effect/no-pass-data-to-parent

Disallow passing data to parents in an effect.

• Category: State & Effects
• Severity: warn
• Source: eslint-plugin-react-you-might-not-need-an-effect
• Framework: global
• Enabled when: eslint-plugin-react-you-might-not-need-an-effect installed in project
• Documentation: https://react.dev/learn/you-might-not-need-an-effect#passing-data-to-the-parent

Validation prompt

Use this to decide whether a fired diagnostic is real or a false positive.

Fires on a cleanup-less useEffect that synchronously calls a prop function (e.g. onChange(value)) where the argument is NOT itself a prop, state, ref, ref.current, or simple literal/object/array constant — meaning the child generated or fetched the value, then is shipping it back up. False positive: the child genuinely owns an external subscription (resize observer, WebSocket) the parent cannot subscribe to.

Fix prompt

Use this once validation confirms the diagnostic is real.

Move the data acquisition (fetch, computation, subscription) up to the parent and pass the result down through props — top-down flow eliminates the extra render and clarifies ownership. If the logic must stay reusable, extract it into a custom hook the parent calls: const data = useThing(); then forward data via props. In a custom hook variant of this rule, return the value instead of forwarding through a callback. See https://react.dev/learn/you-might-not-need-an-effect#passing-data-to-the-parent

Related rules

More State & Effects rules from the rules reference:

• effect/no-pass-live-state-to-parent: Disallow passing live state to parents in an effect.
• effect/no-reset-all-state-on-prop-change: Disallow resetting all state in an effect when a prop changes.
• react-doctor/activity-wraps-effect-heavy-subtree: Audit the `<Activity>` subtree: every hide/show cycle tears down and recreates every `useEffect`/`useLayoutEffect` inside, so move subscriptions and effect-driven setState chains outside the boundary or pre-resolve the data above it.
• react-doctor/effect-needs-cleanup: Return a cleanup function that releases the subscription / timer: `return () => target.removeEventListener(name, handler)` for listeners, `return () => clearInterval(id)` / `clearTimeout(id)` for timers, or `return unsubscribe` if the subscribe call already returned one
• react-doctor/hooks-no-nan-in-deps: Remove the literal NaN from the dependency array, or normalise it (Number.isNaN(x) ? 0 : x) before passing it in.