Motion Primitives is the registry that treats animation as a set of building blocks rather than as finished sections. That distinction is the reason to use it and the reason it does not replace anything: you get a tilt, a dock, a text effect, and you compose the page yourself.
Its author, ibelick, publishes 47 components on 21st with a live preview beside each. One thing worth knowing before adopting it: the repository's last commit was in March, which puts it in the quiet half of the landscape. The components work - they are copied into your project, so nothing rots - but do not expect new ones.
The primitives worth taking
Dock is the macOS-style magnifying bar, and it is the most-bookmarked item in the set. Text Effect animates text per character or per word with preset or custom variants, and Text Shimmer is the gradient sweep that has become the standard streaming indicator. Text Scramble is the decoding effect.
Infinite Slider is the marquee, Progressive blur is the layered fade used at the edge of a scrolling list, Glow Effect is the pointer-following highlight, and Tilt is the perspective hover.
What it is for
The set is a good fit when you are building the composition yourself and want the movement to be consistent. A tilt, a glow and a text effect from one source will share timing and easing, which is most of what makes a page feel coherent rather than assembled.
It is the wrong fit when you want a finished hero, pricing section or footer. Those live in the section-shaped registries, and the registry landscape guide sorts which is which.
The alternatives, per primitive
If the objection is the motion runtime or the maintenance pace, the swaps are individual rather than wholesale.
For text effects, Gooey Text Morphing by victorwelander and Text Rotate by danielpetho cover the same ground. For a dock, Floating Panel by cult-ui is the nearest neighbour. For a marquee, CSS with two duplicated tracks and a keyframe needs no runtime at all. For a hover tilt, a perspective and a rotate3d on mousemove is a dozen lines.
Where else to look
The honest list, because the answer is not always us:
| Source | Best for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Motion Primitives | The originals with the author's own documentation | Quiet since spring; a building-block set, not sections |
| Motion | Writing the primitive yourself with full control | You are building, not installing |
| CSS animations | Marquees, shimmers and reveals with no runtime | Per-character sequencing gets verbose |
| 21st | These components with live previews, plus everything nearby | Quality varies by author, so preview before you take it |
Taking one
Every component page has a live preview and the code. Installing goes through the shadcn CLI against our registry:
That key comes from your 21st account, and installs require a membership. Set API_KEY_21ST once in your shell and the command works for anything in the catalogue. The 21st MCP covers the same ground without leaving the editor: ask Claude, Cursor or Codex for a component, get the previews inline, and let the agent write the file.
Browse the registry directory →
Frequently asked
- Is Motion Primitives still maintained?
- Its repository last shipped in March, which puts it in the quiet half of the registry landscape. Because the shadcn model copies source into your project, the components you install keep working regardless, but new ones are unlikely. That is a reason to take what you need rather than to adopt it as a dependency.
- What is Motion Primitives good for?
- Composing your own layouts with consistent movement. A tilt, a glow and a text effect taken from one source share timing and easing, which is most of what makes a page feel coherent rather than assembled. It is the wrong shelf when you want a finished hero, pricing section or footer.
- What can replace its text effects?
- Gooey Text Morphing and Text Rotate cover the same ground from other authors, and a plain CSS keyframe covers shimmers and marquees with no runtime at all. The swaps here are per-primitive rather than per-library, because you are replacing one effect and not a design system.
- What is the alternative to its dock component?
- Cult UI's floating panel is the nearest neighbour in behaviour, and several docks exist across the catalogue. Worth checking whichever you pick against the keyboard: a magnifying bar is a set of buttons, and the magnification must not be the only affordance that says so.