boneyard

Pixel-perfect skeleton loading screens, extracted from your real UI. No manual measurement, no hand-tuned placeholders.

Works with React, Preact, Vue, Svelte 5, Angular, and React Native.

Quick start

npm install boneyard-js

React

import { Skeleton } from 'boneyard-js/react'

function BlogPage() {
  const { data, isLoading } = useFetch('/api/post')
  return (
    <Skeleton name="blog-card" loading={isLoading}>
      {data && <BlogCard data={data} />}
    </Skeleton>
  )
}

With <Suspense> / useSuspenseQuery

Drop in <BoneSuspense> anywhere you'd use a <Suspense> boundary. The skeleton renders as the fallback at runtime, and the CLI captures bones from the resolved children at build time.

import { BoneSuspense } from 'boneyard-js/react'

function Page() {
  return (
    <BoneSuspense name="user-card">
      <UserCard />  {/* uses useSuspenseQuery */}
    </BoneSuspense>
  )
}

No initialData or placeholderData required — the build-time --wait window lets the query resolve naturally. Pass a fixture if the query can't finish in time.

Vue

<script setup>
import Skeleton from 'boneyard-js/vue'
import './bones/registry'
const loading = ref(true)
</script>

<template>
  <Skeleton name="card" :loading="loading">
    <Card />
  </Skeleton>
</template>

Svelte 5

<script>
  import Skeleton from 'boneyard-js/svelte'
  import '$lib/bones/registry'
  let loading = true
</script>

<Skeleton name="card" {loading}>
  <Card />
</Skeleton>

Preact

import { Skeleton } from 'boneyard-js/preact'

function BlogPage() {
  const { data, isLoading } = useFetch('/api/post')
  return (
    <Skeleton name="blog-card" loading={isLoading}>
      {data && <BlogCard data={data} />}
    </Skeleton>
  )
}

Angular

import { SkeletonComponent } from 'boneyard-js/angular'

@Component({
  imports: [SkeletonComponent],
  template: `
    <boneyard-skeleton name="card" [loading]="isLoading">
      <app-card />
    </boneyard-skeleton>
  `
})

React Native

import { Skeleton } from 'boneyard-js/native'

<Skeleton name="profile-card" loading={isLoading}>
  <ProfileCard />
</Skeleton>

npx boneyard-js build --native --out ./bones
# Open your app on device — bones capture automatically

Dynamic Type: Generate bones at default font scale. Boneyard automatically scales bone positions at runtime to match the user's text size setting.

Generate bones

# CLI — works with any framework
npx boneyard-js build

# Watch mode — re-captures on HMR changes
npx boneyard-js build --watch

# React Native — scans from device
npx boneyard-js build --native

Then import the registry once in your app entry:

import './bones/registry'

Vite plugin

For Vite-based projects (React, Preact, Vue, Svelte), use the plugin instead of the CLI — no second terminal needed:

// vite.config.ts
import { boneyardPlugin } from 'boneyard-js/vite'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [boneyardPlugin()]
})

Bones are captured automatically when the dev server starts and re-captured on every HMR update.

How it works

Web: The CLI (or Vite plugin) opens a headless browser, visits your app, finds every <Skeleton name="...">, and snapshots their layout at multiple breakpoints.

React Native: The <Skeleton> component auto-scans in dev mode when the CLI is running. It walks the fiber tree, measures views via UIManager, and sends bone data to the CLI. Zero overhead in production.

All frameworks output the same .bones.json format — cross-platform compatible.

CLI flags

Flag	Default	Description
[url]	auto-detected	URL to visit
--breakpoints	375,768,1280	Viewport widths, comma-separated
--wait	800	ms to wait after page load
--out	./src/bones	Output directory
--force	—	Skip incremental cache
--watch	—	Re-capture on HMR changes
--native	—	React Native device scanning
--no-scan	—	Skip filesystem route scanning
--cdp	—	Connect to existing Chrome via debug port
--env-file	—	Load env vars from file

Props

Prop	Type	Default	Description
loading	boolean	—	Show skeleton or real content
name	string	—	Unique name (generates name.bones.json)
color	string	rgba(0,0,0,0.08)	Bone fill color
darkColor	string	rgba(255,255,255,0.06)	Bone color in dark mode
animate	'pulse' | 'shimmer' | 'solid'	'pulse'	Animation style
stagger	number | boolean	false	Stagger delay between bones in ms (true = 80ms)
transition	number | boolean	false	Fade out duration when loading ends (true = 300ms)
boneClass	string	—	CSS class applied to each bone element
fixture	ReactNode / Snippet / Slot	—	Mock content for CLI capture (dev only)
initialBones	ResponsiveBones	—	Pass bones directly (overrides registry)
fallback	ReactNode / Snippet / Slot	—	Shown when loading but no bones available

Config file

{
  "breakpoints": [375, 768, 1280],
  "out": "./src/bones",
  "wait": 800,
  "color": "#e5e5e5",
  "animate": "pulse"
}

Save as boneyard.config.json. Per-component props override config values.

Package exports

Import	Use
boneyard-js	snapshotBones, renderBones, computeLayout
boneyard-js/react	React <Skeleton>
boneyard-js/preact	Preact <Skeleton> (no compat needed)
boneyard-js/vue	Vue <Skeleton>
boneyard-js/svelte	Svelte <Skeleton>
boneyard-js/angular	Angular <boneyard-skeleton>
boneyard-js/native	React Native <Skeleton>
boneyard-js/vite	Vite plugin boneyardPlugin()

Links

• Docs
• npm
• Twitter

Star History

License

MIT