Variants

CVA is best used in SSR/SSG environments. Because cva returns a plain string, your users don’t need any of this JavaScript at runtime — it can all be resolved at build time or on the server.

Variants are named groups of CSS classes that are applied based on the props you pass to a component. Instead of writing conditional class logic by hand, you declare all possible visual states in one place and CVA resolves the correct string for you.

Creating a component with variants

Pass base classes as the first argument to cva, then describe each variant group inside the variants key.

components/button.ts

import { cva } from "class-variance-authority";

const button = cva(["font-semibold", "border", "rounded"], {
  variants: {
    intent: {
      primary: ["bg-blue-500", "text-white", "border-transparent"],
      secondary: ["bg-white", "text-gray-800", "border-gray-400"],
    },
    size: {
      small: ["text-sm", "py-1", "px-2"],
      medium: ["text-base", "py-2", "px-4"],
    },
  },
});

Tailwind CSS is optional. CVA works with any class-based styling approach, including plain CSS class names and CSS Modules.

Call the component with different prop combinations to get the resolved class string:

button({ intent: "primary", size: "medium" });
// => "font-semibold border rounded bg-blue-500 text-white border-transparent text-base py-2 px-4"

button({ intent: "secondary", size: "small" });
// => "font-semibold border rounded bg-white text-gray-800 border-gray-400 text-sm py-1 px-2"

You can also pass classes as arrays or space-separated strings — both produce identical output:

components/button.ts

const button = cva(["font-semibold", "border", "rounded"], {
  variants: {
    intent: {
      // Array syntax
      primary: ["bg-blue-500", "text-white", "border-transparent"],
      // String syntax — equivalent
      secondary: "bg-white text-gray-800 border-gray-400",
    },
  },
});

Boolean variants

Variant keys can be the string "true" or "false", and CVA will accept an actual boolean value for that prop. This is useful for representing toggled states like disabled, loading, or active. Set the false value to null when you don’t need extra classes for the off state:

components/button.ts

import { cva } from "class-variance-authority";

const button = cva(["font-semibold", "border", "rounded"], {
  variants: {
    intent: {
      primary: ["bg-blue-500", "text-white", "border-transparent"],
      secondary: ["bg-white", "text-gray-800", "border-gray-400"],
    },
    size: {
      small: ["text-sm", "py-1", "px-2"],
      medium: ["text-base", "py-2", "px-4"],
    },
    // Boolean variant: `true` adds classes, `false` adds nothing
    disabled: {
      false: null,
      true: ["opacity-50", "cursor-not-allowed"],
    },
  },
  defaultVariants: {
    intent: "primary",
    size: "medium",
    disabled: false,
  },
});

button();
// => "font-semibold border rounded bg-blue-500 text-white border-transparent text-base py-2 px-4"

button({ disabled: true });
// => "font-semibold border rounded bg-blue-500 text-white border-transparent text-base py-2 px-4 opacity-50 cursor-not-allowed"

Extending a component

Every CVA component accepts an optional class or className prop for one-off overrides. The extra classes are appended after all variant classes.

button({ intent: "primary", class: "m-4" });
// => "…buttonClasses m-4"

button({ intent: "primary", className: "m-4" });
// => "…buttonClasses m-4"

You can pass class or className, but not both at the same time. The two props are mutually exclusive in CVA’s type system.

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Variants

Variants

Creating a component with variants

Boolean variants

Extending a component

​Variants

​Creating a component with variants

​Boolean variants

​Extending a component

Variants

Creating a component with variants

Boolean variants

Extending a component