react-doctor/rerender-state-only-in-handlers
Replace useState with useRef when the value is only mutated and never read in render: `ref.current = ...` updates without re-rendering the component
- Status
- Active
- Category
- Performance
- Assessment
- Evidence-required risk
- Required evidence
- source code, runtime behavior, measurement
- Default configuration
- Enabled
- Default severity
- warn
Show technical metadata
- Scope
- All supported frameworks
- Active when
- always
- Requirements
- react
- Tags
- test-noise
- Priority
- 46 (P3)
- Source
- oxlint-plugin-react-doctor
- Rule set
- oxlint-plugin-react-doctor 0.9.3 (prompt schema 2)
Validation prompt
Confirm the detector match and collect the required evidence before deciding whether an edit is warranted.
Fires on a useState whose value is not proven to reach JSX while its setter is called. Before replacing it, trace reads in Effects, subscriptions, memo/callback dependencies, imperative handles, external synchronization, and helpers the JSX reachability analysis cannot follow. State can drive committed behavior without appearing in markup.
Evidence boundary
The diagnostic proves only that the detector’s modeled source pattern matched. It does not prove runtime impact, product intent, rendered failure, or that one remediation is correct.
Establish the environment, repository policy, exceptions, and required rendered or runtime evidence before deciding the occurrence.
Record one outcome:
- Confirmed failure: The required evidence establishes the violation.
- Rejected: A documented exception or false-positive predicate applies.
- Needs evidence: Named evidence can still be collected.
- Unavailable: Required evidence cannot be collected in this run.
- Waived with evidence: An authorized, scoped exception applies to an established failure.
- Observation: The review records an optional tradeoff without claiming a defect.
A waiver records its scope, authority, evidence, and review condition. It is not a pass or false positive.
Default severity is registry metadata. Use the occurrence’s JSON severity after repository configuration when ordering real findings.
Fix prompt
Apply this candidate correction only after the required evidence confirms the risk.
Use a ref only after proving the value is imperative scratch data whose changes must not trigger rendering, Effects, memoization, subscriptions, or external synchronization. Then replace reads/writes consistently with ref.current. Keep state when a commit is how downstream behavior observes the change, even if the value is not rendered directly. See https://react.dev/reference/react/useRef
Repository-wide copy prompt
Use this repository-wide prompt only after validating each occurrence. For one occurrence, use the guidance above.
Show repository-wide prompt
Fix every confirmed react-doctor/rerender-state-only-in-handlers diagnostic in the current repository.
Required change:
- Use a ref only after proving the value is imperative scratch data whose changes must not trigger rendering, Effects, memoization, subscriptions, or external synchronization. Then replace reads/writes consistently with ref.current. Keep state when a commit is how downstream behavior observes the change, even if the value is not rendered directly. See https://react.dev/reference/react/useRef.
Validation before editing:
Fires on a useState whose value is not proven to reach JSX while its setter is called. Before replacing it, trace reads in Effects, subscriptions, memo/callback dependencies, imperative handles, external synchronization, and helpers the JSX reachability analysis cannot follow. State can drive committed behavior without appearing in markup.
Constraints:
- Make the smallest change that fixes the root cause.
- Preserve behavior and interfaces unrelated to this diagnostic.
- Reuse existing project components, utilities, and conventions.
- Do not introduce render-phase side effects, render-phase state updates, or Hooks rule violations.
- Preserve resource ownership and cleanup. Do not move work into a hotter render or frame path.
- If syntax proves only a candidate cost, require a relevant trace, bundle report, payload measurement, or metric before editing.
- Without evidence, record Needs evidence. Compare the same scenario before and after; keep the change only when its target metric improves without regression.
- Adapt identifiers and framework details instead of copying blindly.
- Do not disable the rule or suppress matching code.
Assessment:
- Record detector evidence, applicability facts, assumptions, missing evidence, and the rule class for this occurrence.
- Return one outcome: Confirmed failure, Rejected, Needs evidence, Unavailable, Waived with evidence, or Observation.
- A waiver records the established failure, scope, authority, evidence, and review or expiry condition. It is not a pass or false positive.
Verification:
- Run focused tests for the changed behavior.
- Run React Doctor and confirm this diagnostic no longer appears from changed code.
- Run an unfiltered scan of the affected scope before claiming no cross-category regression.
- Report the files changed and any checks you could not run.