Redux Toolkit is the official, opinionated toolset for Redux development, written in TypeScript and designed to address common pain points developers encounter when setting up and using Redux. The project was created to solve three specific problems: the complexity of configuring a Redux store, the need to install many additional packages to make Redux functional, and the amount of boilerplate code required for typical Redux implementations. Rather than attempting to solve every possible use case, Redux Toolkit deliberately limits its scope to provide abstractions over the setup process and handle the most common scenarios, following the philosophy of create-react-app.
The core Redux Toolkit package includes several key APIs that simplify Redux development. The configureStore function wraps createStore to provide simplified configuration with sensible defaults, automatically combining slice reducers, integrating supplied middleware, including redux-thunk by default, and enabling Redux DevTools Extension support. The createReducer API allows developers to define action handlers through a lookup table rather than writing switch statements, and it automatically integrates the immer library to enable writing immutable updates using normal mutative code syntax. The createAction function generates action creators from action type strings, while createSlice combines createReducer and createAction into a single API that accepts reducer functions, a slice name, and initial state to automatically generate complete slice reducers with corresponding action creators and types. Additional utilities include createAsyncThunk for handling asynchronous operations with pending, resolved, and rejected action types, createEntityAdapter for managing normalized data, createListenerMiddleware as a lightweight alternative to sagas and observables, and combineSlices for combining multiple slices with lazy loading support. The package also re-exports createSelector from the Reselect library for convenience.
RTK Query is an optional addon included within the Redux Toolkit package that addresses data fetching and caching. It provides a compact but powerful toolset for defining API interface layers, eliminating the need to hand-write data fetching and caching logic. RTK Query includes createApi as its core functionality for defining endpoints and configuring data retrieval, fetchBaseQuery as a simplified wrapper around fetch, an ApiProvider component for use without an existing Redux store, and setupListeners for enabling refetch behaviors on mount and reconnection.
The project shares contributors with microsoft/typescript, microsoft/vscode, and mui/material-ui, indicating its integration into the broader JavaScript ecosystem. Redux Toolkit is available on NPM and includes a precompiled ESM build for direct browser usage via script tags, with official templates available for Vite and Next.js projects.
