, @maheshchandra10, @manbearwiz, @mandarini, @marcelckp, @mariasimo, @marioarnt, @mariocadenas, @marklb, @martinnabhan, @masaya48, @mastrzyz, @mattlewis92, @mauriciorobayo, @mayank99, @mdornseif, @medihack, @michaelarestad, @michens, @mickmcgrath13, @miily8310s, @mnigh, @mrb1nary, @mrzillagold, @mvarendorff, @mz8i, @nasvillanueva, @natehouk, @ndelangen, @neretin-trike, @nikospapcom, @nlepage, @noltron000, @notwoods, @noviceguru, @nsheaps, @nvitius, @okuramasafumi, @omahs, @orangecms, @orisomething, @oruman, @osnoser1, @oxcened, @paoloricciuti, @pascalfiv, @piratetaco, @pratikkarad, @programmarchy, @pruthvip15, @pure-js, @rashidshamloo, @re-taro, @redbugz, @roel-t, @rohanpoojary1107, @roottool, @samvv, @sebastiankapunkt, @seriouz, @sheriffmoose, @shilman, @showrin, @sidnioulz, @simenb, @sitogi, @sjwilczynski, @smeagol74, @sookmax, @sorakumo001, @specialdoom, @speelbarrow, @spookyjelly, @stilt0n, @stof, @storybook-bot, @stropitek, @subhajit20, @syabro, @t99, @ta1m1kam, @taehyeon-envoi, @taozhou-glean, @thapasusheel, @thtliife, @tmeasday, @tobiasdiez, @tolkadot, @tomo5524, @tyankatsu0105, @ubugnu, @usrrname, @valentinpalkovic, @vanessayuenn, @webblocksapp, @wesgro, @wilson2k, @wise-introvert, @wjdtjdgns, @wouterk12, @wuzhuobin, @xueyawei, @xyy94813, @yamanoku, @yannbf, @ygkn, @yilun-sun, @yoshi2no, @yossisaadi, @youngboy, @zachtball, @zhyd1997, @zigang93, and @zmarkan.

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