Hi {{first_name|Oncer}},I’ve been saying Once UI 2.0 is close for weeks.Today I can finally replace “close” with an install command.
Once UI 2.0 alpha is on npm
npm i @once-ui-system/core@alphaThe new documentation is live. The migration guide is ready. The install works.This is not the polished release tour. An alpha is the moment when a system leaves its own repository and meets the assumptions, edge cases and strange decisions inside real products.That is what I need from you now: install it, try to break it, and tell me where we got it wrong.Explore the 2.0 documentation
The practical difference
Once UI Core no longer imports next/* at runtime. It now runs in any React application.If you use Next.js, today’s behaviour stays intact with one import change. If you do not, you no longer have to carry framework code you never asked for.The same principle runs through the rest of the alpha:
prop names now follow one vocabulary across the system\
a codemod handles most of the 1.x migration\
charts, CodeBlock and MediaUpload live behind optional subpaths\
the documentation now describes the system that actually ships
This is less about adding features than removing ambiguity.
Nothing changes unless you ask for it
A normal npm install still resolves to 1.8.4. The 1.x documentation is frozen at v1.docs.once-ui.com.2.0 is deliberately behind the alpha tag. Existing projects do not wake up inside a major migration. You opt in when you are ready, and the migration guide walks through the change.
Measured, not assumed
The release exists at this depth because Anthropic accepted Once UI into the Claude for Open Source program.Since late July, Claude has worked beside the project as a daily engineering agent: auditing changes across real Once UI products, expanding the test suite, documenting decisions, and turning the migration into a codemod and a guide.
Claude did not design 2.0 or decide what shipped. It made the measurement cheap enough that I did not have to guess.
Architecture decisions, breaking-change sign-off, merges and the npm release stayed human. The additional capacity made it possible for a one-person open-source project to test its assumptions before asking everyone else to live with them.
1.7 was our first community-driven release. 1.8 arrived through the largest community pull request in the project’s history. The first weaknesses in 2.0 are already being found by people installing it in real products.
Huge thanks to Pro Coder, darkKnight, the vibecoding hater, JExcellence / Justin, Kadrxy, Morpheus, cheese@orangopus, chanderlud, and everyone who contributed design, code, promotion, testing, issues, feedback, or simply put up with the churn.
You shaped this release. Thank you.
What comes next
The alpha is not the finish line. It is the part where the system becomes honest.
After this comes a renewed Pro offer, a proper CLI, and Tailwind support so Once UI can enter an existing Tailwind codebase without making you pick a side.
Before that: break the alpha. Open an issue, join the Discord, or reply and tell me where the migration stopped making sense.
