React Digest
React Digest
#529 – October 26, 2025
depends on your goals and what you are optimising for
React Server Components: Do they really improve performance?
37 minutes by Nadia Makarevich
React Server Components can make sites faster but require careful setup. Nadia compared Client-Side Rendering, Server-Side Rendering, and React Server Components using real performance tests. She found out that CSR shows content slowest but becomes interactive immediately. SSR loads content faster but creates a gap where pages look ready but don't work yet. RSC with streaming can be fastest overall, but only when data fetching is moved to the server and Suspense boundaries are used correctly.
Authentication without exposing credentials for your AI agents
sponsored by 1Password and Browserbase
1Password just released Secure Agentic Autofill, a new capability that securely delivers credentials to AI agents operating in the browser. It's available in early access via Browserbase, the cloud browser automation platform for your browser agents. Your agents can now authenticate with web services without ever exposing credentials. Zero-knowledge security. Just in time auth. Smart mapping. Full audit trail. Build AI agents that can actually work without compromising security. Available now in open beta for 1Password Enterprise customers and for free on Browserbase.
The Rari SSR breakthrough: 12x faster, 10x higher throughput than Next.js
7 minutes by Ryan Skinner
Ryan improved the Rari React framework by adding proper app router support, correct server component semantics, and true server-side rendering. The changes made Rari 3.8x faster than Next.js with 0.69ms response times and 10.5x higher throughput at 20,226 requests per second.
React 19 Activity Component
3 minutes by Partha Roy
React v19.2 introduces the Activity Component that solves a long-standing problem with showing and hiding UI elements. Traditional methods either unmount components and lose their state, or use CSS display properties that still trigger unnecessary re-renders. The component bridges this gap by preserving component state when hidden while stopping re-renders and effects. It works with a simple mode prop that accepts "visible" or "hidden" values.
GraphQL myths
6 minutes by Jovi De Croock
GraphQL has been around for nearly a decade, yet the same misconceptions persist in tech discussions and architecture reviews. Jovi tackles three of the most common myths about GraphQL and explores how persisted operations address them all.
How to dedupe server calls with Remix Utils Batcher
4 minutes by Sergio Xalambrí
Nested routes in web apps often need the same data, causing duplicate API calls when multiple loaders run together. Sergio argues the Remix Utils Batcher middleware solves this by automatically combining identical function calls during a single request.
And the most popular article from the last issue was: