Headless Toolbar Examples

Five examples, five frameworks, five toolbar patterns. Pick the one closest to your stack.

React + shadcn/ui

Classic top ribbon, like Google Docs. Toggle groups for formatting, select dropdowns for fonts, popovers for colors.

Stack: React, Radix primitives + Tailwind CSS, Lucide icons

const toolbar = createHeadlessToolbar({ superdoc, commands: COMMANDS });
const [snapshot, setSnapshot] = useState(toolbar.getSnapshot());

useEffect(() => {
  const unsub = toolbar.subscribe(({ snapshot: s }) => setSnapshot(s));
  return unsub;
}, []);

// In JSX:
<ToggleGroup value={activeFormats} onValueChange={() => {}}>
  <ToggleGroup.Item value="bold" onClick={() => toolbar.execute('bold')}>
    <Bold />
  </ToggleGroup.Item>
  <ToggleGroup.Item value="italic" onClick={() => toolbar.execute('italic')}>
    <Italic />
  </ToggleGroup.Item>
</ToggleGroup>

Full source

React + shadcn/ui example

React + MUI

Floating bubble bar. Compact Material Design Paper component above the editor with toggle buttons and selects.

Stack: React, MUI Material, Material Icons

<Paper elevation={3} sx={{ borderRadius: 3, px: 1, py: 0.5 }}>
  <ToggleButtonGroup value={activeFormats} onChange={handleFormats}>
    <ToggleButton value="bold"><FormatBold /></ToggleButton>
    <ToggleButton value="italic"><FormatItalic /></ToggleButton>
    <ToggleButton value="underline"><FormatUnderlined /></ToggleButton>
  </ToggleButtonGroup>

  <Divider orientation="vertical" flexItem sx={{ mx: 0.5 }} />

  <Select
    value={fontFamily}
    size="small"
    onChange={(e) => toolbar.execute('font-family', e.target.value)}
  >
    {FONT_FAMILIES.map(f => (
      <MenuItem key={f.value} value={f.value}>{f.label}</MenuItem>
    ))}
  </Select>
</Paper>

Full source

React + MUI example

Vue + Vuetify

Vertical sidebar panel. Navigation drawer with expansion panels grouping related controls.

Stack: Vue 3, Vuetify 3, Material Design Icons

<v-navigation-drawer permanent width="260">
  <v-expansion-panels>
    <v-expansion-panel title="Text">
      <template #text>
        <v-btn-toggle v-model="activeFormats" multiple>
          <v-btn icon="mdi-format-bold" @click="execute('bold')" />
          <v-btn icon="mdi-format-italic" @click="execute('italic')" />
          <v-btn icon="mdi-format-underline" @click="execute('underline')" />
        </v-btn-toggle>

        <v-select
          label="Font size"
          :items="fontSizes"
          @update:model-value="v => execute('font-size', v)"
        />
      </template>
    </v-expansion-panel>
  </v-expansion-panels>
</v-navigation-drawer>

Full source

Vue + Vuetify example

Svelte + Tailwind

Fixed bottom bar. Compact, mobile-inspired layout with Svelte 5 runes for reactivity.

Stack: Svelte 5, Tailwind CSS, Lucide Svelte

<script>
  let snapshot = $state(toolbar.getSnapshot());

  $effect(() => {
    return toolbar.subscribe(({ snapshot: s }) => {
      snapshot = s;
    });
  });
</script>

<div class="fixed bottom-0 inset-x-0 flex items-center gap-1 px-3 h-12 bg-white border-t">
  <button
    class:active={snapshot.commands.bold?.active}
    onclick={() => toolbar.execute('bold')}
  >
    <Bold size={16} />
  </button>
  <button
    class:active={snapshot.commands.italic?.active}
    onclick={() => toolbar.execute('italic')}
  >
    <Italic size={16} />
  </button>
</div>

Full source

Svelte + Tailwind example

Vanilla JS

Zero-framework proof. Plain buttons, native selects, DOM manipulation. No build step required.

Stack: No framework, plain HTML/CSS/JS, Lucide

// Sync button states from toolbar snapshot
toolbar.subscribe(({ snapshot }) => {
  for (const btn of document.querySelectorAll('[data-cmd]')) {
    const cmd = snapshot.commands[btn.dataset.cmd];
    btn.classList.toggle('active', cmd?.active);
    btn.disabled = cmd?.disabled;
  }
});

// Single event listener via delegation
document.querySelector('#toolbar').addEventListener('click', (e) => {
  const cmd = e.target.closest('[data-cmd]')?.dataset.cmd;
  if (cmd) toolbar.execute(cmd);
});

<!-- Markup -->
<div id="toolbar">
  <button data-cmd="bold"><b>B</b></button>
  <button data-cmd="italic"><i>I</i></button>
  <button data-cmd="underline"><u>U</u></button>
</div>

Full source

Vanilla JS example

Running the examples

cd examples/advanced/headless-toolbar/<example-name>
pnpm install
pnpm dev

Replace <example-name> with react-shadcn, react-mui, vue-vuetify, svelte-shadcn, or vanilla.

Next steps

Headless toolbar API reference

Full command table, snapshot shape, and helper utilities