Vibe Coding a React Dashboard: No CSS Knowledge Required

Admin dashboards are notoriously tedious to build. You need charts, tables, responsive layouts, dark mode, and a sidebar navigation. Traditionally, this could take days or even weeks.

With Vibe Coding, you can build a production-ready dashboard in under an hour.

In this tutorial, we'll build “SalesHub”—a dashboard for tracking sales metrics. We'll use Cursor, React, Tailwind CSS, and Recharts for visualizations.

What We're Building

Dashboard Name: SalesHub
Features:
* Sidebar navigation
* Top metrics cards (Revenue, Orders, Customers)
* Line chart showing sales over time
* Data table with recent orders
* Responsive design (mobile-friendly)
* Dark mode toggle

Tech Stack:
* React 18
* Vite (for fast development)
* Tailwind CSS
* Recharts (for charts)
* Lucide React (for icons)

Step 1: Initialize the Project

Create a New Vite Project

“`bash
npm create vite@latest saleshub — –template react
cd saleshub
npm install
“`

Install Dependencies

“`bash
npm install tailwindcss postcss autoprefixer recharts lucide-react
npx tailwindcss init -p
“`

Open in Cursor

“`bash
cursor .
“`

Step 2: Configure Tailwind

Open Composer in Cursor (`Cmd+I`) and prompt:

> “Configure Tailwind CSS for this Vite React project. Update tailwind.config.js to include all necessary paths and add the Tailwind directives to index.css.”

Cursor will update:
* `tailwind.config.js`
* `src/index.css`

Step 3: The Dashboard Layout Prompt

Now for the magic. Open Composer and paste this comprehensive prompt:

> “Create a modern admin dashboard layout with the following:
>
> 1. A fixed sidebar on the left with navigation links (Dashboard, Orders, Customers, Settings). Use Lucide icons.
> 2. A top bar with a search input and a dark mode toggle button.
> 3. The main content area should have:
> – Three metric cards showing Revenue ($45,231), Orders (1,234), and Customers (567). Use a gradient background for each card.
> – A line chart showing sales data for the last 7 days using Recharts.
> – A table showing recent orders with columns: Order ID, Customer, Amount, Status.
> 4. Make it fully responsive. On mobile, the sidebar should collapse into a hamburger menu.
> 5. Use Tailwind CSS for all styling. Use a modern color scheme with blues and purples.
> 6. Create separate components for Sidebar, TopBar, MetricCard, SalesChart, and OrdersTable.”

Press Enter and wait 30-60 seconds.

Step 4: Review the Generated Code

Cursor will create multiple files:

Component Structure

“`
src/
├── components/
│ ├── Sidebar.jsx
│ ├── TopBar.jsx
│ ├── MetricCard.jsx
│ ├── SalesChart.jsx
│ └── OrdersTable.jsx
├── App.jsx
└── index.css
“`

Example: `MetricCard.jsx`

“`jsx
export function MetricCard({ title, value, icon: Icon, gradient }) {
return (

);
}
“`

Example: `SalesChart.jsx`

“`jsx
import { LineChart, Line, XAxis, YAxis, CartesianGrid, Tooltip, ResponsiveContainer } from ‘recharts';

const data = [
{ day: ‘Mon', sales: 4000 },
{ day: ‘Tue', sales: 3000 },
{ day: ‘Wed', sales: 5000 },
{ day: ‘Thu', sales: 4500 },
{ day: ‘Fri', sales: 6000 },
{ day: ‘Sat', sales: 5500 },
{ day: ‘Sun', sales: 7000 },
];

export function SalesChart() {
return (

);
}
“`

Step 5: Run the Dashboard

“`bash
npm run dev
“`

Open `http://localhost:5173` in your browser. You'll see a fully functional dashboard.

Step 6: Iterate with Vibes

The first version is good, but let's make it great.

Iteration 1: Add Animations

Prompt:
> “Add smooth fade-in animations to the metric cards when the page loads. Use Tailwind's animation utilities.”

Iteration 2: Improve the Table

Prompt:
> “Make the orders table sortable by clicking column headers. Add a ‘View Details' button to each row.”

Iteration 3: Add Real Data

Prompt:
> “Connect the dashboard to a mock API. Create a `data/mockApi.js` file that returns random sales data. Update the components to fetch from this API.”

Iteration 4: Add Export Functionality

Prompt:
> “Add a button to export the orders table as a CSV file.”

Each iteration takes 30-60 seconds.

Step 7: Deploy

Option 1: Vercel (Recommended)

“`bash
npm install -g vercel
vercel
“`

Option 2: Netlify

“`bash
npm run build

Drag the ‘dist' folder to netlify.com/drop

“`

Advanced: Building More Complex Dashboards

Once you've mastered the basics, you can Vibe Code dashboards with:
* Real-time data (WebSockets)
* User authentication (Firebase, Supabase)
* Advanced charts (Heatmaps, Candlestick charts)
* Drag-and-drop widgets
* Multi-tenancy (Different dashboards for different users)

The process is the same: Describe the feature, let the AI generate it, review, and iterate.

Conclusion

Building dashboards used to require deep knowledge of CSS Grid, Flexbox, and charting libraries. With Vibe Coding, you just describe what you want, and the AI handles the implementation.

At BYS Marketing, we use this approach to build custom dashboards for our clients. We can deliver a working prototype in the first meeting, then iterate based on feedback.

—

Need a custom dashboard for your business?
Contact BYS Marketing and let's build it together.