Building React Components

Best practices for building reusable, maintainable React components.

When to Apply

Reference these guidelines when:

• Creating new React components
• Reviewing component structure and API design
• Refactoring components for better reusability
• Implementing component composition patterns
• Designing props interfaces

Core Principles

1. Single Responsibility

Each component should do one thing well. Split large components into smaller, focused pieces.

2. Composition Over Inheritance

Prefer composing components together rather than complex inheritance hierarchies.

// ✅ Good: Composition
function Page() {
  return (
    <Layout>
      <Header />
      <Main>
        <Article />
      </Main>
      <Footer />
    </Layout>
  );
}

// ❌ Avoid: Deep nesting
function Page() {
  return <LayoutWithHeaderAndFooter><MainContent /></LayoutWithHeaderAndFooter>;
}

3. Props Design

• Use TypeScript for props typing
• Keep props interfaces simple and focused
• Prefer many small props over few large objects
• Use children prop for content composition

4. Component Structure

// ✅ Recommended structure
import { FC } from 'react';

interface Props {
  title: string;
  children?: React.ReactNode;
}

export const Card: FC<Props> = ({ title, children }) => {
  return (
    <div className="card">
      <h2>{title}</h2>
      {children}
    </div>
  );
};

5. State Management

• Keep state as close to where it's used as possible
• Lift state up only when necessary
• Consider custom hooks for reusable state logic

Common Patterns

Compound Components

For flexible APIs like Select/Option, Tabs/TabList/Tab/TabPanel.

Render Props

For sharing behavior while keeping rendering control.

Hooks

For sharing stateful logic across components.

Related Skills

• vercel-react-best-practices
• next-best-practices
• vercel-composition-patterns