| name | frontend-dev-guidelines |
| description | Frontend development guidelines for React/TypeScript applications. Modern patterns including Suspense, lazy loading, useSuspenseQuery, file organization with features directory, MUI v7 styling, TanStack Router, performance optimization, and TypeScript best practices. Use when creating components, pages, features, fetching data, styling, routing, or working with frontend code. |
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎯 SKILL ACTIVATED: frontend-dev-guidelines ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Frontend Development Guidelines
Purpose
Comprehensive guide for modern React development, emphasizing Suspense-based data fetching, lazy loading, proper file organization, and performance optimization.
When to Use This Skill
- Creating new components or pages
- Building new features
- Fetching data with TanStack Query
- Setting up routing with TanStack Router
- Styling components with MUI v7
- Performance optimization
- Organizing frontend code
- TypeScript best practices
Quick Start
New Component Checklist
Creating a component? Follow this checklist:
- Use
React.FC<Props>pattern with TypeScript - Lazy load if heavy component:
React.lazy(() => import()) - Wrap in
<SuspenseLoader>for loading states - Use
useSuspenseQueryfor data fetching - Import aliases:
@/,~types,~components,~features - Styles: Inline if <100 lines, separate file if >100 lines
- Use
useCallbackfor event handlers passed to children - Default export at bottom
- No early returns with loading spinners
- Use
useMuiSnackbarfor user notifications
New Feature Checklist
Creating a feature? Set up this structure:
- Create
features/{feature-name}/directory - Create subdirectories:
api/,components/,hooks/,helpers/,types/ - Create API service file:
api/{feature}Api.ts - Set up TypeScript types in
types/ - Create route in
routes/{feature-name}/index.tsx - Lazy load feature components
- Use Suspense boundaries
- Export public API from feature
index.ts
Import Aliases Quick Reference
| Alias | Resolves To | Example |
|---|---|---|
@/ |
src/ |
import { apiClient } from '@/lib/apiClient' |
~types |
src/types |
import type { User } from '~types/user' |
~components |
src/components |
import { SuspenseLoader } from '~components/SuspenseLoader' |
~features |
src/features |
import { authApi } from '~features/auth' |
Defined in: vite.config.ts lines 180-185
Common Imports Cheatsheet
// React & Lazy Loading
import React, { useState, useCallback, useMemo } from 'react';
const Heavy = React.lazy(() => import('./Heavy'));
// MUI Components
import { Box, Paper, Typography, Button, Grid } from '@mui/material';
import type { SxProps, Theme } from '@mui/material';
// TanStack Query (Suspense)
import { useSuspenseQuery, useQueryClient } from '@tanstack/react-query';
// TanStack Router
import { createFileRoute } from '@tanstack/react-router';
// Project Components
import { SuspenseLoader } from '~components/SuspenseLoader';
// Hooks
import { useAuth } from '@/hooks/useAuth';
import { useMuiSnackbar } from '@/hooks/useMuiSnackbar';
// Types
import type { Post } from '~types/post';
Topic Guides
🎨 Component Patterns
Modern React components use:
React.FC<Props>for type safetyReact.lazy()for code splittingSuspenseLoaderfor loading states- Named const + default export pattern
Key Concepts:
- Lazy load heavy components (DataGrid, charts, editors)
- Always wrap lazy components in Suspense
- Use SuspenseLoader component (with fade animation)
- Component structure: Props → Hooks → Handlers → Render → Export
📖 Complete Guide: resources/component-patterns.md
📊 Data Fetching
PRIMARY PATTERN: useSuspenseQuery
- Use with Suspense boundaries
- Cache-first strategy (check grid cache before API)
- Replaces
isLoadingchecks - Type-safe with generics
API Service Layer:
- Create
features/{feature}/api/{feature}Api.ts - Use
apiClientaxios instance - Centralized methods per feature
- Route format:
/form/route(NOT/api/form/route)
📖 Complete Guide: resources/data-fetching.md
📁 File Organization
features/ vs components/:
features/: Domain-specific (posts, comments, auth)components/: Truly reusable (SuspenseLoader, CustomAppBar)
Feature Subdirectories:
features/
my-feature/
api/ # API service layer
components/ # Feature components
hooks/ # Custom hooks
helpers/ # Utility functions
types/ # TypeScript types
📖 Complete Guide: resources/file-organization.md
🎨 Styling
Inline vs Separate:
- <100 lines: Inline
const styles: Record<string, SxProps<Theme>> 100 lines: Separate
.styles.tsfile
Primary Method:
- Use
sxprop for MUI components - Type-safe with
SxProps<Theme> - Theme access:
(theme) => theme.palette.primary.main
MUI v7 Grid:
<Grid size={{ xs: 12, md: 6 }}> // ✅ v7 syntax
<Grid xs={12} md={6}> // ❌ Old syntax
📖 Complete Guide: resources/styling-guide.md
🛣️ Routing
TanStack Router - Folder-Based:
- Directory:
routes/my-route/index.tsx - Lazy load components
- Use
createFileRoute - Breadcrumb data in loader
Example:
import { createFileRoute } from '@tanstack/react-router';
import { lazy } from 'react';
const MyPage = lazy(() => import('@/features/my-feature/components/MyPage'));
export const Route = createFileRoute('/my-route/')({
component: MyPage,
loader: () => ({ crumb: 'My Route' }),
});
📖 Complete Guide: resources/routing-guide.md
⏳ Loading & Error States
CRITICAL RULE: No Early Returns
// ❌ NEVER - Causes layout shift
if (isLoading) {
return <LoadingSpinner />;
}
// ✅ ALWAYS - Consistent layout
<SuspenseLoader>
<Content />
</SuspenseLoader>
Why: Prevents Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), better UX
Error Handling:
- Use
useMuiSnackbarfor user feedback - NEVER
react-toastify - TanStack Query
onErrorcallbacks
📖 Complete Guide: resources/loading-and-error-states.md
⚡ Performance
Optimization Patterns:
useMemo: Expensive computations (filter, sort, map)useCallback: Event handlers passed to childrenReact.memo: Expensive components- Debounced search (300-500ms)
- Memory leak prevention (cleanup in useEffect)
📖 Complete Guide: resources/performance.md
📘 TypeScript
Standards:
- Strict mode, no
anytype - Explicit return types on functions
- Type imports:
import type { User } from '~types/user' - Component prop interfaces with JSDoc
📖 Complete Guide: resources/typescript-standards.md
🔧 Common Patterns
Covered Topics:
- React Hook Form with Zod validation
- DataGrid wrapper contracts
- Dialog component standards
useAuthhook for current user- Mutation patterns with cache invalidation
📖 Complete Guide: resources/common-patterns.md
📚 Complete Examples
Full working examples:
- Modern component with all patterns
- Complete feature structure
- API service layer
- Route with lazy loading
- Suspense + useSuspenseQuery
- Form with validation
📖 Complete Guide: resources/complete-examples.md
Navigation Guide
| Need to... | Read this resource |
|---|---|
| Create a component | component-patterns.md |
| Fetch data | data-fetching.md |
| Organize files/folders | file-organization.md |
| Style components | styling-guide.md |
| Set up routing | routing-guide.md |
| Handle loading/errors | loading-and-error-states.md |
| Optimize performance | performance.md |
| TypeScript types | typescript-standards.md |
| Forms/Auth/DataGrid | common-patterns.md |
| See full examples | complete-examples.md |
Core Principles
- Lazy Load Everything Heavy: Routes, DataGrid, charts, editors
- Suspense for Loading: Use SuspenseLoader, not early returns
- useSuspenseQuery: Primary data fetching pattern for new code
- Features are Organized: api/, components/, hooks/, helpers/ subdirs
- Styles Based on Size: <100 inline, >100 separate
- Import Aliases: Use @/, ~types, ~components, ~features
- No Early Returns: Prevents layout shift
- useMuiSnackbar: For all user notifications
Quick Reference: File Structure
src/
features/
my-feature/
api/
myFeatureApi.ts # API service
components/
MyFeature.tsx # Main component
SubComponent.tsx # Related components
hooks/
useMyFeature.ts # Custom hooks
useSuspenseMyFeature.ts # Suspense hooks
helpers/
myFeatureHelpers.ts # Utilities
types/
index.ts # TypeScript types
index.ts # Public exports
components/
SuspenseLoader/
SuspenseLoader.tsx # Reusable loader
CustomAppBar/
CustomAppBar.tsx # Reusable app bar
routes/
my-route/
index.tsx # Route component
create/
index.tsx # Nested route
Modern Component Template (Quick Copy)
import React, { useState, useCallback } from 'react';
import { Box, Paper } from '@mui/material';
import { useSuspenseQuery } from '@tanstack/react-query';
import { featureApi } from '../api/featureApi';
import type { FeatureData } from '~types/feature';
interface MyComponentProps {
id: number;
onAction?: () => void;
}
export const MyComponent: React.FC<MyComponentProps> = ({ id, onAction }) => {
const [state, setState] = useState<string>('');
const { data } = useSuspenseQuery({
queryKey: ['feature', id],
queryFn: () => featureApi.getFeature(id),
});
const handleAction = useCallback(() => {
setState('updated');
onAction?.();
}, [onAction]);
return (
<Box sx={{ p: 2 }}>
<Paper sx={{ p: 3 }}>
{/* Content */}
</Paper>
</Box>
);
};
export default MyComponent;
For complete examples, see resources/complete-examples.md
Related Skills
- error-tracking: Error tracking with Sentry (applies to frontend too)
- backend-dev-guidelines: Backend API patterns that frontend consumes
Skill Status: Modular structure with progressive loading for optimal context management