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list_block_categories
Return the 56 block categories on shadcn.io — hero, pricing, cta, dashboard, chat, and more. The entry point for block discovery.
Blocks are the largest surface on shadcn.io (6000+ items) and the main revenue driver. Rather than making the agent search blindly, list_block_categories hands back the full list of thematic categories so it can drill category-first before committing to slugs.
When to use it
- The agent is scaffolding a multi-section page and needs the vocabulary ("we have hero, pricing, cta, testimonials…").
- Before calling
list_blocks_in_category— you need the exact category name. - Answering "what kinds of blocks do you have?" prompts.
Non-block surfaces don't have a category layer — go straight to list_items for those.
Arguments
None.
Example prompts
use shadcnio to list every block categoryuse shadcnio and tell me what kinds of marketing sections you haveuse shadcnio to pick 6 categories that would make a complete SaaS landing pageResponse shape
{
"count": 56,
"categories": [
"about", "account", "ai", "awards", "banner", "billing", "blog",
"calendar", "carousel", "changelog", "chat", "checkout", "command-menu",
"comments", "contact", "crud", "cta", "dashboard", "dialog",
"empty-state", "error", "faq", "features", "file-upload", "footer",
"form", "gallery", "hero", "integration", "kanban", "login", "logos",
"map", "monitoring", "music", "navbar", "notification", "onboarding",
"pricing", "product-cards", "profile", "reviews", "search", "settings",
"sidebar", "skeleton", "stats", "stepper", "storefront", "success",
"tables", "team", "testimonials", "timeline", "todo-list", "web3"
]
}Manual invocation
curl -s -X POST "https://www.shadcn.io/api/mcp?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-d '{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"id": 1,
"method": "tools/call",
"params": { "name": "list_block_categories", "arguments": {} }
}' | jq '.result.content[0].text | fromjson | .categories'FAQ
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list_items
Dump every item on one shadcn.io surface — blocks, components, hooks, charts, themes, and more. The bulk-view tool for cataloguing.
list_blocks_in_category
Every block slug inside one category — hero, pricing, cta, and 53 more. Pipe the output straight into get_item, get_item_source, or get_install_command.