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list_popular
The most-installed items on shadcn.io, ranked by real download counts from the analytics DB. Battle-tested picks, not alphabetical first hits.
list_popular is where analytics meets the agent. Every shadcn add install fires a tracking event; this tool surfaces the resulting leaderboard, so the agent can recommend components real users actually install.
When to use it
- The user asks for "a good X block" without specifying which one —
list_popularsurfaces the ones other users actually ship. - Disambiguating between similar siblings in a category.
- Marketing / social-proof prompts: "what's trending on shadcn.io?"
- As a tiebreaker for ambiguous
search_itemsresults.
Arguments
| Name | Type | Required | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
type | surface enum | — | all surfaces | Restrict to one surface. See search_items for valid values. |
limit | number (1–100) | — | 20 | Max 100 per call |
Example prompts
use shadcnio to give me the 10 most popular pricing blocksuse shadcnio list_popular with no filter and show me what's trending across every surfaceuse shadcnio — of the hero blocks, which ones should I actually use?Response shape
{
"count": 5,
"items": [
{
"componentName": "hero-announcement",
"componentType": "blocks",
"category": null,
"downloadCount": 12483,
"viewCount": 47102,
"pageViewCount": 91284,
"firstDownloadAt": "2025-09-14T12:04:11.000Z",
"lastDownloadAt": "2026-04-16T13:58:22.000Z"
},
{
"componentName": "pricing-three-columns",
"componentType": "blocks",
"category": null,
"downloadCount": 9847,
"viewCount": 38104,
"pageViewCount": 71293,
"firstDownloadAt": "2025-08-02T09:11:44.000Z",
"lastDownloadAt": "2026-04-16T14:02:08.000Z"
}
]
}componentNameis the slug — feed it straight toget_item,get_item_source, orget_install_command.firstDownloadAtis a rough proxy for "when the item first shipped".lastDownloadAtsignals whether the item is still getting traction; stale dates mean trending-down.
Manual invocation
curl -s -X POST "https://www.shadcn.io/api/mcp?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-H "accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"list_popular","arguments":{"type":"blocks","limit":10}}}' \
| sed -n 's/^data: //p' | jq '.result.content[0].text | fromjson | .items'FAQ
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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.
get_item
Lightweight metadata for any shadcn.io item — title, description, premium flag, dependencies, file paths. No source. The cheap-to-browse retrieval tool.