diceui / rules

---
description: React patterns and best practices
globs: 
alwaysApply: true
---

# React Patterns and Best Practices

## Core Philosophy

- **UIs are thin wrappers over data**: avoid using local state (like useState) unless absolutely necessary and it's independent of business logic
- Even when local state seems needed, consider if you can flatten the UI state into a basic calculation
- useState is only necessary if it's truly reactive and cannot be derived

## State Management

- **Choose state machines over multiple useStates**: multiple useState calls make code harder to reason about
- Prefer a single state object with reducers for complex state logic
- Co-locate related state rather than spreading it across multiple useState calls

## Component Architecture

- **Create new component abstractions when nesting conditional logic**
- Move complex logic to new components rather than deeply nested conditionals
- Use ternaries only for small, easily readable logic
- Avoid top-level if/else statements in JSX; extract to components instead

## Side Effects and Dependencies

- **Avoid putting dependent logic in useEffects**: it causes misdirection about what the logic is doing
- Choose to explicitly define logic rather than depend on implicit reactive behavior
- When useEffect is necessary, be explicit about dependencies and cleanup
- Prefer derived state and event handlers over effect-driven logic

## Timing and Async Patterns

- **setTimeouts are flaky and usually a hack**: always provide a comment explaining why setTimeout is needed
- Consider alternatives like:
  - Proper loading states
  - Suspense boundaries
  - Event-driven patterns
  - State machines with delayed transitions
  - requestAnimateFrame and queuMicrotask

## Code Quality Impact

These patterns prevent subtle bugs that pile up into major issues. While code may "work" without following these guidelines, violations often lead to:

- Hard-to-debug timing issues
- Unexpected re-renders
- State synchronization problems
- Complex refactoring requirements

## Examples

### ❌ Avoid: Multiple useState

```tsx
const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);
const [error, setError] = useState(null);
const [data, setData] = useState(null);
```

### ✅ Prefer: State machine

```tsx
function useLazyRef<T>(fn: () => T) {
  const ref = React.useRef<T | null>(null);

  if (ref.current === null) {
    ref.current = fn();
  }

  return ref as React.RefObject<T>;
}

interface Store<T> {
  subscribe: (callback: () => void) => () => void
  getState: () => T
  setState: <K extends keyof T>(key: K, value: T[K]) => void
  notify: () => void
}

function createStore<T>(
  listenersRef: React.RefObject<Set<() => void>>,
  stateRef: React.RefObject<T>,
  onValueChange?: Partial<{
    [K in keyof T]: (value: T[K], store: Store<T>) => void
  }>
): Store<T> {
  const store: Store<T> = {
      subscribe: (cb) => {
          listenersRef.current.add(cb);
      return () => listenersRef.current.delete(cb);
    },
    getState: () => stateRef.current,
    setState: (key, value) => {
      if (Object.is(stateRef.current[key], value)) return;
      stateRef.current[key] = value;
      onValueChange?.[key]?.(value, store);
      store.notify();
    },
    notify: () => {
      for (const cb of listenersRef.current) {
        cb();
      }
    },
  };

  return store;
}

function useStoreSelector<T, U>(
  store: Store<T>,
  selector: (state: T) => U
): U {
  return React.useSyncExternalStore(
    store.subscribe,
    () => selector(store.getState()),
    () => selector(store.getState()),
  );
}
```

### ❌ Avoid: Complex conditionals in JSX

```tsx
return (
  <div>
    {user ? (
      user.isAdmin ? (
        <AdminPanel />
      ) : user.isPremium ? (
        <PremiumDashboard />
      ) : (
        <BasicDashboard />
      )
    ) : (
      <LoginForm />
    )}
  </div>
);
```

### ✅ Prefer: Component abstraction

```tsx
function UserDashboard({ user }) {
  if (!user) return <LoginForm />;
  if (user.isAdmin) return <AdminPanel />;
  if (user.isPremium) return <PremiumDashboard />;
  return <BasicDashboard />;
}
```

### ❌ Avoid: Effect-driven logic

```tsx
useEffect(() => {
  if (user && user.preferences) {
    setTheme(user.preferences.theme);
  }
}, [user]);
```

### ✅ Prefer: Derived values

```tsx
const theme = user?.preferences?.theme ?? 'default';
```

## You Might Not Need an Effect

> Reference: [You Might Not Need an Effect](https://react.dev/learn/you-might-not-need-an-effect)

Effects are an escape hatch for synchronizing with **external systems** (non-React widgets, network, browser DOM). If there is no external system involved, you shouldn't need an Effect.

### When to remove Effects

- **Don't transform data for rendering in Effects**: calculate at the top level of your component; it re-runs automatically when props/state change
- **Don't handle user events in Effects**: use the corresponding event handler where you know exactly what happened
- **Don't update state based on props or state**: derive it during rendering instead of using Effect + setState (avoids extra render passes)
- **Don't chain Effects** that each adjust state to trigger each other; calculate what you can during rendering and do the rest in event handlers
- **Don't notify parent components about state changes via Effects**: call the parent's callback in the same event handler that updates state, so React batches both updates in one pass
- **Don't pass data from child to parent via Effects**: lift the data fetching to the parent and pass it down as props

### When Effects are appropriate

- Synchronizing with external systems (jQuery widgets, browser APIs, network)
- Analytics events that fire because the component was **displayed** (not because of a user action)
- Data fetching (but always add cleanup to avoid race conditions, and prefer framework-level solutions)

### Patterns to use instead of Effects

| Instead of... | Do this |
| --- | --- |
| Effect + setState for derived values | `const fullName = firstName + ' ' + lastName;` |
| Effect to cache expensive calculations | `const result = useMemo(() => expensiveFn(a, b), [a, b]);` |
| Effect to reset state when a prop changes | Pass a `key` prop to force remounting |
| Effect to adjust partial state on prop change | Store the selected **ID** instead of the selected **item**, and derive the item during render |
| Effect to share logic between event handlers | Extract a plain function and call it from both handlers |
| Effect to subscribe to an external store | Use `useSyncExternalStore(subscribe, getSnapshot, getServerSnapshot)` |

### ❌ Avoid: Resetting state via Effect

```tsx
useEffect(() => {
  setComment('');
}, [userId]);
```

### ✅ Prefer: Key-based reset

```tsx
<Profile userId={userId} key={userId} />
```

### ❌ Avoid: Storing derived state + syncing with Effect

```tsx
const [visibleTodos, setVisibleTodos] = useState([]);
useEffect(() => {
  setVisibleTodos(getFilteredTodos(todos, filter));
}, [todos, filter]);
```

### ✅ Prefer: Calculate during rendering

```tsx
const visibleTodos = getFilteredTodos(todos, filter);
```

### ❌ Avoid: Event-specific logic in an Effect

```tsx
useEffect(() => {
  if (product.isInCart) {
    showNotification(`Added ${product.name} to the cart!`);
  }
}, [product]);
```

### ✅ Prefer: Logic in the event handler

```tsx
function onProductBuy() {
  addToCart(product);
  showNotification(`Added ${product.name} to the cart!`);
}
```

### ❌ Avoid: Chained Effects

```tsx
useEffect(() => { if (card?.gold) setGoldCardCount(c => c + 1); }, [card]);
useEffect(() => { if (goldCardCount > 3) { setRound(r => r + 1); setGoldCardCount(0); } }, [goldCardCount]);
useEffect(() => { if (round > 5) setIsGameOver(true); }, [round]);
```

### ✅ Prefer: Derive + compute in event handler

```tsx
const isGameOver = round > 5;

function onCardPlace(nextCard) {
  setCard(nextCard);
  if (nextCard.gold) {
    if (goldCardCount < 3) setGoldCardCount(goldCardCount + 1);
    else { setGoldCardCount(0); setRound(round + 1); }
  }
}
```

### Data fetching: always add cleanup

```tsx
useEffect(() => {
  let ignore = false;
  fetchResults(query, page).then(json => {
    if (!ignore) setResults(json);
  });
  return () => { ignore = true; };
}, [query, page]);
```

## useMemo

> Reference: [useMemo](https://react.dev/reference/react/useMemo)

`useMemo` caches the **result** of a calculation between re-renders.

### When to use useMemo

- The calculation is **noticeably slow** (~1ms+ measured with `console.time`) and its dependencies rarely change
- The result is passed as a prop to a `memo`-wrapped component (referential stability matters)
- The value is used as a dependency of another Hook (useMemo, useCallback, useEffect)

### When NOT to use useMemo

- The calculation is cheap; just compute it inline
- You're not passing the result to a memoized child or using it as a Hook dependency
- A dependency changes on every render anyway (memoization is broken)

### Prefer alternatives to useMemo

1. **Accept JSX as children**: wrapper components that accept `children` let React skip re-rendering children when wrapper state updates
2. **Keep state local**: don't lift transient state (forms, hover) higher than necessary
3. **Keep rendering pure**: if re-rendering causes bugs, fix the bug instead of adding memoization
4. **Remove unnecessary Effects** that update state, since chains of Effect-driven updates are the most common performance problem
5. **Move objects/functions inside Effects** instead of memoizing them outside

### ❌ Avoid: Effect + setState for derived computation

```tsx
const [visibleTodos, setVisibleTodos] = useState([]);
useEffect(() => {
  setVisibleTodos(getFilteredTodos(todos, filter));
}, [todos, filter]);
```

### ✅ Prefer: Inline calculation (if cheap)

```tsx
const visibleTodos = getFilteredTodos(todos, filter);
```

### ✅ Prefer: useMemo (if expensive)

```tsx
const visibleTodos = useMemo(
  () => getFilteredTodos(todos, filter),
  [todos, filter]
);
```

### ❌ Avoid: Object dependency that breaks memoization

```tsx
const searchOptions = { matchMode: 'whole-word', text };
const visibleItems = useMemo(() => searchItems(allItems, searchOptions), [allItems, searchOptions]);
```

### ✅ Prefer: Move object inside useMemo

```tsx
const visibleItems = useMemo(() => {
  const searchOptions = { matchMode: 'whole-word', text };
  return searchItems(allItems, searchOptions);
}, [allItems, text]);
```

## useCallback

> Reference: [useCallback](https://react.dev/reference/react/useCallback)

`useCallback` caches the **function itself** between re-renders. It is equivalent to `useMemo(() => fn, deps)`.

### When to use useCallback

- Passing a function as a prop to a `memo`-wrapped component (so it can skip re-rendering)
- The function is used as a dependency of another Hook (useEffect, useMemo, useCallback)
- Writing a custom Hook that returns functions (always wrap returned functions in useCallback)

### When NOT to use useCallback

- The child component is not wrapped in `memo`; useCallback has no benefit
- A dependency changes on every render anyway
- The function is only used locally and not passed as a prop or Hook dependency

### ❌ Avoid: useCallback without memo on the child

```tsx
function Parent() {
  const onClick = useCallback(() => { /* ... */ }, []);
  return <Child onClick={onClick} />; // Child is NOT memo-wrapped, useCallback is pointless
}
```

### ✅ Prefer: useCallback paired with memo

```tsx
const Child = memo(function Child({ onClick }) { /* ... */ });

function Parent() {
  const onClick = useCallback(() => { /* ... */ }, [dep]);
  return <Child onClick={onClick} />;
}
```

### ✅ Prefer: Move functions inside Effects instead of wrapping in useCallback

```tsx
// Instead of useCallback + function dependency in Effect:
useEffect(() => {
  function createOptions() {
    return { serverUrl: 'https://localhost:1234', roomId };
  }
  const connection = createConnection(createOptions());
  connection.connect();
  return () => connection.disconnect();
}, [roomId]);
```

### Use updater functions to remove state dependencies

```tsx
// ❌ Depends on todos
const onTodoAdd = useCallback((text) => {
  setTodos([...todos, { id: nextId++, text }]);
}, [todos]);

// ✅ No dependency on todos
const onTodoAdd = useCallback((text) => {
  setTodos(todos => [...todos, { id: nextId++, text }]);
}, []);
```

### Custom Hooks should wrap returned functions

```tsx
function useRouter() {
  const { dispatch } = useContext(RouterStateContext);

  const navigate = useCallback((url) => {
    dispatch({ type: 'navigate', url });
  }, [dispatch]);

  return { navigate };
}
```

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