---
order: 4
title: Use in create-react-app
---

[create-react-app](https://github.com/facebookincubator/create-react-app) is one of the best React application development tools. We are going to use `antd` within it and modify the webpack config for some customized needs.

---

## Install and Initialization

Before all start, you may need install [yarn](https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/).

```bash
$ yarn create react-app antd-demo

# or

$ npx create-react-app antd-demo
```

The tool will create and initialize environment and dependencies automatically, please try config your proxy setting or use another npm registry if any network errors happen during it.

Then we go inside `antd-demo` and start it.

```bash
$ cd antd-demo
$ yarn start
```

Open the browser at http://localhost:3000/. It renders a header saying "Welcome to React" on the page.

## Import antd

Below is the default directory structure.

```
├── README.md
├── package.json
├── public
│   ├── favicon.ico
│   └── index.html
├── src
│   ├── App.css
│   ├── App.js
│   ├── App.test.js
│   ├── index.css
│   ├── index.js
│   └── logo.svg
└── yarn.lock
```

Now we install `antd` from yarn or npm.

```bash
$ yarn add antd
```

Modify `src/App.js`, import Button component from `antd`.

```jsx
import React from 'react';
import { Button } from 'antd';
import './App.css';

const App = () => (
  <div className="App">
    <Button type="primary">Button</Button>
  </div>
);

export default App;
```

Add `antd/dist/antd.css` at the top of `src/App.css`.

```css
@import '~antd/dist/antd.css';

.App {
  text-align: center;
}

...
```

Ok, you should now see a blue primary button displayed on the page. Next you can choose any components of `antd` to develop your application. Visit other workflows of `create-react-app` at its [User Guide](https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app/blob/master/packages/cra-template/template/README.md).

We are successfully running antd components now, go build your own application!

## Advanced Guides

In the real world, there are still lots of problems about antd-demo. For instance, we actually import styles of all components in the project which may be a css bundle size issue (It is OK then if you don't care the gzipped 60kb css file size).

Now we need to customize the default webpack config. We can achieve that by using [react-app-rewired](https://github.com/timarney/react-app-rewired) which is one of create-react-app's custom config solutions.

Import react-app-rewired and modify the `scripts` field in package.json. Due to new [react-app-rewired@2.x](https://github.com/timarney/react-app-rewired#alternatives) issue, you shall need [customize-cra](https://github.com/arackaf/customize-cra) along with react-app-rewired.

```bash
$ yarn add react-app-rewired customize-cra
# use less-loader@6.0.0
$ yarn add react-app-rewired customize-cra@next
```

```diff
/* package.json */
"scripts": {
-   "start": "react-scripts start",
-   "build": "react-scripts build",
-   "test": "react-scripts test",
+   "start": "react-app-rewired start",
+   "build": "react-app-rewired build",
+   "test": "react-app-rewired test",
}
```

Then create a `config-overrides.js` at root directory of your project for further overriding.

```js
module.exports = function override(config, env) {
  // do stuff with the webpack config...
  return config;
};
```

### Use babel-plugin-import

> Note: antd support ES6 tree shaking by default even without this babel plugin for js part.

[babel-plugin-import](https://github.com/ant-design/babel-plugin-import) is a babel plugin for importing components on demand ([How does it work?](/docs/react/getting-started#Import-on-Demand)). We are now trying to install it and modify `config-overrides.js`.

```bash
$ yarn add babel-plugin-import
```

```diff
+ const { override, fixBabelImports } = require('customize-cra');

- module.exports = function override(config, env) {
-   // do stuff with the webpack config...
-   return config;
- };
+ module.exports = override(
+   fixBabelImports('antd', {
+     libraryDirectory: 'es',
+     style: 'css',
+   }),
+ );
```

Remove the `@import '~antd/dist/antd.css';` statement added before because `babel-plugin-import` will import styles and import components like below:

```diff
  // src/App.js
  import React, { Component } from 'react';
- import Button from 'antd/es/button';
+ import { Button } from 'antd';
  import './App.css';

  const App = () => (
    <div className="App">
      <Button type="primary">Button</Button>
    </div>
  );

  export default App;
```

Then reboot with `yarn start` and visit the demo page, you should not find any [warning messages](https://zos.alipayobjects.com/rmsportal/vgcHJRVZFmPjAawwVoXK.png) in the console, which prove that the `import on demand` config is working now. You will find more info about it in [this guide](/docs/react/getting-started#Import-on-Demand).

### Customize Theme

According to the [Customize Theme documentation](/docs/react/customize-theme), to customize the theme, we need to modify `less` variables with tools such as [less-loader](https://github.com/webpack/less-loader). We can also use [addLessLoader](https://github.com/arackaf/customize-cra/blob/master/api.md#addlessloaderloaderoptions) to achieve this. Import it and modify `config-overrides.js` like below.

```bash
$ yarn add less less-loader
```

```diff
- const { override, fixBabelImports } = require('customize-cra');
+ const { override, fixBabelImports, addLessLoader } = require('customize-cra');

module.exports = override(
  fixBabelImports('antd', {
    libraryDirectory: 'es',
-   style: 'css',
+   style: true,
  }),
+ addLessLoader({
+   lessOptions: { // If you are using less-loader@5 please spread the lessOptions to options directly
+     javascriptEnabled: true,
+     modifyVars: { '@primary-color': '#1DA57A' },
+   },
+ }),
);
```

We use `modifyVars` option of [less-loader](https://github.com/webpack/less-loader#less-options) here. If you see a green button rendered on the page after rebooting the server, then the configuration was successful.

We have built-in dark theme and compact theme in antd, you can reference to [Use dark or compact theme](/docs/react/customize-theme#Use-dark-or-compact-theme).

> You could also try [craco](https://github.com/sharegate/craco) and [craco-antd](https://github.com/FormAPI/craco-antd) to customize create-react-app webpack config same as customize-cra does.

> Note: It is recommended to use the latest version of `less`, or a minimum version greater than `3.0.1`.

## Replace momentjs to Day.js

You can use [antd-dayjs-webpack-plugin](https://github.com/ant-design/antd-dayjs-webpack-plugin) plugin to replace momentjs to Day.js to reduce bundle size dramatically.

```bash
$ yarn add antd-dayjs-webpack-plugin
```

```js
const { override, addWebpackPlugin } = require('customize-cra');
const AntdDayjsWebpackPlugin = require('antd-dayjs-webpack-plugin');

module.exports = override(addWebpackPlugin(new AntdDayjsWebpackPlugin()));
```

## eject

You can also eject your application using [yarn run eject](https://facebook.github.io/create-react-app/docs/available-scripts#npm-run-eject) for a custom setup of create-react-app, although you should dig into it by yourself.

## Source code and other boilerplates

Finally, we used antd with create-react-app successfully, you can learn these practices for your own webpack workflow too, and find more webpack configs in the [atool-build](https://github.com/ant-tool/atool-build/blob/master/src/getWebpackCommonConfig.js). (For instance, add [moment noParse](https://github.com/ant-tool/atool-build/blob/e4bd2959689b6a95cb5c1c854a5db8c98676bdb3/src/getWebpackCommonConfig.js#L90) to avoid loading all language files.)

There are a lot of great boilerplates like create-react-app in the React community. There are some source code samples of importing antd in them if you encounter some problems.

- [create-react-app-antd](https://github.com/ant-design/create-react-app-antd)
- [comerc/cra-ts-antd](https://github.com/comerc/cra-ts-antd)
- [react-boilerplate/react-boilerplate](https://github.com/ant-design/react-boilerplate)
- [kriasoft/react-starter-kit](https://github.com/ant-design/react-starter-kit)
- [next.js](https://github.com/zeit/next.js/tree/master/examples/with-ant-design)
- [nwb](https://github.com/insin/nwb-examples/tree/master/react-app-antd)
- [antd-react-scripts](https://github.com/minesaner/create-react-app/tree/antd/packages/react-scripts)