React Digest
React Digest
#540 – January 18, 2026
you wouldn't steal a car but how about a React component
How to steal any React component
6 minutes by David Fant
David shows how to recreate React components from any website without access to its source code. The technique uses React Fiber, an internal structure that React maintains alongside the regular DOM. By accessing Fiber nodes attached to DOM elements, you can see which components created which elements and what props they received.
No forms. No keys. Just free React components that ship.
sponsored by Progress Telerik
50+ production-ready KendoReact components—Data Grid, DatePicker, DropDownList and more. Install via npm, no forms or license keys. Includes 4 themes, 4 Figma UI kits, and community support. Use in any project. Free.
Where React performance issues start
5 minutes by Courtney Hackshaw
Courtney explains how React's term "rendering" differs from traditional browser rendering. In React, rendering means running component functions to determine what the UI should look like, not painting pixels on screen. When state or props change, React calls your component function again, compares the result to the previous version, and figures out minimal DOM updates.
Can you fetch data with React Server Actions?
12 minutes by Nadia Makarevich
Are React Server Actions are suitable for client-side data fetching? Nadia explains what they are, demonstrates their type-safe POST-based workflow, and examines benefits like simplified backend calls. However, performance tests reveal serious drawbacks—parallel requests become sequential, slowing data loading. She argues that Server Actions are not designed for fetching and traditional fetch or Server Components remain better choices for most client-side scenarios.
useEffectEvent: A complete guide to solving stale closures
13 minutes by Peter Kellner
React 19.2 added useEffectEvent to fix a common problem with hooks. When you need to read the latest state inside an effect without causing it to re-run, you can wrap your callback in useEffectEvent. Before this, developers had to use clunky workarounds with useRef. The new hook creates a stable function that always sees current values when called.
React Conf 2025 talks on Youtube
a few hours by React Conf
The talks from React Conf 2025 are live on Youtube. You can check out the keynote, learn about async, improving performance and all the exciting things that are happening in the ecosystem.
And the most popular article from the last issue was: