---
title: "registry.json"
description: "The index every registry serves: the list of items a CLI, an agent or a search box can read without fetching each one."
---

`index.json` at the root of a registry is an array of items with their metadata
and without their file contents. It is what `newtui list` prints, what a search
box filters, and what an agent reads to know what exists.

```json title="/r/index.json"
[
  {
    "name": "button",
    "type": "registry:ui",
    "framework": "react",
    "title": "Button",
    "description": "Displays a Discord-styled button with brand, secondary, success, danger, link and icon variants.",
    "dependencies": ["class-variance-authority"],
    "files": ["registry/bases/newt/ui/button.tsx"]
  },
  {
    "name": "modal",
    "type": "registry:ui",
    "framework": "react",
    "title": "Modal",
    "description": "A centred dialog with a header, body and footer.",
    "registryDependencies": ["button"],
    "files": ["registry/bases/newt/ui/modal.tsx"]
  }
]
```

The item shape is the same one described in
[registry-item.json](/docs/registry/registry-item-json), with one difference:
in the index, `files` is a list of paths rather than a list of objects with
contents. That keeps the index small enough to fetch on every command.

## Fields [#fields]

| Field                  | Required | What it is                                                                               |
| ---------------------- | -------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `name`                 | yes      | The install name. `newtui add <name>`.                                                   |
| `type`                 | yes      | One of the `registry:*` types.                                                           |
| `framework`            | no       | `react` or `vue`. Informational: items are served from per-framework registries.         |
| `title`                | no       | Human name, shown by `list` and in docs.                                                 |
| `description`          | no       | One sentence, shown by `list` and read by agents.                                        |
| `dependencies`         | no       | npm packages to install.                                                                 |
| `registryDependencies` | no       | Other items to install first.                                                            |
| `files`                | no       | Paths, in the index; objects with contents, in the item.                                 |
| `categories`           | no       | Free-form tags. This registry drives its taxonomy from `registry-categories.ts` instead. |

## The style index [#styles]

`styles/index.json` lists the styles a registry serves. newt/ui has one:

```json title="/r/styles/index.json"
[{ "name": "default", "label": "Default" }]
```

An item then lives at `/r/styles/<style>/<name>.json`. The field exists so a
second visual style can be added later without moving anything a consumer has
already installed.