ADR 0009: Shared UI on shadcn/ui and Tailwind 4

Status

Accepted, 2026-10-30.

Context

The first Front-ends used hand-written CSS and looked unlike Patronage’s other sites, which build on shadcn/ui with shared Section, Container and Typography primitives.

Decision

packages/ui is built on shadcn/ui and Tailwind 4.
Pages are composed from its Section, Container and Typography primitives and shadcn components, not app-local CSS.
New shadcn components are added to the package, not to an app (see packages/ui/README.md).
tokens.css stays Tailwind-free so the Timber install can load it.

Consequences

Each app adds @tailwindcss/vite and one CSS file that imports @launch/ui/styles.css.
Payload’s admin is untouched; Tailwind applies only to the public routes.