# Flexbox Labs exports HTML and CSS, and its npm package is private

> A browser tool for building CSS Flexbox layouts by moving sliders instead of writing declarations: live preview, editable container and item properties, undo and redo, saved layouts, and an export button that hands you the HTML and CSS. It is a Next.js app you clone and run, not something you install.

**prazzon/Flexbox-Labs** — A web app for creating flexible layouts with the power of CSS Flexbox.

- Repository: https://github.com/prazzon/Flexbox-Labs
- Website: https://flexboxlabs.netlify.app/
- Stars: 4,049 · Forks: 368
- Language: TypeScript
- License: MIT
- Published: 2026-09-23 · Updated: 2026-09-23 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/prazzon-flexbox-labs

## The export button is the last step of a four-part workflow

The usage section describes a path rather than a feature list. You open the live demo and explore the playground with the toolbar, you go to the Edit tab to customize the flex container, you select an item from the playground to modify its individual flex properties, and then you click the code button on the tab to get the generated HTML and CSS. So the tool has two levels of editing, container and item, and the export is the point at which the visual state becomes text. Nothing about the generated markup is described in the readme, which means the shape of the emitted HTML is something you find out by clicking the button rather than by reading the documentation.

## Undo and redo are features, which most generators skip

Seven features are named and one of them is history. Alongside live preview, playground customization for adding, deleting and duplicating flex items, and editing both container and item properties, the list includes undo and redo, described as easily revert or redo modifications for easy experimentation. That is a sign of what the tool is for. A flexbox playground is a place where you drag a slider, watch the layout break, drag it back and try something else, and an editor without history turns that loop into a reload. So the feature set is aimed at the learning and experimenting case rather than at producing a production stylesheet, which is consistent with the framing of the About section as a tool that makes it easy to experiment and learn.

## Layouts can be saved, and there are templates to start from

Two related features deal with getting work out of the browser and into a file. Save/Load Layouts covers saving, loading or deleting custom layouts, so a layout you spent time tuning is not lost when the tab closes. Pre-build Layouts covers loading pre-built layouts or templates, which is the shortcut past a blank canvas. Neither feature is described further in the readme: there is no stated storage mechanism, so whether your saved layouts live in local storage or somewhere else is not something the documentation settles, and there is no account or sync story at all. For a tool hosted on a static Netlify URL with a private package, local-only persistence is the likely shape, but that is an inference rather than something the readme says.

## The package is called flexlab, is private, and is versioned 0.0.0

The package.json tells you this is an application, not a library. The name is flexlab, not flexbox-labs, private is true, and the version is 0.0.0, which together mean nothing is published to npm and there is nothing to depend on. The script block is the standard Next.js set: next dev, next build, next start, eslint ., and tsc --noEmit for a typecheck. The dependency list is where the functionality is visible: redux toolkit and react-redux for the playground state, dompurify with its types for sanitising content, react-syntax-highlighter for showing the exported code, react-hot-toast for notifications, react-icons for the toolbar, motion for animation, and svgr's webpack package for importing SVG as components. There is also an overrides block pinning @types/react and @types/react-dom to exact versions.

## Two lockfiles, and every instruction says npm

The repository root holds both bun.lock and package-lock.json, and the getting started section is written entirely in npm terms:

```shell
git clone https://github.com/prazzon/flexbox-labs.git
cd flexbox-labs
npm install
npm run dev
```

So the documented path produces and uses package-lock.json while a Bun lockfile sits beside it. That is not fatal, since both tools will resolve the same manifest, but it does mean a contributor and a maintainer can install different trees from the same commit. A .nvmrc at the root records a Node version choice, and the manifest states the floor in engines as node >=20.9.0, which is the number to check first when the dev server will not start. After the clone the app answers at http://localhost:5173, which is the Vite-style default port and the only address the readme gives you.

## Node 20.9 is the floor, and the dev server is port 5173

That combination of an engines field, an .nvmrc and a single documented port tells you what kind of project this is: a local-first tool with one developer workflow and no deployment story of its own. There is no Docker file, no environment variable documentation and no configuration section anywhere in the readme. The tooling is modern without being exotic, with TypeScript at 5.5, React 19.2.4, Next 16.2.1 and Sass 1.79 as a dev dependency, and the lint stack is unusually complete for a small app, with the Next.js eslint plugin, eslint-plugin-react-hooks, eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y and typescript-eslint all present. The typecheck script exists separately from lint, so the two gates are independent and a contributor can run them one at a time.

## The acknowledgements link react icons to usehooks.com

The acknowledgements section has two entries, use-hooks and react icons, and both of them point at the same URL, https://usehooks.com/. The react icons entry is therefore pointing at a site about React hooks rather than at the icon library. It is a small thing, and it is the sort of detail that tells you the readme has not been reviewed line by line, which is worth knowing when the rest of the documentation is thin. The same section describes the live demo as a Netlify deployment at flexboxlabs.netlify.app, which is also the homepage, so the hosted app and the project page are the same URL. Feedback is routed to the GitHub issue tracker, which is the only support channel the readme names.

## Contributing ends with wait for me to review and merge

The contributing section is six numbered steps, and four of them are git commands: fork the repository, create a branch with git checkout -b feature/new-feature, commit with git commit -m 'Add new feature', and push with git push origin feature/new-feature. Then submit a pull request outlining the changes. The sixth step is not a git command at all: wait for me to review and merge your pull request. That is the whole governance model stated in one line, a single maintainer who merges everything, which tells you how to size a contribution before you write it. It also sets expectations about response time that nothing else in the repository contradicts, given no GitHub releases and a master branch last pushed to on 2026-04-19.

## Conclusion

Flexbox Labs is for learning flexbox and for producing a starting stylesheet, not for shipping a layout system. If what you want is to feel how flex-grow, justify-content and the item properties interact, a playground with undo and a live preview beats reading a spec, and the export button means the result is real code you can paste into a project. Three things to check. There is no published package, because package.json marks the project private at version 0.0.0 under the name flexlab, so the install path is clone, npm install, npm run dev, and the dev server answers on port 5173 with Node 20.9 or above. The repository carries two lockfiles, bun.lock and package-lock.json, while every instruction says npm, so expect to pick one. And this is a single-maintainer project whose contributing guide ends with wait for me to review and merge, with the last push to master on 2026-04-19 and no GitHub releases at all. That is fine for a tool you run locally and worth knowing before you depend on it.

## FAQ

### What is Flexbox Labs?

A visual tool that helps create layouts using CSS Flexbox, with an interface that shows changes in real time to make it easy to experiment and learn. It is built with Next.js, React, TypeScript, Sass and Framer Motion, and is MIT licensed.

### How do I run Flexbox Labs locally?

Clone the repository, cd into flexbox-labs, run npm install and then npm run dev, and open http://localhost:5173. The manifest requires Node 20.9.0 or above.

### Can Flexbox Labs export the layout code?

Yes. Once you are satisfied with the layout you click the code button on the tab to get the generated HTML and CSS code for it.

### Does Flexbox Labs save my layouts?

There is a save and load feature for custom layouts, where you can save, load or delete them, and a separate feature for loading pre-built layouts or templates. The readme does not say where saved layouts are stored.

### Is Flexbox Labs available as an npm package?

No. Its package.json is marked private with the name flexlab and version 0.0.0, so nothing is published. You install it by cloning the repository and running npm install.

### How do I report a bug in Flexbox Labs?

Open an issue in the GitHub repository. To contribute code, fork it, create a branch with git checkout -b feature/new-feature, commit and push, then submit a pull request, which the maintainer says they will review and merge.

## Sources

- [Issues](https://github.com/prazzon/Flexbox-Labs/issues)
- [License: MIT](https://github.com/prazzon/Flexbox-Labs/blob/master/LICENSE)
- [prazzon/Flexbox-Labs on GitHub](https://github.com/prazzon/Flexbox-Labs)
- [Project website](https://flexboxlabs.netlify.app/)
- [README](https://github.com/prazzon/Flexbox-Labs/blob/master/README.md)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/prazzon-flexbox-labs