What is Zustand?

Zustand is a small, fast, and scalable state management solution for React applications. Unlike Redux, Zustand requires minimal boilerplate and provides a simple, hook-based API. Frontend Accelerator includes Zustand for managing global application state efficiently.

Zustand is ideal for managing global state like user preferences, UI state, and application-wide data without the complexity of larger state management libraries. It works seamlessly with both server and client components in Next.js.

Basic Zustand store:

import { create } from 'zustand';

interface UserStore {
  user: User | null;
  setUser: (user: User) => void;
  clearUser: () => void;
}

export const useUserStore = create<UserStore>((set) => ({
  user: null,
  setUser: (user) => set({ user }),
  clearUser: () => set({ user: null }),
}));

// Component usage
function Profile() {
  const user = useUserStore((state) => state.user);
  const setUser = useUserStore((state) => state.setUser);
  return <div>{user?.name}</div>;
}

Key benefits:

• Minimal boilerplate: No providers, actions, or reducers required
• TypeScript support: Full type inference for state and actions
• Selective subscriptions: Components only re-render when their selected state changes
• Devtools integration: Works with Redux DevTools for debugging
• Persistent state: Easy integration with localStorage or sessionStorage

AI-friendly: Zustand's simple API makes it easy for AI to generate stores, actions, and selectors. The hook-based pattern is straightforward for AI to understand and implement. AI can suggest optimal state structure, generate type-safe stores, and identify opportunities to extract shared state.