Frontend Patterns - Component Design Guide

Overview

Framework-agnostic component design patterns with emphasis on React implementations. Covers:

1. Container/Presentational - Logic/UI separation (universal pattern)
2. Hooks Patterns - useEffect, useMemo, useCallback best practices (React-specific)
3. Custom Hooks - Logic reuse and design patterns (React-specific)
4. State Management - Context, props, and state organization (universal concepts, React examples)
5. Component Composition - children, render props, HOC (universal patterns)

When to Use This Skill

Automatic Triggers

Keywords that activate this skill:

• React, component, コンポーネント
• pattern, パターン, design
• hooks, custom hook, カスタムフック
• container, presentational, 分離
• state management, 状態管理
• composition, HOC, render props

Explicit Invocation

For guaranteed activation:

• "Apply frontend patterns skill"
• "Use component design patterns"
• "Show React patterns"

Common Scenarios

• Designing component architecture
• Implementing with /code command
• Reviewing with design-pattern-reviewer agent
• Refactoring component structure
• Learning best practices for React/Vue/Angular

Core Patterns

1. Container/Presentational Pattern

Concept (Framework-agnostic): Separate logic (data fetching, state) from UI (presentation).

Benefits:

• UI components are reusable
• Easy to test separately
• Clear separation of concerns

React Implementation:

// ❌ Avoid: Mixed concerns
export const UserProfile = () => {
  const [user, setUser] = useState(null)
  useEffect(() => {
    fetch('/api/user').then(setUser)
  }, [])
  return <div>{user?.name}</div>
}

// ✅ Good: Separated
// Container (logic)
export const UserProfileContainer = () => {
  const [user, setUser] = useState(null)
  useEffect(() => {
    fetch('/api/user').then(setUser)
  }, [])
  return <UserProfile user={user} />
}

// Presentational (UI only)
export const UserProfile = ({ user }) => (
  <div>{user?.name}</div>
)

Vue Implementation (for reference):

<!-- Container -->
<script setup>
import { ref, onMounted } from 'vue'
const user = ref(null)
onMounted(() => fetch('/api/user').then(u => user.value = u))
</script>

<!-- Presentational -->
<script setup>
defineProps(['user'])
</script>
<template><div>{{ user?.name }}</div></template>

2. Hooks Patterns (React-Specific)

useEffect Dependencies:

// ❌ Avoid: Missing dependencies
useEffect(() => {
  fetchData(userId)
}, []) // Missing userId

// ✅ Good: Complete dependencies
useEffect(() => {
  fetchData(userId)
}, [userId])

useMemo for Expensive Computations:

// ❌ Avoid: Recalculated every render
const filtered = items.filter(item => item.active)

// ✅ Good: Memoized
const filtered = useMemo(
  () => items.filter(item => item.active),
  [items]
)

useCallback for Stable Functions:

// ❌ Avoid: New function every render
<Child onClick={() => handleClick(id)} />

// ✅ Good: Stable reference
const handleClickCallback = useCallback(
  () => handleClick(id),
  [id]
)
<Child onClick={handleClickCallback} />

3. Custom Hooks Design (React-Specific)

Naming Convention: Always start with use

// ✅ Good: Reusable data fetching
function useFetchUser(userId) {
  const [user, setUser] = useState(null)
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true)

  useEffect(() => {
    fetch(`/api/users/${userId}`)
      .then(setUser)
      .finally(() => setLoading(false))
  }, [userId])

  return { user, loading }
}

// Usage
const { user, loading } = useFetchUser(userId)

4. State Management

Concept (Universal):

• Local state: Component-specific data
• Shared state: Data used across components
• Global state: Application-wide data

React Implementation:

// Local state (useState)
const [count, setCount] = useState(0)

// Shared state (Context)
const ThemeContext = createContext()
// Provider
<ThemeContext.Provider value={theme}>

// Global state (Context + custom hook)
function useAuth() {
  const context = useContext(AuthContext)
  return context
}

State Granularity:

// ❌ Avoid: Large state object
const [state, setState] = useState({
  user, posts, comments, settings
})

// ✅ Good: Separate state
const [user, setUser] = useState()
const [posts, setPosts] = useState()
const [comments, setComments] = useState()

5. Component Composition

Concept (Universal): Build complex components from simple ones.

React Patterns:

// 1. Children pattern
const Card = ({ children }) => (
  <div className="card">{children}</div>
)

// 2. Render props
const DataProvider = ({ render, data }) => (
  <div>{render(data)}</div>
)

// 3. HOC (Higher-Order Component)
const withAuth = (Component) => (props) => {
  const user = useAuth()
  return user ? <Component {...props} /> : <Login />
}

Detailed Knowledge Base

Reference Documents

• [@./references/container-presentational.md] - Complete Container/Presentational pattern guide with style responsibilities

Integration Points

With Agents

• design-pattern-reviewer - Reviews React/frontend patterns using this skill's principles
• root-cause-reviewer - Identifies architectural issues

With Commands

• /code - Applies patterns during implementation
• /audit - Validates pattern usage

Integration Method

# In agent YAML frontmatter
dependencies: [frontend-patterns]

Or explicit reference:

[@~/.claude/skills/applying-frontend-patterns/SKILL.md]

Quick Start

For New Component

1. Start Presentational - UI only, props-driven
2. Add Container - Wrap with logic when needed
3. Extract Hooks - Reusable logic → custom hooks
4. Optimize - useMemo/useCallback for performance

For Refactoring

1. Identify mixed concerns - Logic + UI in same component
2. Separate Container/Presentational
3. Extract custom hooks - Shared logic
4. Simplify state - Split large state objects

For Code Review

1. Check separation - Container vs Presentational
2. Verify hooks - Dependencies, memoization
3. Evaluate composition - Reusability, flexibility
4. Assess state - Granularity, management strategy

Best Practices

Do's ✅

• Separate logic from UI (Container/Presentational)
• Use custom hooks for reusable logic
• Complete dependency arrays in useEffect
• Memoize expensive computations
• Stable callback references for child props
• Props-only Presentational components

Don'ts ❌

• Mix data fetching with UI
• Inline functions in JSX (breaks memoization)
• Large monolithic components
• Missing useEffect dependencies
• Premature optimization (measure first)
• Global state for local concerns

Framework Comparison

Pattern	React	Vue	Angular
Container/Presentational	Separate components	Composition API	Smart/Dumb components
State	useState, Context	ref, reactive	Services, RxJS
Effects	useEffect	onMounted, watch	ngOnInit, rxjs
Composition	children, render props	slots, scoped slots	ng-content, directives

Key Insight: Patterns are universal, implementations differ.

When NOT to Use

Skip complex patterns for:

• Simple, one-off components
• Prototypes and experiments
• Components without reuse
• Over-abstraction (YAGNI)

Rule: Measure complexity. Add patterns when pain is felt, not anticipated.

Success Metrics

Patterns are working when:

• Components are easily testable
• UI components reuse across projects
• Logic is shareable via custom hooks
• Refactoring doesn't break unrelated code
• New team members understand structure quickly

Resources

references/

• container-presentational.md - Detailed Container/Presentational guide

scripts/

Currently empty (knowledge-only skill)

assets/

Currently empty (knowledge-only skill)