class-variance-authority
Class Variance Authority 🧬
About
Class Variance Authority 🧬
What detecting class-variance-authority tells you about a site
class-variance-authority (cva) reveals a typed, variant-driven approach to component styling on top of Tailwind — defining size/intent/state variants as data rather than ad-hoc class strings. Its presence is one of the clearest fingerprints of a shadcn/ui-style design system built for reuse and type safety.
Why the exact class-variance-authority version matters
cva's API is small and stable; the version is mostly a freshness and compatibility signal against the surrounding Tailwind tooling.
class-variance-authority in a real-world stack
When you find class-variance-authority in a bundle, it rarely travels alone. clsx, tailwind-merge, tailwindcss and @radix-ui primitives — the canonical shadcn/ui stack.
Quick facts
npm install class-variance-authorityWhat class-variance-authority pulls in
class-variance-authority declares 1 direct dependency — each one also rides into any bundle that ships class-variance-authority, so they are detection targets too. Reading them is a quick way to understand the package's real footprint .
How Sourcemap Explorer detects class-variance-authority
class-variance-authority ships as v0.7.1, published 2024-11-26 and carries 1 direct dependency, 27 versions on the registry. Those exact numbers are the footprint Sourcemap Explorer matches when class-variance-authority rides inside a deployed bundle — here is how the detection works.
We catch class-variance-authority from two complementary signals: bundled source paths and the embedded package.json. Modern bundlers (webpack, Vite, esbuild, Rollup, Turbopack) preserve the original node_modules/class-variance-authority/ paths inside the JavaScript sourcemap's sources[] array — that's the canonical signal. When the matching package.json is also captured in sourcesContent[], we read the exact version field — patch number included. No regex guessing, no version inference.
- 1
Confirm the site exposes sourcemaps
In DevTools Network, check the response headers of any application script for `SourceMap` or `X-SourceMap`. Failing that, fetch the script's last 4 KB and look for a `//# sourceMappingURL=` comment — that map is where the `class-variance-authority` paths live.
- 2
Find the package in the bundle
Open DevTools → Network → reload. Click any application script and look at its sourcemap. Inside, search `sources[]` for entries matching `node_modules/class-variance-authority/` — every match confirms the package is bundled. The matching `sourcesContent[i]` for `node_modules/class-variance-authority/package.json` gives you the exact installed version.
- 3
Read the version directly from package.json
Run `jq -r '. as $m | $m.sources | to_entries[] | select(.value | endswith("node_modules/class-variance-authority/package.json")) | $m.sourcesContent[.key] | fromjson | .version' bundle.js.map`. Sourcemap Explorer automates the same query in the popup.
Recent versions
class-variance-authority README
Live mirror of the GitHub README, for reference. Updated whenever the repo's default branch changes.
FAQ
What is class-variance-authority used for?
Class Variance Authority 🧬
How can I tell if a website is using class-variance-authority?
Open the page in Chrome with the Sourcemap Explorer extension installed and read the Stack tab. We catch `class-variance-authority` from two complementary signals: `node_modules/class-variance-authority/` paths inside the JavaScript sourcemap, and the embedded `package.json` we read for exact-version detection. Without the extension you can do the same lookup manually in DevTools — the steps are listed in the "How Sourcemap Explorer detects" section above.
How do I find out which version of class-variance-authority a website is running?
Read it straight from the site's JavaScript sourcemap. When a build ships source maps, the bundled `class-variance-authority/package.json` carries the exact `version` string — Sourcemap Explorer extracts it in one click on the Stack tab, and you can do it by hand in DevTools by opening the `.map` file and searching for `node_modules/class-variance-authority/package.json`. That is far more reliable than inferring the version from an asset-hash or a `?ver=` query string, which is all surface-level detectors have to go on. The current npm release is 0.7.1, but real deployments frequently run an older pinned version — which is exactly why reading the bundled number matters.
What is the latest version of class-variance-authority?
0.7.1, as published on the npm registry. The "Recent versions" table on this page lists the most recent 8 releases with their release dates. Sourcemap Explorer reports the version actually bundled into a site, which can lag the latest release by months on real-world deployments.
Is class-variance-authority actively maintained?
Maintained but slow-moving — releases come every several months rather than weekly. The last published release was 2024-11-26. Source code: https://github.com/joe-bell/cva.
Where can I read more?
Project homepage: https://github.com/joe-bell/cva#readme. Source code: https://github.com/joe-bell/cva. Published on npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/class-variance-authority. Licensed as Apache-2.0.
Keep reading on Sourcemap Explorer
Practical guides
Detection deep dives
Detected by Sourcemap Explorer
When a bundle ships sourcemaps, we read the embedded package.json for class-variance-authority and report the precise version (the registry's latest is v0.7.1, published 2024-11-26; the bundled copy is often older). Without sourcemaps, an import / require in the page's scripts is enough to flag it.