In my first post, I introduced Bladewell and explained why I wanted Laravel UI components that work without adopting another JavaScript framework.

This time, let's look at what happens when you actually bring a component into an app.

The useful test for a UI library comes after the demo: can you make it fit your project, and can you still maintain it after you do?

Start with one component

Use an existing Blade application with PHP 8.3+, Laravel 12 or 13, Tailwind CSS 4.1+, and Vite. The datepicker also requires PHP's intl extension.

From your project directory:

composer require --dev bladewell/bladewell php artisan bladewell:add datepicker npm run build

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The installer brings in the datepicker and its supporting components.…