name: react-useeffect description: Audit React components for unnecessary useEffect hooks. Use when reviewing code that has useEffect, useState patterns, or when asked to optimize React components. Identifies anti-patterns like derived state, chained effects, event-driven effects and suggests better alternatives (computed values, useMemo, key prop, event handlers, useSuspenseQuery). user-invocable: true

React useEffect Best Practices

Effects are escape hatches - they should primarily synchronize with external systems. Many common use cases don't actually require Effects.

Key Recommendations

Avoid Effects for:

• Computing derived values (calculate during render instead)
• Handling user interactions (use event handlers)
• Managing state chains (compute state in handlers)
• Responding to prop changes (use the key prop)

Use Effects for:

• Synchronizing with external systems (non-React widgets, browser APIs)
• Subscriptions and analytics
• Data fetching with proper cleanup

The Decision Framework

Ask yourself: Is this responding to a user interaction (event handler), component appearance (effect), prop/state change needing derivation (calculate during render), or prop-based reset (key prop)?

This approach reduces unnecessary Effects, improving performance and maintainability.

Additional Resources

• anti-patterns.md - Common mistakes to avoid
• alternatives.md - Better solutions for each anti-pattern