# React View Transitions

Implementing smooth animations using React's View Transition API — enabling native-feeling transitions without third-party libraries.

## Core Mechanics

The `<ViewTransition>` component automatically assigns unique names and triggers `document.startViewTransition`. It must appear *before* any DOM nodes to activate enter/exit animations. Regular state updates don't animate — only transitions using `startTransition`, `useDeferredValue`, or `Suspense` activate animations.

## Animation Priority Order

Design animations in this order of semantic communication:

1. **Shared element transitions** — communicates "same thing — going deeper"
2. **Suspense reveals** — communicates "data loaded"
3. **List identity via keys** — communicates "same items, new arrangement"
4. **State enter/exit** — communicates "something appeared/disappeared"
5. **Route-level changes** — communicates "going to a new place"

## Animation Triggers

- **enter**: fires when component first inserts during a transition
- **exit**: fires when component first removes during a transition
- **update**: fires on DOM mutations inside the component
- **share**: fires when a named ViewTransition unmounts while another with the same name mounts

## Key Principle

> Declare *what* with `<ViewTransition>`, trigger *when* with `startTransition`/`useDeferredValue`/`Suspense`, control *how* with CSS classes.

Use `default="none"` liberally to prevent unwanted cross-fades on every state update.

## Styling Approach

Animations are controlled through CSS classes via props: `enter`, `exit`, `share`, `default`. Apply CSS `@keyframes` targeting the `::view-transition-*` pseudo-elements.

## Browser Support

- Chromium 111+
- Firefox 144+
- Safari 18.2+
- Graceful degradation on unsupported browsers (transitions simply don't animate)

## Next.js Specifics

The App Router already bundles React canary internally — no need to install it separately to access the View Transition API.

## Installation

```bash
npx skills add https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill react-view-transitions
```

---

*Mirrored from [https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills](https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills) — original author: **vercel-labs**, license: **MIT**.*
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