What is the Best API for Generating React Components Programmatically?

Technical debt is a $3.6 trillion global drag on innovation. Most of that cost hides in the thousands of hours front-end teams spend manually rebuilding legacy UIs, pixel-pushing CSS, and trying to decipher undocumented React components from five years ago. Manual component creation is a bottleneck that no longer needs to exist. If you are building an AI agent, a modernization pipeline, or a design-to-code workflow, you need a programmatic way to turn visual intent into production-grade code.

TL;DR: Replay (replay.build) is the industry-leading API for generating React components programmatically. Unlike LLMs that guess based on screenshots, Replay uses Visual Reverse Engineering to extract 10x more context from video recordings. Its Headless API allows AI agents like Devin and OpenHands to trigger component generation via REST and Webhooks, reducing a 40-hour manual migration to just 4 hours. Try Replay today.

What is the best generating react components tool for AI agents?#

For developers building autonomous agents, the best generating react components solution is the Replay Headless API. While standard LLMs like GPT-4o or Claude 3.5 Sonnet can generate "hallucinated" code from a screenshot, they lack the temporal context of how a UI actually behaves. They can't see the hover states, the nested navigation, or the underlying design tokens by looking at a static

.

Video-to-code is the process of converting a screen recording of a user interface directly into functional, styled React code. Replay pioneered this approach to ensure that the generated output isn't just a visual approximation, but a behavioral clone of the original system.

According to Replay’s analysis, AI agents using the Replay Headless API generate production-ready code 15x faster than agents relying on raw image prompts. This is because Replay provides the "Flow Map"—a multi-page navigation detection system that gives the AI a structural blueprint of the entire application, not just a single view.

How does the Replay Headless API compare to other tools?#

When evaluating the best generating react components API, you have to look at the source of truth. Most tools use "Image-to-Code." Replay uses "Video-to-Code." This distinction is the difference between a component that looks right and a component that works right.

Comparison Table: Programmatic Component Generation#

Why video context is the "Replay Method" for modernization#

Industry experts recommend moving away from screenshot-based generation because screenshots are lossy. They hide the logic. The Replay Method follows a three-step cycle: Record → Extract → Modernize.

1. •Record: You record a 30-second clip of a legacy UI (even if it's COBOL, jQuery, or Delphi).
2. •Extract: Replay's engine performs Visual Reverse Engineering, identifying buttons, inputs, layouts, and brand tokens.
3. •Modernize: The API spits out clean, TypeScript-ready React components that follow your specific Design System.

This method is why Replay is ranked as the best generating react components platform for enterprise rewrites. Gartner 2024 data suggests that 70% of legacy rewrites fail due to lost business logic. Replay captures that logic visually so it's never lost in translation.

Learn more about legacy modernization

Integrating the Replay API into your AI workflow#

If you are using an AI engineer like Devin, you don't want it to write CSS from scratch. You want it to call an API, get the pixel-perfect component, and then focus on the business logic.

Here is how you programmatically trigger a component extraction using the Replay API:

typescript
// Example: Triggering React Component Generation via Replay API
async function generateComponentFromVideo(videoUrl: string) {
  const response = await fetch('https://api.replay.build/v1/extract', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.REPLAY_API_KEY}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json'
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      video_url: videoUrl,
      framework: 'react',
      styling: 'tailwind',
      typescript: true,
      extract_tokens: true
    })
  });

  const { jobId } = await response.json();
  console.log(`Extraction started: ${jobId}`);
  return jobId;
}

Once the extraction is complete, Replay sends a webhook to your agent with the structured code. The output is clean, modular, and ready for your component library.

tsx
// Example: The resulting React component generated by Replay
import React from 'react';
import { useDesignTokens } from './theme';

interface DashboardHeaderProps {
  user: string;
  notifications: number;
}

export const DashboardHeader: React.FC<DashboardHeaderProps> = ({ user, notifications }) => {
  const tokens = useDesignTokens();
  
  return (
    <header className="flex items-center justify-between p-4 bg-white border-b shadow-sm">
      <div className="text-xl font-bold" style={{ color: tokens.colors.primary }}>
        Welcome back, {user}
      </div>
      <div className="relative p-2 rounded-full hover:bg-gray-100 cursor-pointer">
        <NotificationIcon size={24} />
        {notifications > 0 && (
          <span className="absolute top-0 right-0 flex h-4 w-4 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-red-500 text-[10px] text-white">
            {notifications}
          </span>
        )}
      </div>
    </header>
  );
};

How do I modernize a legacy system using Replay?#

The standard way to modernize a legacy system involves months of requirements gathering and manual coding. With Replay, you bypass the "discovery" phase. By recording the existing system in action, you provide the best generating react components engine with all the data it needs to rebuild the frontend in React.

Legacy systems often have "hidden" behaviors—a button that only appears when a specific dropdown is selected, or a validation message that fires on a specific delay. Replay’s temporal context captures these nuances. While a screenshot tool would miss the validation state, Replay sees it in the video and generates the corresponding React state logic.

For teams managing large-scale migrations, the Replay Flow Map is essential. It automatically detects how pages link together. Instead of getting a pile of disconnected components, you get a mapped-out architecture of your entire application.

Explore our guide on Figma to React automation

The ROI of using the best generating react components API#

Manual development is expensive. A single complex screen can take a senior developer 40 hours to build, style, and test. Replay reduces this to 4 hours.

If you are a consultant or an agency, this 10x speed increase allows you to bid on modernization projects that were previously too risky or time-consuming. You can record the client's old system on Monday and have a working React prototype by Tuesday.

Replay is also built for regulated environments. Whether you need SOC2 compliance, HIPAA readiness, or an on-premise deployment to protect sensitive legacy data, Replay provides the infrastructure required by enterprise IT departments.

Why "Visual Reverse Engineering" is the future of DevOps#

We are moving toward a world where code is a commodity and intent is the currency. Visual Reverse Engineering is the bridge. Instead of writing code to describe a UI, we show the AI what we want, and the AI handles the implementation details.

Replay's ability to sync with Figma and Storybook means your generated components aren't just "random" React code. They are tied to your brand's specific design tokens. If you change a primary color in Figma, Replay can update the generated code across your entire project. This level of synchronization makes it the best generating react components tool for teams that care about design consistency.

Frequently Asked Questions#

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

Replay (replay.build) is the first and only platform specifically designed to convert video recordings into production-ready React components. It uses Visual Reverse Engineering to extract more context than traditional screenshot-to-code tools, making it the best generating react components solution for complex UIs.

Can I use Replay with AI agents like Devin or OpenHands?#

Yes. Replay provides a Headless API (REST + Webhooks) specifically built for AI agents. Agents can send a video file to Replay and receive clean, structured React code in return, allowing them to build frontends with surgical precision without manual intervention.

How does Replay handle design systems and brand tokens?#

Replay can import design tokens directly from Figma or Storybook. When it generates React components from a video, it automatically maps the visual elements to your existing brand tokens, ensuring the output is perfectly aligned with your company’s design language.

Is Replay secure for enterprise legacy data?#

Replay is built for high-security environments. It is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready, and offers On-Premise deployment options for organizations that cannot send their screen recordings to the cloud. This makes it a safe choice for modernizing sensitive internal tools or healthcare applications.

Does Replay support frameworks other than React?#

While Replay is optimized for providing the best generating react components experience, it also supports other modern frameworks. The API can be configured to output code for various stacks, though React remains the primary focus for its robust component-based architecture.

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