1.7k stars · MIT · no releases published; 93 commits · Track this in Rising ↗
A gorgeous, accessible colour system — scales with properly matched light and dark pairs.
Radar check
What we found when we opened it. Every bar is one fact, with its date.
Last code pushed 17 Dec 2025, 10 months before this check.
No releases published on GitHub; the code date above is the one to trust.
Public since January 2021, a little over 5 years.
1,720 stars and 88 forks.
0 commits and 0 new issues in the last 90 days.
11 contributors. No pull requests merged in 90 days; changes go in directly.
No security policy file says how to report a problem. No published security advisories.
How the bars are scored
- Alive. Days since the last code push: a week or less 100, a month 90, three months 70, six months 50, a year 30, eighteen months 15, older 0.
- Releases. Age of the latest GitHub release, on a similar scale; no bar when the project publishes no releases.
- Maturity. Age of the project: eight years 100, five 90, three 70, two 55, one 40, six months 25, younger 10.
- Adoption. Stars on a log scale: 100,000 stars is 100, 10,000 is 80, 1,000 is 60, 100 is 40.
- Activity. Commits in the last 90 days: 300 or more 100, 100 85, 30 65, 10 45, any 25.
- Community. People who have contributed: 100 or more 100, 30 80, 10 60, 5 40, 2 25, one 10.
- Security. A published security policy 80, none 40; published advisories are listed, not scored.
Checked by Repo Radar on 27 Oct 2026 from the repository on GitHub. Covered in Edition 16.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it does
Radix Colors is a set of colour scales delivered as plain CSS files and as JavaScript objects. Each scale has twelve numbered steps, and the step numbers mean the same thing in every scale, so a subtle background is always step 3 and readable text is always step 11. Every scale ships in a light version and a dark version, plus see-through and wide-gamut variants, all matched to each other. The pairs of steps meant for text on a background are built to meet accessibility contrast rules, so the checking work is already done. It has no dependencies, needs no build step, and is not tied to React or any framework, so it drops into plain CSS. It publishes no tagged releases on GitHub, so changes have to be read from the npm page or the changelog file. It is colour only: spacing, type sizes, shadows and components are not part of it.
Why it matters
Who it suits. It fits anyone building an interface without a designer, and anyone whose screens have to stay readable in both light and dark. The real gift is not the colours but the numbering, because swapping red for blue leaves every rule in place. It also fits a screen that needs many colours at once to stay distinct, like a chart or a status board. Skip it if a brand palette is already fixed and signed off, or if what is actually missing is spacing and type rather than colour.
Verdict. Worth twenty minutes, and then it disappears into the project and never asks for attention again. It is data rather than code, so there is nothing to keep updated and nothing that can break at runtime. Two things to note. The last code landed in December 2025, which for a finished colour set reads as settled rather than neglected, but it does mean no new scales are arriving. And the project now sits under WorkOS, a company — not a problem today, and worth knowing. Pair it with argyleink/open-props for the spacing and type sizes this one deliberately leaves out.
Summary (Key Points)from the README
Important
- Setup details are external: The README's Installation section has no steps, so the install instructions must come from the documentation at radix-ui.com/colors/docs.
- Documentation is off-site: All full usage details are on the external docs site, not in the repository README.
- License: The project is MIT licensed, with the copyright held by WorkOS, while the README lists Colm Tuite and Vlad Moroz as authors. Check the LICENSE file before reuse.
- Support channels: Questions can go to GitHub Discussions, the Radix Discord, or Radix's Twitter account.
Written by an AI model from the project’s README; not part of the review, and it can be wrong.
- Free, MIT, and it is just data. No runtime code and nothing to keep updated.
- Light, dark, see-through and wide-gamut versions of every scale, all matched to each other.
- The contrast work is already done, so text on the recommended background is readable.
- No GitHub releases at all. To find out what changed you have to read the npm page or the changelog file.
- It is colour only. Spacing, type sizes, shadows and components are not here.
- The newest code landed in December 2025. Settled rather than neglected, but no new scales are coming soon.
npm install @radix-ui/colors
