What is State Management?
The approach to storing, updating, and sharing data across your application's components. It determines how your app's data flows and how the UI stays in sync with underlying data.
In plain English
State management is like a company's communication system. In a small team, people can just talk to each other (local state). As the company grows, you need a central bulletin board (global store) so everyone sees the same information. Without it, different departments have different versions of the truth.
How it works
In React apps, state exists at multiple levels: local component state (useState), shared state between parent/child (props), cross-component state (Context), and global application state (Redux, Zustand, Jotai). Server state (data from APIs) is often managed separately with tools like React Query or SWR. The challenge is choosing the right level for each piece of data.
Why it matters for AI-built apps
AI tools tend to put all state in local useState hooks, leading to massive prop drilling as the app grows. Or they jump to Redux for everything, adding unnecessary complexity. Poor state management is one of the top reasons AI-built apps become unmaintainable — data gets out of sync, components re-render unnecessarily, and the codebase becomes a tangled web of passed props.
Common issues
Prop drilling (passing data through many component layers), duplicated state (same data stored in multiple places), stale data from not invalidating caches after mutations, unnecessary re-renders from poor state structure, mixing server state with client state management, and overly complex state management for simple apps.
Best practices
Start with local state (useState) and lift state up only when needed. Use React Query or SWR for server state (API data) — don't put it in Redux. For shared client state, try Zustand (simpler) or Jotai (atomic) before reaching for Redux. Colocate state with the components that use it. Separate server state from UI state. Keep state as close to where it's used as possible.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need Redux for my React app?
Probably not. Redux is powerful but adds significant boilerplate and complexity. For most apps, a combination of useState for local state, React Query for server data, and Zustand or Context for shared UI state covers all needs with much less code. Only consider Redux if you have very complex client-side state with many interactions between different state slices.
My AI-generated code passes props through 5+ component levels — how do I fix this?
This is classic prop drilling. Solutions: use React Context for data needed by many components, extract the shared state into a Zustand store, or restructure your components using the composition pattern (passing children as props). React Query also eliminates much prop drilling by letting any component fetch its own data directly.
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