frontend-review-state

Frontend Review — State Management

You are reviewing the state management architecture of a frontend project. The most common AI-generated problems are: putting everything in global state, storing server data in a global store instead of TanStack Query, and using coarse-grained selectors that cause the whole component tree to re-render.

Procedure

1. Read package.json to identify the state management libraries in use.
2. Grep for global state usage patterns:

   # Jotai
   grep -rn "atom\|useAtom\|useAtomValue" src/ --include='*.ts' --include='*.tsx' | wc -l
   # Zustand
   grep -rn "create\b\|useStore\b" src/ --include='*.ts' --include='*.tsx' | head -20
   # Redux
   grep -rn "createSlice\|useSelector\|useDispatch" src/ --include='*.ts' --include='*.tsx' | head -20
   # Context
   grep -rn "createContext\|useContext" src/ --include='*.ts' --include='*.tsx' | head -20
   

3. Sample 3–5 of the largest atom / store definitions and assess what they contain.
4. Check for server state stored in global store (should be TanStack Query / SWR instead).
5. Check for URL state stored in global store (should be useSearchParams / nuqs).
6. Check for form state stored in global store (should be React Hook Form).

State Classification

Correctly classify state by type. Each type has a dedicated tool — using the wrong tool is the root cause of most state management bugs.

Server state   → TanStack Query / SWR        (not global store)
URL state      → useSearchParams / nuqs      (not global store)
Form state     → React Hook Form             (not global store)
UI local       → useState / useReducer       (component-scoped)
UI global      → Jotai / Zustand / Context   (minimum scope)

Flag any server, URL, or form state found in a global Jotai/Zustand/Redux store. These are always bugs or design mistakes.

Library-Specific Checks

Jotai

• Atom granularity: one atom per logical unit; no large object atoms ({ user, theme, notifications, ... }).
• Derived state: use atom(get => ...) for computed values instead of storing redundant computed data.
• Side effects: isolate in atomEffect / useAtomEffect, not in atom setter callbacks.
• Testability: atoms declared at module top-level become global singletons — use Provider scoping in tests / Storybook.

// Bad: monolithic atom
const appStateAtom = atom({ user: null, theme: 'light', selectedItems: [], filterQuery: '' });

// Good: split + derived
const userAtom = atom<User | null>(null);
const themeAtom = atom<'light' | 'dark'>('light');
const filteredItemsAtom = atom((get) =>
  get(allItemsAtom).filter(item => item.name.includes(get(filterQueryAtom)))
);

Zustand

• Selector usage: useStore(state => state.specificField) — never subscribe to the entire store object.
• Shallow compare: use shallow from zustand/shallow when selecting multiple fields as an object.
• No direct mutation: always use set / get, never mutate state outside of Zustand's setter.

// Bad: subscribes to everything
const { user, theme, cart } = useStore();

// Good: selector per field (or shallow for multi-field)
const user = useStore(state => state.user);
const { theme, cart } = useStore(useShallow(state => ({ theme: state.theme, cart: state.cart })));

Redux Toolkit

• Is createSlice used (not hand-written reducers)?
• Is async data fetched via createAsyncThunk or RTK Query, not manual dispatch chains?
• Is server state in RTK Query / TanStack Query rather than a slice?

Context API

• Context re-renders every Consumer when any value changes. If the context value is an object, split it into separate contexts per logical group (e.g., AuthContext, ThemeContext).
• Context is suitable for stable, low-frequency values (auth user, theme, i18n locale).
• Do not use Context as a general-purpose state manager for high-frequency updates.

Logout & Cache Invalidation

A common bug: after logout, the next user who logs in sees cached data from the previous session.

Check that the logout handler:

1. Calls the server logout endpoint (session revocation)
2. Clears TanStack Query / SWR cache (queryClient.clear())
3. Resets all auth-related global atoms / Zustand stores
4. Navigates to /login (after clearing, not before)

Output

Write <client-repo>/.frontend-review/report/latest/md/state-review.md with:

• State inventory: which libraries are used, rough count of atoms/stores/contexts
• Misclassified state: server/URL/form state found in global store (these are bugs)
• Anti-patterns found: with file:line references
• Logout/cache gap if found
• Recommended PRs: each scoped to one logical refactor

Keep under 200 lines. File-level details stay in the raw search output, not in the report.

Boundaries

• Do NOT rewrite state management code. The report identifies gaps; engineering implements fixes.
• Do NOT touch source files in the client repo.
• Rendering performance (re-renders, memo usage) is covered by frontend-review-performance.

Reference

• Checklist: 23-state-management.md, 17-pure-io-separation.md, 21-api-layer.md
• Related: frontend-review-performance (re-render profiling)