Aurora
Warm aurora bands drifting across the top of a section, fading into the page below.
- Category: Backgrounds
- Licence: Charcoal UI Pro
- Built with: React 19, Tailwind CSS 4, Motion
- Dependencies: motion, clsx, tailwind-merge
Examples
Aurora
API reference
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
intensity | number | 1 | |
speed | number | 18 | Seconds per drift cycle. |
About Aurora
Aurora drifts soft bands of light across the top of a section, fading into the page below. It is the polished gradient background SaaS heroes use, done with transforms only.
Aurora is an animated background for React 19, styled with Tailwind CSS 4 and animated with Motion. It drops into Next.js, Vite, Remix or Astro through the shadcn CLI as a single file you own.
When to use Aurora
- SaaS and AI product heroes.
- Pricing and sign-up sections.
- Waitlist and launch pages.
- Feature section headers.
How it works
Three blurred radial bands move on slow, offset keyframes with screen blending. intensity and speed are props. It is pure CSS, so it costs almost nothing to keep running, and it stops under reduced motion.
The whole layer is decorative and aria-hidden, sits behind your content without taking pointer events it does not need, and pauses when scrolled off screen. With prefers-reduced-motion on, it holds still or settles instantly instead of animating.
Customizing Aurora
Every prop is documented in the API reference above with its type and default. The ones you will reach for first are listed here.
The Customize panel next to the preview lets you change intensity, speed live, and the Code tab updates to match, so the snippet you copy already carries your values.
- intensity (number, default 1).
- speed (number, default 18): Seconds per drift cycle.
Goes well with Aurora
Aurora is already composed into a ready-made section, so you can see it in context or install the whole block.
- Hero Split: Hero section
- Ember Field: An animated React ember background: glowing embers drift up and flicker as they cool
- Smoke: A slow React smoke background: blurred plumes drifting over dark sections, CSS only
- Grid Beams: A React grid background with beams of light running along its lines
- Meteors: A React meteor shower background: streaks falling diagonally, CSS only
- Wave Lines: An animated React wave lines background: layered sine lines drifting sideways
Install Aurora
npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/auroraAurora is part of Charcoal UI Pro. One seat unlocks all 300 Pro components, 107 landing-page sections and 100 full templates, for every personal and client project, with updates included. Add the @charcoal registry once with your access token, then the command above copies aurora.tsx into components/ui and installs clsx, tailwind-merge.
You own the file you install: no runtime package, no lock-in, nothing to keep in sync. Change it however your product needs.
See Charcoal UI Pro pricing · Pro setup
Frequently asked questions
- How do I install Aurora?
- Aurora is part of Charcoal UI Pro. Add the @charcoal registry to components.json with your access token, then run npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/aurora. It copies aurora.tsx into components/ui and installs motion, clsx, tailwind-merge.
- Is Aurora free for commercial use?
- Aurora needs a Charcoal UI Pro seat, monthly or a one-time lifetime price. A seat covers unlimited personal and commercial projects, including client work, and every future Pro component.
- Does Aurora work with Next.js?
- Yes. It is a client component for React 19 styled with Tailwind CSS 4, so it works in the Next.js App Router and Pages Router, Vite, Remix and Astro.
- Can an AI coding agent install Aurora?
- Yes. Connect the Charcoal UI MCP server (https://charcoalui.com/mcp) to Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client; get_component returns Aurora's props and get_install_command returns the exact command.