---
title: "Registry"
description: "How newt/ui serves components over HTTP, and how to run a registry of your own that the same CLI can install from."
---

A registry is static JSON. `newtui add button` fetches an index, resolves what
the item depends on, fetches each one, rewrites its imports for your aliases and
writes the files. Nothing is executed and nothing is fetched at runtime — the
whole protocol is a directory of files on a CDN.

newt/ui publishes two of them, one per framework:

| Framework | Base URL                   |
| --------- | -------------------------- |
| React     | `https://newtui.dev/r`     |
| Vue       | `https://newtui.dev/vue/r` |

`components.json` records which one your project reads; `--registry` and
`NEWT_REGISTRY_URL` override it.

## Why you might run one [#why]

- A private design system that extends newt/ui with your own components.
- A pinned copy of this registry, so a build in CI never depends on a domain you
  do not control.
- A registry per product, sharing one token layer.

The format is the shadcn registry schema, so a registry that works with `shadcn`
works here, and vice versa.

## The shape of it [#shape]

```text
/r
  index.json                      every item: name, type, title, description
  styles/index.json               the styles that exist (there is one: default)
  styles/default/button.json      one file per item, with its file contents
  styles/default/button-demo.json
```

`index.json` is what `list`, `search` and the MCP server read. Each item file
carries everything needed to install it, including the source of each file, so
`add` is one fetch per item and no directory traversal.

## Next [#next]

- [Getting started](/docs/registry/getting-started) — build and serve one.
- [registry.json](/docs/registry/registry-json) — the index schema.
- [registry-item.json](/docs/registry/registry-item-json) — the item schema.
- [Examples](/docs/registry/examples) — a UI item, a themed item, a block.
- [MCP](/docs/registry/mcp) — what a registry has to serve for an agent to read it.