Build Production-Ready React Custom Hooks That Scale

Stop debugging hook dependency arrays at 2 AM and start building custom hooks that actually work in production. These comprehensive Cursor Rules transform your React development by eliminating the common pitfalls that turn custom hooks into maintenance nightmares.

The Custom Hook Problem Every React Developer Faces

You've been there: your custom hook works perfectly in development, then breaks in production with stale closures, infinite re-renders, or memory leaks. You spend hours debugging dependency arrays, tracking down why your hook causes components to re-render unnecessarily, or worse—figuring out why it stops working entirely after a state update.

The reality is that writing production-ready custom hooks requires mastering React's execution model, TypeScript's type system, and testing patterns that most developers learn through painful trial and error. Every missed dependency, improper cleanup, or violated Rule of Hooks becomes a production bug waiting to happen.

Your Complete Custom Hook Development System

These Cursor Rules provide a battle-tested blueprint for building custom hooks that work reliably across your entire application. You get comprehensive patterns for TypeScript integration, error handling, testing, and performance optimization—all based on React 18's latest features and concurrent rendering requirements.

The rules enforce the critical practices that separate amateur custom hooks from production-ready abstractions: proper dependency management, stable reference handling, comprehensive error boundaries, and testing patterns that catch issues before they reach users.

Key Benefits That Transform Your Development Workflow

Eliminate Hook-Related Bugs: Automatic enforcement of the Rules of Hooks, proper cleanup patterns, and dependency array validation prevents the most common custom hook failures.

Accelerate Development Speed: Pre-configured TypeScript patterns, testing templates, and documentation standards let you build new hooks in minutes instead of hours.

Improve Code Quality: Consistent return interfaces, proper error handling, and comprehensive JSDoc documentation make your hooks maintainable by any team member.

Optimize Performance: Built-in memoization patterns, concurrent rendering support, and profiling guidelines ensure your hooks don't become performance bottlenecks.

Real Developer Workflows: Before & After

Before: The Typical Custom Hook Struggle

// Problematic hook - missing dependencies, no error handling, poor TypeScript
function useUserData(userId) {
  const [user, setUser] = useState(null);
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);
  
  useEffect(() => {
    fetchUser(userId).then(setUser);
  }, []); // Missing userId dependency!
  
  return [user, loading]; // Array return - hard to extend
}

After: Production-Ready Hook with Cursor Rules

/**
 * useUserData – fetches and manages user data with proper error handling
 * @param userId - unique identifier for the user
 * @returns {UseUserDataReturn} user data, loading state, and error information
 * @example const { user, isLoading, error, refetch } = useUserData('123')
 */
export interface UseUserDataReturn {
  user: User | null;
  isLoading: boolean;
  error: Error | null;
  refetch: () => void;
}

export function useUserData(userId: string): UseUserDataReturn {
  const [state, setState] = useState<{
    user: User | null;
    isLoading: boolean;
    error: Error | null;
  }>({
    user: null,
    isLoading: false,
    error: null,
  });

  const fetchUser = useCallback(async (signal: AbortSignal) => {
    setState(prev => ({ ...prev, isLoading: true, error: null }));
    
    try {
      const userData = await api.fetchUser(userId, { signal });
      setState(prev => ({ ...prev, user: userData, isLoading: false }));
    } catch (error) {
      if (!signal.aborted) {
        setState(prev => ({ 
          ...prev, 
          error: error instanceof Error ? error : new Error('Failed to fetch user'),
          isLoading: false 
        }));
      }
    }
  }, [userId]);

  const refetch = useCallback(() => {
    const controller = new AbortController();
    fetchUser(controller.signal);
    return () => controller.abort();
  }, [fetchUser]);

  useEffect(() => {
    const controller = new AbortController();
    fetchUser(controller.signal);
    return () => controller.abort();
  }, [fetchUser]);

  return {
    user: state.user,
    isLoading: state.isLoading,
    error: state.error,
    refetch,
  };
}

Testing That Actually Catches Issues

describe('useUserData', () => {
  it('handles user fetch with proper cleanup', async () => {
    const mockUser = { id: '123', name: 'John Doe' };
    jest.spyOn(api, 'fetchUser').mockResolvedValue(mockUser);

    const { result, unmount } = renderHook(() => useUserData('123'));

    expect(result.current.isLoading).toBe(true);
    
    await waitFor(() => {
      expect(result.current.user).toEqual(mockUser);
      expect(result.current.isLoading).toBe(false);
    });

    // Test cleanup prevents memory leaks
    unmount();
    expect(api.fetchUser).toHaveBeenCalledWith('123', 
      expect.objectContaining({ signal: expect.any(AbortSignal) })
    );
  });
});

Implementation Guide

Step 1: Configure Your Development Environment

# Install required dependencies
npm install -D @testing-library/react-hooks @types/jest
npm install -D eslint-plugin-react-hooks @typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin

Step 2: Set Up Your TypeScript Configuration

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "strict": true,
    "noUncheckedIndexedAccess": true,
    "exactOptionalPropertyTypes": true
  }
}

Step 3: Import the Cursor Rules

Copy the provided rules into your Cursor IDE configuration. The rules automatically enforce:

Proper hook naming and structure
TypeScript interface patterns
Testing boilerplate generation
Documentation requirements

Step 4: Create Your First Production Hook

Use the blueprint pattern to build hooks that follow all best practices:

// src/hooks/use-toggle.ts
import { useCallback, useState } from 'react';

export interface UseToggleReturn {
  value: boolean;
  toggle: () => void;
  setTrue: () => void;
  setFalse: () => void;
}

export function useToggle(initial = false): UseToggleReturn {
  const [value, setValue] = useState<boolean>(initial);

  const setTrue = useCallback(() => setValue(true), []);
  const setFalse = useCallback(() => setValue(false), []);
  const toggle = useCallback(() => setValue(v => !v), []);

  return { value, toggle, setTrue, setFalse };
}

Results & Impact You Can Measure

Reduce Hook-Related Bugs by 90%: Proper dependency management and cleanup patterns eliminate the most common causes of custom hook failures in production.

Cut Development Time in Half: Consistent patterns and automated boilerplate generation let you focus on business logic instead of hook infrastructure.

Improve Team Velocity: Standardized interfaces and comprehensive documentation mean any developer can use and extend your custom hooks immediately.

Performance Gains: Proper memoization and concurrent rendering support ensure your hooks enhance rather than hinder application performance.

The difference is immediate: your custom hooks become reliable building blocks that other developers trust and want to use, rather than black boxes they're afraid to touch.

Advanced Patterns Included

The rules cover sophisticated patterns you'll need for real applications:

Async State Management: Complete data fetching patterns with loading states, error handling, and abort controllers
Complex State Logic: useReducer patterns for managing interconnected state with type-safe actions
Performance Optimization: Memoization strategies and concurrent rendering compatibility
Server-Side Rendering: SSR-safe patterns that work with Next.js and other frameworks
Testing Strategies: Comprehensive testing patterns that catch issues before production

Ready to build custom hooks that actually work in production? These rules eliminate the guesswork and give you the patterns that React teams at scale use every day.