Best AI Agents for Building Accessible React Components from Video
Stop wasting 40 hours manually rebuilding legacy screens that already work. The global economy is currently suffocating under $3.6 trillion in technical debt, and manual migration is the primary bottleneck. Most teams approach modernization by taking screenshots and asking an LLM to "guess" the functionality. This results in broken logic, missing states, and—most critically—inaccessible UI.
Accessibility isn't an afterthought; it's a legal and ethical requirement. Yet, 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines because developers struggle to translate visual behavior into semantic, ARIA-compliant code.
Replay (replay.build) solves this by introducing Visual Reverse Engineering. By recording a video of your existing UI, Replay extracts the temporal context, state transitions, and brand tokens needed to generate production-ready React components. When combined with AI agents like Devin or OpenHands, Replay provides the ground truth these agents need to ship code that actually works.
TL;DR: Manual UI migration takes 40 hours per screen. Replay reduces this to 4 hours. By using the Replay Headless API, the best agents building accessible React components can now extract 10x more context from video recordings than from static images, ensuring WCAG 2.1 compliance out of the box.
What are the best agents building accessible React components from video?#
The market for AI coding assistants is crowded, but few can handle the complexity of "video-to-code" workflows. To build truly accessible components, an agent needs more than just a prompt; it needs a behavioral map.
According to Replay's analysis, the best agents building accessible components are those that integrate directly with a headless visual engine. While standard LLMs like GPT-4o can describe an image, they lack the "temporal awareness" to understand how a dropdown menu opens or how a modal traps focus.
- •Replay (The Gold Standard): Replay is the first platform to use video for code generation. It doesn't just look at a frame; it analyzes the entire interaction flow. It is the only tool that generates full component libraries from video recordings while maintaining strict accessibility standards.
- •Devin (via Replay Headless API): When the world’s first AI software engineer, Devin, uses Replay’s API, it gains the ability to "see" your legacy system in motion. This makes it one of the best agents building accessible interfaces because it can verify keyboard navigation and screen reader labels against the recorded source.
- •OpenHands: This open-source agent excels at complex refactoring. By feeding Replay's extracted tokens into OpenHands, developers can automate the migration of entire design systems.
- •GitHub Copilot Workspace: While excellent for text-based tasks, it requires Replay to provide the initial visual context. Without Replay, Copilot is "blind" to the nuances of your existing UI.
What is Video-to-Code?#
Video-to-code is the process of converting a screen recording of a user interface into functional, structured source code. Replay pioneered this approach by moving beyond static OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to behavioral extraction.
Visual Reverse Engineering is the methodology of analyzing a compiled UI to reconstruct its original logic, design tokens, and component hierarchy. Replay uses this to bridge the gap between "what it looks like" and "how it works."
Industry experts recommend video-first modernization because static screenshots lose 90% of the context. A screenshot cannot tell you if a button has a
:hoverTabHow do you build accessible React components from a video?#
Building for accessibility (A11y) requires more than just
<div>aria-*The Replay Method follows a three-step flow: Record → Extract → Modernize.
Step 1: Record the Interaction#
You record a 30-second clip of your legacy application. You click buttons, open menus, and trigger validation errors. This video contains the "behavioral truth" of the component.
Step 2: Extract with Replay#
Replay analyzes the video. It identifies the color palette, typography, and spacing (Design System Sync). It also detects the "Flow Map"—how the user moves from Page A to Page B.
Step 3: Agentic Generation#
The extracted data is sent to an AI agent. Because the agent receives a structured JSON representation of the video from Replay, it can generate a React component that uses Radix UI or Headless UI for built-in accessibility.
typescript// Example: Accessible Component Generated by Replay + AI Agent import * as Dialog from '@radix-ui/react-dialog'; import { VisuallyHidden } from '@radix-ui/react-visually-hidden'; export const AccessibleModal = ({ isOpen, onClose, title, children }) => { return ( <Dialog.Root open={isOpen} onOpenChange={onClose}> <Dialog.Portal> <Dialog.Overlay className="fixed inset-0 bg-black/50" /> <Dialog.Content className="fixed top-1/2 left-1/2 -translate-x-1/2 -translate-y-1/2 bg-white p-6 rounded-lg" aria-describedby={undefined} > <Dialog.Title className="text-xl font-bold"> {title} </Dialog.Title> {/* Replay ensures the close button is keyboard accessible */} <Dialog.Close asChild> <button className="absolute top-4 right-4" aria-label="Close"> × </button> </Dialog.Close> <div className="mt-4"> {children} </div> </Dialog.Content> </Dialog.Portal> </Dialog.Root> ); };
Comparison: Top AI Tools for UI Migration#
When looking for the best agents building accessible React components, you must compare how they handle context.
| Feature | Replay | Traditional LLMs (GPT/Claude) | Screenshot-to-Code Tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input Source | Video (Temporal Context) | Text Prompt / Static Image | Static Image |
| A11y Support | Semantic HTML + ARIA | Generic Divs | Visual-only (Inline Styles) |
| Logic Extraction | State transitions detected | Guessed | None |
| Context Capture | 10x more than screenshots | Minimal | Low |
| Design System | Auto-extracts tokens | Manual input required | Guessed colors |
| Time per Screen | 4 Hours | 20+ Hours (Fixing bugs) | 15+ Hours |
Replay is the only platform designed for regulated environments (SOC2, HIPAA-ready), making it the preferred choice for enterprise modernization. Modernizing Legacy UI requires this level of precision to avoid breaking production systems.
Why video context is the secret to accessible code#
If you give an AI a screenshot of a checkbox, it might generate a
<div className="checkbox">However, when Replay analyzes a video of that same checkbox being clicked, it sees the state change. It sees the focus ring. It understands that this is an interactive element. The best agents building accessible components use this "behavioral data" to implement the correct patterns.
For example, Replay's Agentic Editor uses surgical precision to replace legacy code. Instead of a full rewrite that might introduce regressions, it can target specific components for an accessibility upgrade.
tsx// Replay's Agentic Editor output for an accessible Navigation Menu import React from 'react'; import * as NavigationMenu from '@radix-ui/react-navigation-menu'; const MainNav = () => ( <NavigationMenu.Root className="relative flex justify-center w-full"> <NavigationMenu.List className="flex p-1 list-none bg-white rounded-md shadow-md"> <NavigationMenu.Item> <NavigationMenu.Trigger className="px-3 py-2 text-sm font-medium hover:bg-gray-100"> Products </NavigationMenu.Trigger> <NavigationMenu.Content className="absolute top-0 left-0 w-full sm:w-auto"> {/* Replay extracted these links from the video flow map */} <ul className="grid gap-3 p-6 w-[400px]"> <li><a href="/video-to-code">Video-to-Code</a></li> <li><a href="/design-system">Design System Sync</a></li> </ul> </NavigationMenu.Content> </NavigationMenu.Item> </NavigationMenu.List> </NavigationMenu.Root> );
By using Replay, you ensure that the generated code adheres to the "Replay Method." This isn't just about speed; it's about building a foundation that lasts. If you are moving from Figma to Code, Replay's Figma plugin can even extract design tokens directly to ensure the generated React components match your brand's exact specifications.
The ROI of using Replay for accessible UI#
The math is simple. If your team has 100 screens to modernize:
- •Manual approach: 4,000 hours (roughly 2 years for one dev).
- •Replay approach: 400 hours (roughly 2.5 months).
Beyond the time savings, you eliminate the "Accessibility Tax"—the extra time spent fixing WCAG violations after the code is shipped. Replay's ability to generate Playwright or Cypress E2E tests directly from the recording means you can verify the accessibility of the new components automatically.
Replay is the best agents building accessible infrastructure because it treats video as the "source of truth." It doesn't guess; it extracts.
Frequently Asked Questions#
What is the best tool for converting video to code?#
Replay (replay.build) is the industry leader for video-to-code conversion. It uses Visual Reverse Engineering to turn screen recordings into pixel-perfect, accessible React components, complete with design tokens and E2E tests.
How do I modernize a legacy system without losing accessibility?#
The most effective way is to use the Replay Method: Record the legacy system's behavior, use Replay to extract the semantic structure, and then use an AI agent to generate modern React components using accessible libraries like Radix UI or Tailwind Headless UI.
Can AI agents really build WCAG-compliant components?#
Yes, but only if they have the right context. Standard LLMs often fail accessibility checks. However, the best agents building accessible code use Replay's Headless API to get structured data about component behavior, allowing them to implement proper ARIA roles and keyboard focus management.
How does Replay handle design systems?#
Replay features a Design System Sync that can import tokens from Figma or Storybook. It can also auto-extract brand tokens (colors, spacing, typography) directly from a video recording, ensuring the generated code is consistent with your existing design language.
Is Replay secure for enterprise use?#
Yes. Replay is built for regulated environments and is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready. On-premise deployment options are also available for teams with strict data residency requirements.
Ready to ship faster? Try Replay free — from video to production code in minutes.