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# Working with components

A component is a piece of design you build once and use everywhere: a card, a header, a pricing row. Each use is an *instance*; edit the component and every instance follows. This page covers the component workflows on the Design canvas; the bigger picture of what belongs in a component lives in **[Pages, layouts, components](/docs/studio/projects/pages-layouts-components)**.

## Convert a selection into a component

The natural way to make a component is to design it in place first, then promote it:

1. Build the element on the canvas: structure, styles, content.
2. Right-click it (on the canvas or in [Outline](/docs/studio/design/layers)) and choose **Convert to Component**.
3. Give it a tag name (lowercase, with a hyphen, like `pricing-card`) and click **Convert**. Studio suggests one from the element, checks the name as you type against the rule the browser itself applies to custom element names, and won't let you collide with an existing component.

![The Convert to Component dialog with a tag name filled in](/content/docs/images/convert-to-component.png)

Studio saves the component as its own file in the project's `components/` folder, swaps your selection for an instance of it, and adds it to the [Insert palette](/docs/studio/design/elements) and the **Components** section of the [Site panel](/docs/studio/interface#the-site-panel). Drop more instances anywhere from there. If the component's slots need attention, Studio files it on **[Problems](/docs/studio/interface/problems-and-progress)** naming the component file, so it stays listed until you fix it.

**Add new** does the same from the other direction: press ⌘N (⌘⌥N in a browser), choose **Component**, type a name such as `Pricing card`, and pick **Start from: Current selection**. The tag is derived from the name (`pricing-card`; a one-word name like `Hero` becomes `site-hero`), and the selection is converted exactly as above. **Blank** starts an empty component instead, and **Copy of…** starts from an existing one. See **[Pages, layouts, and components](/docs/studio/projects/pages-layouts-components#create-one)**.

To open a component from an instance, right-click the instance and choose **Edit Component**, or click **→ Edit definition** under **Component Settings** on the Content tab.

## Props: the component's options

Props are the knobs an instance can turn: the card's title, its image, whether it's featured. A component's props come from its state: every plain value you declare in the component's **Data** panel becomes a prop, with that value as its default. See **[Logic](/docs/studio/logic)** for declaring state.

On an instance, the [Content tab](/docs/studio/design/properties) shows a **Component Settings** section with a fitting control per prop (checkbox, number field, dropdown, media or color picker). Each prop can also be *bound*: click the **value source** chip beside its label and pick **From data…** for a signal, or **Mixed text** for a value that mixes text and data, so the instance follows live data instead of a fixed setting. It is the same three-rung choice, spelled the same way, that every other bindable row in Studio offers. See **[Formulas and expressions](/docs/studio/logic/formulas)**.

With the component's own definition open, the same section becomes **Component Defaults**: the values here are the ones the component ships, so a page that sets nothing gets these. There's no *from the component* badge and no **→ Edit definition** link, because you're already there.

Each prop row also says where its value came from, in the same four-state chip the [Style tab](/docs/studio/design/style-inspector) uses. It is the same question asked of a second cascade:

- A prop you have filled in on this instance carries an accent **set here** dot; click it to clear the prop and hand it back to the component.
- A prop you have left alone, where the component declares a default, reads *from the component default* in amber. Its tooltip states the default, and clicking it opens the component that defines it, so you can read the default rather than guess at it.
- A prop that is bound reads in violet, naming the signal it follows (or *a template* / *a formula* when it follows one of those).
- A prop with no value and no declared default draws nothing at all, because a badge on every empty row is noise.

**→ Edit definition** at the foot of the section opens the component. Below it, a **Usage** section counts the other places the project places this component (*Used on 2 pages and 1 other file*, or *Not used yet*) and lists those files; click one to open it. When the count cannot be taken the heading reads **Usage · unknown** and says so, with a **Retry**: "we could not check" and "nothing uses this" are answers you must never confuse.

## Slots: openings for content

By default an instance renders exactly what the component defines. A **slot** is a deliberate opening. Add a `slot` element inside the component definition, and whatever an instance holds as children flows into that opening. Give slots names to offer several openings (a card with an icon slot and a body slot). In [Outline](/docs/studio/design/layers), slots show a **▣** badge; hover it for the slot's name. Layouts distribute page content the same way.

## Preview with test props

A component file open on its own renders with its defaults, but defaults are often empty. Open the context bar's **resolving with** popover and you get one field per prop, stacked; type a value to see the component render with it, live on the canvas at every breakpoint. Numbers, `true`/`false`, and lists in JSON form are understood as such; anything else counts as text. Each field is also a command, so you can set one by name without reaching for the popover: press ⌘K and run **Set Test Value**.

Test values are a preview lens only: they're never saved into the component, and clearing a field returns the prop to its default. They pair with the **Preview** toggle described in **[Modes and preview](/docs/studio/interface/modes)**.

Note

A component is a plain file (
`components/pricing-card.json`
), and converting also records a reference to it in the page's 
`$elements`
 list. The format is described in 
**[Components](/docs/framework/concepts/components)**
.

## Next

- Repeat a component once per item of a list with **[Repeaters](/docs/studio/design/repeaters)**.
- Insert instances from the **[Insert palette](/docs/studio/design/elements)**, the Site panel's **Components** cards, or the **Components** heading of the slash menu and the canvas **+**. However you insert one, Studio adds the component to the page's imports in the same step, so the page always resolves the element it shows.

✕

Start here[Overview](/docs/start/)Get started[Install Jx Studio](/docs/start/install/)[Your first project](/docs/start/first-project/)[A tour of Jx Studio](/docs/start/studio-tour/)Tutorials[Tutorial: interactive component](/docs/start/first-component/)[Tutorial: blog with collections](/docs/start/first-collection/)[Video tutorials](/docs/start/videos/)Coming from another tool[Coming from WordPress](/docs/start/coming-from-wordpress/)[Coming from Webflow or Framer](/docs/start/coming-from-webflow/)[Coming from Wix or Squarespace](/docs/start/coming-from-wix/)[Coming from Lovable or Builder.io](/docs/start/coming-from-ai-builders/)Studio[Overview](/docs/studio/)[The desktop app](/docs/studio/desktop/)The workspace[Overview](/docs/studio/interface/)[Welcome screen](/docs/studio/interface/welcome-screen/)[Editors and views](/docs/studio/interface/modes/)[The canvas](/docs/studio/interface/canvas/)[Documents and panes](/docs/studio/interface/tabs/)[Quick Access](/docs/studio/interface/quick-access/)[Keyboard shortcuts](/docs/studio/interface/shortcuts/)[Preferences](/docs/studio/interface/preferences/)[Languages](/docs/studio/interface/languages/)[Problems and progress](/docs/studio/interface/problems-and-progress/)[Commands](/docs/studio/interface/commands/)Projects[Overview](/docs/studio/projects/)[Create a project](/docs/studio/projects/create/)[Pages, layouts, components](/docs/studio/projects/pages-layouts-components/)[The Content workspace](/docs/studio/projects/browse/)[Starter templates](/docs/studio/projects/starters/)[Media](/docs/studio/projects/media/)[Content types](/docs/studio/projects/content-types/)[Project settings](/docs/studio/projects/settings/)[Dependencies and imports](/docs/studio/projects/dependencies/)Edit mode[Overview](/docs/studio/editing/)[Writing and formatting](/docs/studio/editing/writing/)[Slash commands](/docs/studio/editing/slash-commands/)[Frontmatter and metadata](/docs/studio/editing/frontmatter/)[Grid mode](/docs/studio/editing/grid/)Design mode[Overview](/docs/studio/design/)[Outline](/docs/studio/design/layers/)[Insert](/docs/studio/design/elements/)[Content tab](/docs/studio/design/properties/)[Style inspector](/docs/studio/design/style-inspector/)[Breakpoints](/docs/studio/design/breakpoints/)[States and selectors](/docs/studio/design/states-and-selectors/)[Design tokens](/docs/studio/design/tokens/)[Project Styles](/docs/studio/design/stylebook/)[Working with components](/docs/studio/design/components/)[Repeaters](/docs/studio/design/repeaters/)Logic[Overview](/docs/studio/logic/)[Formulas and expressions](/docs/studio/logic/formulas/)[Formula workspace](/docs/studio/logic/formula-workspace/)[Statements](/docs/studio/logic/statements/)[Logic tab](/docs/studio/logic/events/)[Data](/docs/studio/logic/data/)[Data sources](/docs/studio/logic/data-sources/)[Code editing](/docs/studio/logic/code/)Databases[Overview](/docs/studio/data/)[Connections](/docs/studio/data/connections/)[Data tables](/docs/studio/data/tables/)[Data grid](/docs/studio/data/grid/)[Auth and secrets](/docs/studio/data/auth-and-secrets/)AI assistant[Overview](/docs/studio/ai/)[The AI assistant](/docs/studio/ai/chat/)[Document assistant](/docs/studio/ai/document-assistant/)Publish[Overview](/docs/studio/publish/)[Source control](/docs/studio/publish/source-control/)[GitHub](/docs/studio/publish/github/)[Cloudflare Pages](/docs/studio/publish/cloudflare/)[Other hosts](/docs/studio/publish/other-hosts/)[Redirects](/docs/studio/publish/redirects/)[Real-time collaboration](/docs/studio/publish/collaboration/)Framework[Overview](/docs/framework/)Concepts[Documents](/docs/framework/concepts/documents/)[Elements](/docs/framework/concepts/elements/)[Components](/docs/framework/concepts/components/)[Props and scope](/docs/framework/concepts/props-and-scope/)[State](/docs/framework/concepts/state/)[Reactivity](/docs/framework/concepts/reactivity/)[References](/docs/framework/concepts/references/)[Expressions](/docs/framework/concepts/expressions/)[Statements](/docs/framework/concepts/statements/)[Functions and sidecars](/docs/framework/concepts/functions/)[Styling](/docs/framework/concepts/styling/)[Color schemes](/docs/framework/concepts/color-schemes/)[Popovers and overlays](/docs/framework/concepts/overlays/)[Accessibility](/docs/framework/concepts/accessibility/)[Lists and iteration](/docs/framework/concepts/lists/)[Data prototypes](/docs/framework/concepts/data-prototypes/)[Timing](/docs/framework/concepts/timing/)[Dynamic switching](/docs/framework/concepts/switching/)[Security](/docs/framework/concepts/security/)Site architecture[Overview](/docs/framework/site/)[project.json](/docs/framework/site/project-json/)[Routing](/docs/framework/site/routing/)[Layouts](/docs/framework/site/layouts/)[Content collections](/docs/framework/site/content-collections/)[Jx Markdown](/docs/framework/site/jx-markdown/)[Obsidian vault as content](/docs/framework/site/obsidian-vault/)[Relationships](/docs/framework/site/relationships/)[SEO and metadata](/docs/framework/site/seo/)[Locales and languages](/docs/framework/site/i18n/)[Images](/docs/framework/site/images/)[Redirects](/docs/framework/site/redirects/)[Feeds](/docs/framework/site/feeds/)[Site search](/docs/framework/site/search/)[Build output and adapters](/docs/framework/site/deployment/)How compilation works[Overview](/docs/framework/build/)[The dev server](/docs/framework/build/dev-server/)[CLI commands](/docs/framework/build/cli/)Working with agents[Overview](/docs/framework/agents/)[Authoring rules for agents](/docs/framework/agents/authoring-rules/)[Machine-readable docs](/docs/framework/agents/machine-readable/)Reference[Overview](/docs/framework/reference/)[Formula catalog](/docs/framework/reference/formulas/)[Operator reference](/docs/framework/reference/operators/)Extending[Overview](/docs/extending/)Extensions[Extension anatomy](/docs/extending/extensions/anatomy/)[Schema composition](/docs/extending/extensions/schema-composition/)[Custom classes](/docs/extending/extensions/classes/)[Custom formats](/docs/extending/extensions/formats/)[Capability methods](/docs/extending/extensions/capabilities/)[Project sections](/docs/extending/extensions/project-sections/)[Server mounts](/docs/extending/extensions/server/)[Connectors](/docs/extending/extensions/connectors/)[Search indexes](/docs/extending/extensions/search/)[Security and secrets](/docs/extending/extensions/security/)[Tutorial: a TOML format](/docs/extending/extensions/tutorial-toml-format/)[Tutorial: a guestbook](/docs/extending/extensions/tutorial-guestbook/)[First-party extensions](/docs/extending/extensions/first-party/)Embedding[Overview](/docs/extending/embedding/)[Hosting the Studio assets](/docs/extending/embedding/hosting/)[Writing a platform adapter](/docs/extending/embedding/platform-adapter/)[The backend protocol](/docs/extending/embedding/backend-protocol/)[Dev server internals](/docs/extending/embedding/dev-server/)[Embedding the runtime in your app](/docs/extending/embedding/runtime-host/)[Writing assistant tools](/docs/extending/embedding/assistant-harness/)UI kit[The Jx UI kit](/docs/extending/ui-kit/)Reference[Protocol routes](/docs/extending/reference/studio-routes/)[Implementation status](/docs/extending/reference/implementation-status/)[Spec changelog](/docs/extending/reference/spec-changelog/)[Standards alignment](/docs/extending/reference/standards/)Contributing[Working in the monorepo](/docs/extending/contributing/monorepo/)[Contributing to these docs](/docs/extending/contributing/docs/)[AI assistant evals](/docs/extending/contributing/ai-evals/)

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