21st is a catalog of React components. Humans search it on the site and copy code. Coding agents search the same catalog through the 21st MCP server. We compared the two over three months, July to October 2026, using Claude Code, the agent that uses 21st most, as the example.
What Claude can do on 21st
After a user connects 21st, Claude gets these tools:
| Tool | What it does | Users whose Claude used it |
|---|---|---|
search | Searches the catalog, returns names and previews | 85% |
get_component | Fetches one component's code and usage example | 49% |
get_inspiration | Searches, ranked against the project's stack and styles | 30% |
search_logo | Finds a brand's SVG logo | 9% |
generate | Asks 21st AI to build something new | 6% |
get_theme | Fetches a theme's color tokens | 3% |
A typical session:
User: add a pricing section
Claude:
search("pricing table")→get_component(…)→ adapts the code to the page
User: make the signup button feel interactive
Claude:
search("magnetic button")→get_component(…)
User: switch the app to a dark theme
Claude:
search("dark theme")→get_theme(…)→ updates globals.css
One search in five now comes from Claude, up from one in thirty
Three ways Claude and humans differ
1. Claude writes a spec, humans type a word
The typical search from a human is one word. From Claude it is six. Some of the most common searches on each side:
| Typed by humans | Sent by Claude |
|---|---|
| hero | pricing table |
| dashboard | before after image comparison slider |
| card | faq accordion section |
| login | bento grid features |
| button | animated number counter ticker |
| footer | animated tabs sliding indicator |
74% of Claude's searches are one of a kind: no other user's Claude ever sent exactly the same text. For humans it is 9%; most humans type a common word like "hero" that thousands of others typed too.
2. Claude comes for motion
Topics come from keywords in the search: "scroll", "parallax", "reveal" or "sticky" count as scroll effects, and so on.
3. Claude takes small working parts, humans take showpieces
Claude is in the middle of building a page and fetches the parts that are tedious to write by hand: a number counter, a segmented control, a stat card. Humans look through previews and copy what stands out on its own: 3D scenes, shader backgrounds, full-screen heroes. Claude rarely fetches plain parts like a login form, likely because it writes those itself; humans copy them three times as often.
Authors tag every component on 21st with what it is: "counter", "3D", "login form". Out of everything Claude fetched and everything humans copied, this is the share of each kind:
| Component | Claude | Humans |
|---|---|---|
| Number counters | 1.9% | 0.5% |
| Stat cards | 2.9% | 1.1% |
| Status indicators | 2.8% | 1.5% |
| Hero sections | 8.5% | 18.4% |
| WebGL scenes | 1.5% | 5.0% |
| 3D scenes | 0.8% | 3.5% |
| Login forms | 0.7% | 2.5% |
Claude also takes newer work: 53% of its picks were published less than three months before, against 29% of humans' copies. Claude finds components through text search, not through what is popular, so last week's upload can win. Humans copy the hits: only 10 components are in both top 100 lists.
Other agents
Each agent has its own taste. "Claude" here covers both Claude Code and the Claude app.
The taste comes from the agent, not the user: the 575 users who use both Claude and Codex search for scroll effects twice as often through Claude (10.2% against 5.1%).
What this means for component authors
- New authors get found. 38% of Claude's picks go to authors who published their first component less than six months earlier. For humans' copies it is 22%.
- Niche components get used. 42% of Claude's picks are components that fewer than 50 humans copied in the same three months. Among humans' copies it is 10%.
- Working parts are in demand. Claude fetches counters, stat cards, status badges and segmented controls two to four times as often as humans copy them.
- Write a real description. Humans judge a component by its preview, Claude mostly by its text. Components whose description is just a few words, often only the name, get 17% of humans' copies but only 7.5% of Claude's picks.