React foundations

Six articles that introduce the React mental model and the building blocks every later concept depends on. Pairs with `react-render-cycle`, which picks up where this leaves off and walks the full render and commit model with its symptom-first recipes.

The corpus separates concept articles from symptom-first recipes. The foundations path is the concept-only entry point: the model first, then the primitives (JSX, props, composition), then the patterns the primitives compose into (branching and events), and finally the constraints that prevent the patterns from being misused. Order is bottom-up on purpose. `thinking-in-react` opens with the bet the whole API is built on — UI as a function of state — because every later rule only makes sense once that bet is on the table. `jsx-and-rendering` comes next because the rules about when output is recomputed assume the reader already knows what the output is. Props precede composition because composition is built on prop typing and slot discipline. Branching and events come after composition because the conditional-render machinery is easier to read once the host-versus-children distinction is in place. The Rules of React close the path, placed last so the constraints read as consequences of the preceding five articles rather than as prerequisites. Nothing here asserts how React behaves. Every claim lives in an article under the corpus gates.

6 lessons · 115 min read · Drawn from React