shadcn/ui Makes Base UI the Default Headless Library, Replacing Radix
Running npx shadcn init now selects Base UI instead of Radix, with docs and scaffolding surfacing Base UI first. Radix remains fully supported and not deprecated.
Run npx shadcn init and you get Base UI instead of Radix. shadcn/ui switched the default headless component library. Documentation examples default to Base UI, and the shadcn/create scaffolding tool surfaces it first. Radix is not deprecated, and every update and new component still ships for both libraries.
Base UI was built by the original Radix engineers (now at MUI), carrying forward the same architecture with refinements. It's at version 1.6.0 with 6 million weekly downloads, and developers had already voted with their projects: new picks go Base UI over Radix 2 to 1. Existing Radix projects need zero migration. If you want Radix for a new project, pass -b radix to init.
Given shadcn/ui's position as the default component layer for AI-generated React apps (v0, Cursor, Claude Code), newly scaffolded projects now default to Base UI's component model instead of Radix's. A migration skill exists for teams moving existing Radix projects to Base UI one component at a time, with per-component diffs and clean git history. The real question: does MUI ecosystem alignment matter enough for your team to switch?