Use Storybook as a living reference for your design system: document meaningful component states as stories, enable Autodocs for consistent component pages, and add MDX for guidance that code and metadata cannot explain. Preview and build the documentation as part of the project workflow; consider package composition when other teams need the system in their own Storybooks.
Build component documentation from stories
A Storybook story is a rendered state of a UI component. Make stories represent states and variants that help a teammate understand how the component behaves—not only its default appearance. For example, a button might have stories for its primary and secondary variants, disabled state, and loading state, where those states are supported by the component. Storybook’s overview explains the role of stories in capturing component states: What is a story?
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Stories give documentation concrete examples that can be rendered and explored. Keep the examples purposeful: a collection of near-identical stories is less useful than a compact set that shows the component’s meaningful range.
Use Autodocs as the component-page baseline
Autodocs generates a documentation page from story files and their metadata, including information such as args, argTypes, and parameters. Its setup is tag-based: tag a story with autodocs, or enable the tag globally in preview configuration. Use the version of Storybook’s documentation that matches your installed release when applying configuration, since the reviewed guidance does not establish one universal recipe for every framework and version.
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Autodocs can document a primary component and related subcomponents. It is a repeatable starting point for examples and API information, rather than a substitute for decisions and rationale that are not represented in the component’s metadata. See Autodocs for the current setup details.
Add MDX for guidance people cannot infer
Use MDX when a reader needs context beyond the rendered states and component metadata: intended use, usage patterns, design rules, accessibility guidance, onboarding material, or an explanation spanning several components. Storybook MDX can combine prose, CSF stories, Doc Blocks, and JSX, letting authored guidance sit beside examples.
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MDX can also give a group of components a tailored presentation instead of relying on the generated page structure. TypeScript CSF can provide type safety and autocomplete in this workflow. One implementation boundary matters: Storybook’s MDX documentation renderer is React-based, even when the stories themselves use another supported framework. Custom components used in docs should account for that runtime distinction.
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Choose Autodocs, MDX, or both
| Approach | Best fit | What it contributes |
|---|---|---|
| Autodocs | Repeatable pages for individual components | Generated examples and API information based on stories and metadata. |
| MDX | Usage rationale, custom layouts, or documentation across components | Authored prose and a structure that can combine stories and documentation blocks. |
| Both | A component needs generated reference material plus design-system context | Autodocs provides the baseline; MDX adds guidance that cannot be inferred. |
Decide based on what the reader needs to learn. If stories and metadata cover the component reference, start with Autodocs. If the page must explain why or when to use a pattern, or organize several components together, add MDX. The approaches can complement one another rather than compete.
Place documentation where readers will find it
An MDX page associated with a stories file through the Meta component’s of prop is an attached docs entry. For standalone material—such as onboarding, accessibility guidance, or design tokens—create a standalone MDX documentation page and choose its title and placement deliberately. Storybook’s guides cover MDX pages and their organization and documenting multiple components.
Preview and build the documentation
Review the rendered docs, not just the source. Check that stories show the intended states, authored guidance appears in the right place, and navigation makes attached and standalone pages easy to distinguish. Storybook supports a docs preview mode and a documentation build that writes output to storybook-static. Include a rendered-docs review and build in the project workflow; see Build documentation.
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Share the design system with consumer Storybooks
If teams consume your design system from their own Storybooks, evaluate package composition. It can make a design system available inside consumer Storybooks, and comparing composed versions can help show how a library evolves. This is a distribution choice for teams that need that shared view, not a prerequisite for documenting components in the design system’s own Storybook. See Storybook’s package composition documentation.
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