Should I provide a default value in createContext?
It depends. If useful, provide a default so components work even outside a provider. Otherwise, throw an error in your custom hook to enforce that the provider is required, which catches misuse immediately.
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More FAQs in Context API Best Practices for React UI Data Flow
Widely-shared, rarely-changed data: auth, theme, localization, and feature flags. These are read by many distant components but change rarely, which is the perfect fit for Context.
To avoid unnecessary re-renders. One Context holding many unrelated values causes all consumers to re-render when any value changes. Split by change rate so consumers only re-render for values they actually use.
To keep it stable. If you create a new object on every render as the value, all consumers re-render on every provider render, even if nothing meaningfully changed. Wrap the value in useMemo so it only changes when its dependencies change.
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