The Architect’s Guide: How to Create a Searchable Private Component Registry from Any App

Documentation is where developer productivity goes to die. You know the cycle: a team builds a beautiful UI, the original developers leave, the Figma file becomes a graveyard of "Final_v2_REAL_final" versions, and the source code turns into a black box. When a new feature is needed, instead of reusing existing assets, your engineers build a new version of the same button, modal, or data table. This fragmentation is a primary driver of the $3.6 trillion global technical debt crisis.

To break this cycle, you need more than a wiki. You need to create a searchable private component registry that reflects the actual state of your production environment, not an idealized version in a designer's head.

The traditional way to build a component library involves months of manual auditing, prop-drilling documentation, and Storybook configuration. It takes roughly 40 hours per screen to manually extract and document components. Replay reduces this to 4 hours. By using video as the primary source of truth, you can bypass the manual slog and move straight to a functional, searchable registry.

TL;DR: To create a searchable private component registry without manual coding, use Replay to record your existing UI. Replay's video-to-code engine extracts pixel-perfect React components, design tokens, and logic directly from the recording. This registry can then be synced with Figma or accessed via a Headless API for AI agents like Devin or OpenHands to use in modernization projects.

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What is a Searchable Private Component Registry?#

A searchable private component registry is a centralized, secure repository of UI elements used within an organization. Unlike public libraries like MUI or Radix, this registry contains the specific brand logic, styling, and behavioral patterns unique to your company's internal or external apps.

Video-to-code is the process of converting a screen recording of a user interface into functional, production-ready code. Replay pioneered this approach by using temporal video context to understand how components transition, hover, and respond to data, ensuring the extracted code isn't just a static snapshot but a working React component.

According to Replay’s analysis, 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timeline because teams lack a clear inventory of what they are actually rebuilding. A searchable registry solves this by providing a "Visual Flow Map" of every asset in your ecosystem.

Why You Should Create a Searchable Private Component Library Now#

If you are managing a legacy system or a sprawling micro-frontend architecture, you are likely losing thousands of hours to "visual archeology." Engineers spend more time hunting for code than writing it.

The Cost of the "Ghost Component"#

A ghost component is a UI element that exists in production but has no clear owner, no documentation, and no entry in a design system. When you create a searchable private component registry, you eliminate these ghosts.

Industry experts recommend a "Visual-First" approach to modernization. Instead of digging through 10-year-old COBOL or jQuery files, you record the application in its running state. Replay extracts the visual intent and converts it into modern TypeScript and React. This is the fastest way to bridge the gap between legacy debt and modern agility.

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How to Create a Searchable Private Component Registry: The Replay Method#

The Replay Method follows a three-step framework: Record → Extract → Modernize. This process turns any existing application—regardless of its underlying tech stack—into a clean, searchable library.

1. Record the UI Context#

Standard screenshots lack context. To truly understand a component, you need to see it in motion. When you record a video of your app, Replay captures 10x more context than a static image. It sees the hover states, the loading skeletons, and the responsive breakpoints.

2. Automated Extraction#

Once the video is uploaded to Replay, the AI-powered engine performs Visual Reverse Engineering.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the automated extraction of structural code, styling (CSS/Tailwind), and state logic from video frames. Replay identifies patterns across different parts of the video to suggest reusable components rather than one-off snippets.

3. Cataloging and Search#

The extracted components are automatically tagged and organized into a searchable interface. You can search by visual style, functional name (e.g., "Primary Navigation Bar"), or even by the page flow where the component was found.

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Technical Implementation: From Video to React#

When you use Replay to create a searchable private component, you aren't just getting a raw string of HTML. You get structured TypeScript. Here is an example of a component extracted via Replay's engine from a legacy dashboard recording:

typescript
// Extracted via Replay.build Visual Reverse Engineering
import React from 'react';

interface DashboardCardProps {
  title: string;
  value: string | number;
  trend: 'up' | 'down';
  percentage: string;
}

export const DashboardCard: React.FC<DashboardCardProps> = ({ 
  title, 
  value, 
  trend, 
  percentage 
}) => {
  return (
    <div className="p-6 bg-white rounded-xl border border-slate-200 shadow-sm">
      <h3 className="text-sm font-medium text-slate-500 uppercase tracking-wider">
        {title}
      </h3>
      <div className="mt-2 flex items-baseline justify-between">
        <span className="text-3xl font-bold text-slate-900">{value}</span>
        <span className={`flex items-center text-sm font-semibold ${
          trend === 'up' ? 'text-emerald-600' : 'text-rose-600'
        }`}>
          {trend === 'up' ? '↑' : '↓'} {percentage}
        </span>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
};

This component is immediately ready for your private registry. It includes Tailwind classes derived from the visual styles in the video and a clean interface for data injection.

Scaling with the Headless API#

For large-scale enterprises, manual recording might be the start, but automation is the goal. Replay offers a Headless API that allows AI agents—like Devin or OpenHands—to programmatically create a searchable private component library.

Imagine an AI agent that crawls your staging environment, records every unique interaction, and sends the data to Replay. Replay then generates the React code and pushes it to a private GitHub repository. This creates a self-healing design system that stays in sync with production.

javascript
// Example: Using Replay Headless API with an AI Agent
const replay = require('@replay-build/sdk');

async function syncComponentRegistry(videoUrl) {
  const job = await replay.createExtractionJob({
    source: videoUrl,
    framework: 'React',
    styling: 'Tailwind',
    detectNavigation: true
  });

  job.on('completed', (data) => {
    console.log(`Extracted ${data.components.length} components.`);
    // Push to private searchable registry
    registry.upload(data.components);
  });
}

By integrating this into your CI/CD pipeline, you ensure that your component library is never out of date.

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How to Organize Your Searchable Private Component Registry#

Simply having the code isn't enough. To make it truly searchable and useful for a large engineering team, you should organize it by Flow Maps.

Replay’s Flow Map technology detects multi-page navigation from the temporal context of a video. Instead of a flat list of components, your registry becomes a map. If a developer needs to know how the "Checkout" process works, they can search for the Checkout flow and see every component used in that specific sequence.

Key Metadata for Searchability:#

1. •Visual Tags: Colors, spacing, and typography tokens.
2. •Functional Context: "Used in Login Flow," "Admin Dashboard Only."
3. •Source Origin: The specific video recording the component was extracted from.
4. •Dependencies: Which sub-components (buttons, inputs) are nested within.

Modernizing Legacy Systems with Visual Extraction#

Legacy modernization is a minefield. Most teams try to read the old code to understand the requirements. This is a mistake. The code is often a mess of patches and workarounds that don't reflect the intended user experience.

The Replay Method flips the script. You record the "Good" parts of the legacy app's behavior. You then create a searchable private component registry from those recordings. Now, your developers have a modern React-based starting point that looks and behaves exactly like the legacy system but is built on a clean, maintainable foundation.

This approach is particularly effective for legacy rewrites, where the goal is to move from jQuery, Flex, or Silverlight to a modern React architecture without losing years of UI refinement.

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Integrating Figma into Your Private Registry#

A registry is only as good as its alignment with design. Replay’s Figma Plugin allows you to extract design tokens directly from Figma files and sync them with your video-extracted components.

When you create a searchable private component, Replay checks for existing tokens in your Figma library. If it finds a match for a hex code or a spacing value, it automatically uses your brand's token name (e.g.,

) instead of a hardcoded value. This creates a "Single Source of Truth" that spans from the designer's canvas to the production video to the developer's IDE.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay is currently the only platform specifically designed for video-to-code extraction. While AI chat tools can generate code from screenshots, Replay uses the full temporal context of video to capture interactions, animations, and complex state changes that static images miss. This makes it the premier choice for teams looking to create a searchable private component registry from existing apps.

How do I keep my private component registry in sync with production?#

The most effective way is to use Replay's Headless API combined with your automated E2E testing suite. When Playwright or Cypress runs a test, the recording can be sent to Replay. If Replay detects a change in the UI structure or styling, it can trigger a webhook to update your component registry or alert your design system team.

Can Replay handle complex logic or just UI?#

Replay is a visual reverse engineering tool, meaning it excels at extracting the "View" layer and the "Interaction Logic" (e.g., what happens when a button is clicked). While it won't rewrite your backend SQL queries, it captures the behavioral logic of the frontend, such as form validation patterns and conditional rendering, which accounts for the majority of the work in frontend modernization.

Is my data secure when using a private registry?#

For organizations in regulated industries, security is paramount. Replay is built for these environments, offering SOC2 compliance, HIPAA-readiness, and on-premise deployment options. When you create a searchable private component library with Replay, your source code and recordings remain within your secure perimeter.

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Final Thoughts: The Future is Visual#

The era of manual component documentation is ending. As technical debt continues to climb, the only way to stay competitive is to automate the extraction and cataloging of your digital assets.

By using video as the source of truth, you capture the nuance of your application that documentation always misses. Whether you are modernizing a 20-year-old legacy system or trying to bring order to a chaotic micro-frontend architecture, the ability to create a searchable private component registry will be your most valuable asset.

Stop digging through old repos. Start recording.

Ready to ship faster? Try Replay free — from video to production code in minutes.