Installation

• Introduction
  • Prerequisites
• With create-app
• With Vue
• With Nuxt
• With Astro
• Configuring
  • Configuring Nuxt
  • Using with Typescript
• Adding Genesis theme
  • CDN Usage
  • Direct import
  • For Tailwind
• Adding Pro Inputs
  • Adding Pro Genesis Theme

Introduction

The simplest way to get a new project started with FormKit is by using FormKit CLI's create-app. Alternatively, if you already have a project, you can manually install with Vue, with Nuxt or with Astro.

Prerequisites

• Vue 3 or Nuxt 3: If you're using Vue 2 or Nuxt 2 you can use FormKit's predecessor VueFormulate.
• Node.js: 14.18.0, 16.12.0, or higher.
• Terminal: To run npm/yarn commands.

With create-app

create-app is the fastest way to start a new project with FormKit pre-configured for you. It walks you through all the necessary steps, and allows you to optionally add TypeScript support, use Nuxt or Vite as your starting template, or set up Pro Inputs.

Run the FormKit CLI

At your terminal, run npx formkit create-app to start your new project:

npx formkit create-app

create-app will ask you some questions about your project so it can determine what it needs to install and setup for you:

✔ Please enter a name for the project › <your-project-name>
✔ What framework would you like to use? › Vite / Nuxt
✔ What language should be used? › TypeScript / Javascript
✔ Would you like to install FormKit Pro? › no / yes
✔ Enter a project key from https://pro.formkit.com: › <fk-00000000000>

Once this is completed, you can follow the instructions to install all dependencies and start a development server:

Created formkit-app!

To run your new app:
📁 cd <your-project-name>
✅ npm install
🚀 npm run dev

With Vue

Most new projects use a build tool like Vite, Snowpack, or webpack. This makes installing npm dependencies a piece of cake 🍰:

npm install @formkit/vue

The @formkit/vue package ships with a Vue plugin and a default configuration for easy setup:

import { createApp } from 'vue'
import { plugin, defaultConfig } from '@formkit/vue'
import App from 'App.vue'

createApp(App).use(plugin, defaultConfig).mount('#app')
// remember, each Vue plugin needs its own .use()
// .use(router).use(plugin2)

That's it! You're now ready to use the <FormKit> component in your Vue 3 application.

With Nuxt

Using FormKit with Nuxt requires minimal setup. First include the Nuxt module as a dependency within your project:

npm install @formkit/nuxt

Then in your nuxt.config file add the module to your modules list:

// nuxt.config
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  modules: ['@formkit/nuxt'],
})

That's it! FormKit is now registered in your project using the default config and you can start using the <FormKit> component.

With Astro

First, we need to install Astro's Vue integration. You can refer to Astro's Vue integration docs for more detail.

Inside of Astro's config file (astro.config.*), let's add an entrypoint _app. The _app entrypoint file is just a configuration file for Vue:

// astro.config.mjs
import { defineConfig } from 'astro/config'
import vue from '@astrojs/vue'

export default defineConfig({
  integrations: [vue({ appEntrypoint: '/src/pages/_app' })],
})

Next, install the @formKit/vue package:

npm install @formkit/vue

The @formkit/vue package ships with a Vue plugin and a default configuration for easy setup:

// src/pages/_app.ts
import type { App } from 'vue'
import { plugin, defaultConfig } from '@formkit/vue'

export default (app: App) => {
  app.use(plugin, defaultConfig)
}

Now you can add FormKit to your Astro Vue components, so that you can create a component inside the components folder:

<script setup>
  // src/components/Form.vue

  const submitHandler = async (fields) => {
    // Let's pretend this is an ajax request:
    await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 1000))
    console.log(fields)
  }
</script>

<template>
  <FormKit type="form" @submit="submitHandler">
    <FormKit type="text" label="Name" name: "name" />
    <FormKit type="email" label="Email" name: "email" />
  </FormKit>
</template>

After that, you just need to import and use it inside your Astro files:

// src/pages/index.astro
---
import Form from '../components/Form.vue';
---

<Form client:visible />

That's it! You're now ready to use the <FormKit> component in your Astro application.

Configuring

If you would like to supply your own configuration, you can either extend defaultConfig by passing a configuration object to it, or replace with your own configuration object, which allows for improved tree-shaking (only include the rules and languages you want to actually use) and more fine-grained control:

// formkit.config.js
import { fr } from '@formkit/i18n'

const config = {
  locales: { fr },
  locale: 'fr',
}

export default config

// app.js or _app.ts for Astro
import config from 'formkit.config.js'

app.use(plugin, defaultConfig(config))

Configuring Nuxt

Nuxt already automatically uses formkit.config.js that is at the root of your project to extend FormKit's functionality.

This configuration file will be automatically included if detected in your project directory. If you would like to supply a custom path to your formkit.config, you can override the default location using the configFile option under the formkit key. Any path you supply should be relative to the root of your Nuxt project:

// nuxt.config
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  modules: ['@formkit/nuxt'],
  formkit: {
    configFile: './my-configs/formkit.config.mjs',
  },
})

By default, your configuration will extend the defaultConfig that ships with FormKit. This is the desired behavior for the majority of projects. However, if you need to define the entire FormKit config yourself — from scratch — you may do so by setting the defaultConfig option for the module to false:

// nuxt.config
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  modules: ['@formkit/nuxt'],
  formkit: {
    defaultConfig: false,
    configFile: './my/custom/location/formkit.config.ts',
    // ^ this is now a full config replacement, not override.
  },
})

Using with Typescript

For TypeScript users, it can be helpful to type your formkit.config.ts export as DefaultConfigOptions explicitly:

// formkit.config.ts
import { fr } from '@formkit/i18n'
import { DefaultConfigOptions } from '@formkit/vue'

const config: DefaultConfigOptions = {
  locales: { fr },
  locale: 'fr',
}

export default config

Adding Genesis theme

The default FormKit theme (called "genesis") can be added via CDN or by installing the @formkit/themes package.

CDN Usage

To load genesis via CDN, supply it to the theme property of your defaultConfig:

...
defaultConfig({
  theme: 'genesis' // will load from CDN and inject into document head
})
...

Direct import

npm install @formkit/themes

Assuming you are using a bundler like Vite, Webpack or Nuxt — you can then directly import the theme:

// main.js or formkit.config.ts
import '@formkit/themes/genesis'

For Tailwind

FormKit ships with a Tailwind version of the Genesis theme. To use this pre-made Tailwind theme in your project import it from @formkit/themes/dist/tailwindcss/genesis and add it to your formkit.config.js. You'll also want to include the neccessary genesisIcons import from @formkit/icons.

// formkit.config.js
import { generateClasses } from '@formkit/themes'
import { genesisIcons } from '@formkit/icons'
import genesis from '@formkit/themes/tailwindcss/genesis'

export default {
  icons: {
    ...genesisIcons,
  },
  config: {
    classes: generateClasses(genesis),
  },
}

The genesis theme import is nice for brevity, but the Tailwind parser will need to be provided the path to the full theme file in your node_modules in order to know which classes are being used. Additionally you should add the FormKitVariants plugin to your tailwind.config.js in order to make use of helpful FormKit variants such as formkit-invalid: in your project.

// tailwind.config.js
const FormKitVariants = require('@formkit/themes/tailwindcss')

module.exports = {
  content: [
    './src/**/*.{html,js,vue}',
    './node_modules/@formkit/themes/dist/tailwindcss/genesis/index.cjs',
  ],
  plugins: [FormKitVariants],
}

Adding Pro Inputs

Installing FormKit Pro is easy! Here are the steps:

1. Get a Project Key

Login to your FormKit Pro account at pro.formkit.com and create a project. A Project Key will be provided to you.

2. Install the package

Next, install the @formkit/pro:

npm install @formkit/pro

3. Configure your project

Import the createProPlugin helper and any desired Pro Inputs from @formkit/pro:

// main.js or formkit.config.ts
import { createProPlugin, rating, toggle } from '@formkit/pro'

Create the Pro plugin with your Project Key and desired Pro Inputs:

// main.js or formkit.config.ts
const proPlugin = createProPlugin('fk-00000000000', {
  rating,
  toggle,
  // ... and any other Pro Inputs
})

Lastly, add the plugin to your FormKit config:

// main.js or formkit.config.ts
const config = defaultConfig({
  plugins: [proPlugin],
})

Adding Pro Genesis Theme

Formkit extends the default Genesis theme for Pro Inputs. You can directly import it:

// main.js or formkit.config.ts
// Genesis for Pro is dependent on Genesis
import '@formkit/themes/genesis'
import '@formkit/pro/genesis'

That's it! now your pro inputs should be beautifully styled.