Storybook stories in PostHog

SkillMedia

Helps write Storybook stories for PostHog UI components using the correct setup and avoiding common pitfalls.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Add ahel to your AI once: Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code or Codex. Then ask it to use this.

Then ask your AI: use the Storybook stories in PostHog skill

About this skill

Write Storybook stories for PostHog UI components. Covers the provider stack stories run inside, the key gotcha that tRPC/useHostTRPC queries never resolve in Storybook (so data-fetching components render empty), and the pure-presentational split that makes a component storyable. Use when adding or

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by posthog/posthog in products/desktop/.claude/skills/storybook-stories/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Stories live next to components as *.stories.tsx and are collected by apps/code/.storybook/main.ts (its glob includes packages/ui/src/**/*.stories.tsx). Run/build:

pnpm --filter code storybook        # dev server on :6006
pnpm --filter code build-storybook  # static build (also a good CI/typecheck gate)

Every story is already wrapped (don't re-wrap)

apps/code/.storybook/preview.tsx applies two global decorators, so a story should not add its own providers or <Theme>:

  • withAppProviders — a QueryClient, the host tRPC context, a DI ServiceProvider, and a minimal TanStack Router. So useHostTRPC(), useService(), useRouterState(), etc. render instead of throwing "must be used within a Provider".
  • A <Theme> (Radix) bound to the dark/light toolbar global. This root provider is the one sanctioned Radix usage — it supplies the CSS tokens. Radix components are banned: build stories and components from @posthog/quill plus div + Tailwind (see UI Components).

Add a per-story decorator only to constrain layout (e.g. wrap in a maxWidth div so a full-width component sizes realistically).

The gotcha: data never arrives in Storybook

This is the thing that wastes time. In withAppProviders the tRPC ipcLink is a no-op (apps/code/.storybook/mocks/electron-trpc.ts), so:

  • Any query issued through useHostTRPC() (and hooks built on it, like useClaudeCliSessions) stays pending forever — query.data is undefined, permanently.
  • useService(TOKEN) returns an inert proxy stub for anything not explicitly bound (service.foo().bar never throws, but calls are no-ops). Only a few tokens resolve for real: HOST_TRPC_CLIENT (a no-op client with a handful of stubbed methods), IMPERATIVE_QUERY_CLIENT, DIFF_WORKER_FACTORY.

So a component that fetches its own data renders its empty/loading branch in Storybook — frequently null. Storying it directly shows nothing.

The fix: split a pure presentational component

Separate the data/wiring from the rendering, and story the pure part — which also satisfies the repo rule "components render; hooks wrap exactly one query" (AGENTS.md). Keep both in the same file:

// Pure — takes data + handlers as props. This is what the story targets.
export function WidgetList({ items, onPick }: WidgetListProps) { … }

// Container — does the tRPC/useService wiring, renders <WidgetList/>.
export function Widget({ repoPath }: WidgetProps) {
  const { data } = useSomeQuery(repoPath);
  return <WidgetList items={data?.items ?? []} onPick={…} />;
}

Then each story is just args for WidgetList — one per visual state (empty, single, over-limit, in-flight/disabled, fallback text, …). Real example: packages/ui/src/features/task-detail/components/ContinueCliSessions.tsx + .stories.tsx.

Filtering/branching that lives in the container (not the pure view) isn't exercised by these visual stories — cover it with a small unit test if it's worth pinning.

Conventions

  • title groups in the sidebar, e.g. "Task Detail/ContinueCliSessions".
  • Build fixtures with a small factory (session(overrides)) rather than repeating object literals across stories.
  • Date.now()/new Date() are fine in stories, but fixed ISO strings keep relative-time output stable enough for visual review.
  • Typecheck covers stories (they're .tsx under the package); a build-storybook additionally catches Storybook-specific breakage.

Signals

GitHub stars
40k
Forks
3k
Last commit
Sep 2026

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Item type
skill
Key
storybook-stories-posthog
Source
github.com/posthog/posthog