Is light pillar heavy to run?

No. It is CSS gradients with a slow flicker, so it idles at almost no cost and stops under reduced motion.

How do I install Light Pillar?

Light Pillar is part of Charcoal UI Pro. Add the @charcoal registry to components.json with your access token, then run npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/light-pillar. It copies light-pillar.tsx into components/ui and installs motion, clsx, tailwind-merge.

Is Light Pillar free for commercial use?

Light Pillar 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 Light Pillar 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 Light Pillar?

Yes. Connect the Charcoal UI MCP server (https://charcoalui.com/mcp) to Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client; get_component returns Light Pillar's props and get_install_command returns the exact command.

Light Pillar

Vertical pillars of light rising from the bottom edge with soft sides, a slow flicker and faint bands drifting upward. CSS only, so it idles at no cost.

Category: Backgrounds
Licence: Charcoal UI Pro
Built with: React 19, Tailwind CSS 4, Motion
Dependencies: motion, clsx, tailwind-merge

Examples

Light Pillar

API reference

Prop	Type	Default	Description
`pillars`	`number`	`1`	Spread evenly across the width with a little jitter.
`color`	`string`	`"var(--ember)"`
`width`	`number`	`160`	Width in px at the widest.
`speed`	`number`	`1`	Flicker and rise speed multiplier.
`intensity`	`number`	`1`	Brightness, 0–2.

About Light Pillar

Light Pillar raises vertical pillars of light from the bottom edge with soft sides, a slow flicker and faint bands drifting upward.

Light Pillar 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 Light Pillar

Sci-fi and gaming.
Product reveal stages.
Awards and events.
Dark hero sections.

How it works

Pillars are layered gradients with CSS flicker. 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 Light Pillar

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 pillars, color, width, speed, intensity live, and the Code tab updates to match, so the snippet you copy already carries your values.

pillars (number, default 1): Spread evenly across the width with a little jitter.
color (string, default "var(--ember)").
width (number, default 160): Width in px at the widest.
speed (number, default 1): Flicker and rise speed multiplier.
intensity (number, default 1): Brightness, 0–2.

Goes well with Light Pillar

These backgrounds pieces share its tokens and motion language, so they sit together on one page without clashing.

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
Aurora: An animated React aurora background: soft light bands drifting across a section
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

Install Light Pillar

npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/light-pillar

Light Pillar 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 light-pillar.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

Is light pillar heavy to run?: No. It is CSS gradients with a slow flicker, so it idles at almost no cost and stops under reduced motion.
How do I install Light Pillar?: Light Pillar is part of Charcoal UI Pro. Add the @charcoal registry to components.json with your access token, then run npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/light-pillar. It copies light-pillar.tsx into components/ui and installs motion, clsx, tailwind-merge.
Is Light Pillar free for commercial use?: Light Pillar 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 Light Pillar 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 Light Pillar?: Yes. Connect the Charcoal UI MCP server (https://charcoalui.com/mcp) to Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client; get_component returns Light Pillar's props and get_install_command returns the exact command.

Light Pillar as Markdown · llms.txt