Fern

A Wikimedia-first design system for Taxon Labs applications. Fern Docs explores foundations and components and will grow into the official documentation.

See the package README for usage and exports, and AGENTS.md for development principles and conventions.

Develop

Use pnpm 8.15.5 and Node 22.12 or newer within Node 22.

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm dev

Open http://127.0.0.1:4321/. Docs uses Solid Router with pathname URLs, such as /components/button#accessibility. The home URL redirects to /foundations/colors. pnpm dev builds Fern first. After editing package source, restart this command or run pnpm --filter @taxon-labs/fern build. Docs TSX and MDX edits use Vite's normal reload.

Structure

• packages/fern: one reusable package with components, themes, and compiled CSS.
• apps/docs: documentation in MDX; visual samples and playgrounds in TSX.
• scripts/check-package.mjs: verify a tarball in a clean application.

Verify

pnpm check
pnpm typecheck
pnpm test
pnpm build
pnpm pack:check

pnpm format applies Biome to code and Prettier to Markdown/MDX. Generated tokens are excluded from formatting. pack:check creates a consumer in the operating system's temporary directory, installs the tarball without overrides, checks types and behavior, and builds without Tailwind. It does not publish anything.

Automatic CI is disabled during early development. The GitHub Actions workflow can run these checks manually, using Ubuntu, Node 22, and the pnpm version declared in package.json.

Tests cover color fidelity, selected contrast pairs, Button behavior, and MDX. When changing shared CSS, themes, or embedding behavior, open /checks/mediawiki.html during development to check that host controls retain their styling. See the Docs README for the manual check.

Package status

The private root workspace is named fern. The package @taxon-labs/fern is an unpublished alpha with a provisional npm scope. Changes are recorded in CHANGELOG.md.

Fern is licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE and third-party notices.

Fern uses Solid 2 RC and Kobalte alpha. Upstream peer compatibility remains a release blocker; SSR/hydration is not verified. See package compatibility for tested versions and the release check.