# React Hot Loader

Tweak React components in real time. (Deprecated: use Fast Refresh instead.)

Repository: https://github.com/gaearon/react-hot-loader
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/react-hot-loader
Homepage: http://gaearon.github.io/react-hot-loader/
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2023-02-10T02:42:07+00:00
Link (homepage): http://gaearon.github.io/react-hot-loader/

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4435, "days_push": 1300, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 12166, forks 776 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:51.901066+00:00)

## What it is
React Hot Loader is a library that lets developers tweak React components in real time, preserving component state during hot module replacement with webpack and Babel. It is now deprecated in favor of React Fast Refresh, which is built into React Native, Next.js, Create React App, and the react-refresh-webpack-plugin.

## Use cases
- hot reload react components without losing state
- live edit react components during development
- preserve react state on hot module replacement
- set up hot reloading in a webpack react project
- legacy react project without fast refresh support

## When to choose
- your bundler or environment does not yet support React Fast Refresh
- maintaining an older webpack-based React codebase already using it

## When to avoid
- starting a new React project - use React Fast Refresh instead
- using React Native 0.61+, Next.js 9.4+, Create React App 4+, or react-refresh-webpack-plugin, all of which support Fast Refresh natively

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: build-tool, developer-tools
- domain: frontend, web-development, developer-tools
- platform: browser
- tags: react, hot-module-replacement, hmr, babel-plugin, webpack, deprecated, fast-refresh, nodejs, javascript

## Member repositories
- gaearon/react-hot-loader (main) score 23
- gaearon/react-hot-boilerplate (examples) score 23
- gaearon/react-transform-boilerplate (examples) score 10
- gaearon/babel-plugin-react-transform (plugin) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:51.901066+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:14:53.165126+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/gaearon/react-hot-loader (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:51.901066+00:00, sha bfb27002e999)
  - homepage: http://gaearon.github.io/react-hot-loader/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:13:24.378948+00:00, sha 762faaf84727)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/react-hot-boilerplate (fetched 2026-08-29T08:13:24.388307+00:00, sha 221e1f15c0b0)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/react-transform-boilerplate (fetched 2026-08-29T08:13:24.390242+00:00, sha a68e2f960235)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/babel-plugin-react-transform (fetched 2026-08-29T08:13:24.392018+00:00, sha 0bac18ee7c72)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.