Minimal JS, modern CSS anchored product tours
Ever wondered how to build those interactive product tours that spotlight elements and walk users through your app? Ever wondered how you could with just roughly 100 lines of JS and modern CSS?
Useful takeaways from this story.
Ever wondered how to build those interactive product tours that spotlight elements and walk users through your app?
Ever wondered how you could with just roughly 100 lines of JS and modern CSS?
Yes, just around 100 LoC рџ¤Ї I built one using CSS Anchor Positioning and a Stimulus controller.
Building the complete brief
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The useful part
Ever wondered how to build those interactive product tours that spotlight elements and walk users through your app? Ever wondered how you could with just roughly 100 lines of JS and modern CSS? Yes, just around 100 LoC рџ¤Ї I built one using CSS Anchor Positioning and a Stimulus controller.
How it works
- The approach uses two techniques worth talking about: a clip-path spotlight effect (useful in all sorts of contexts) and CSS anchor positioning for the dialog (still very new as of mid-2026).
- The spotlight trick The overlay covers the viewport with a semi-transparent background.
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