Rules of Hooks

• Only call Hooks at the top level
• Only call Hooks from React functions

Only call Hooks at the top level

Don’t call Hooks inside loops, conditions, nested functions, or in try/catch/finally blocks. Instead, always use Hooks at the top level of your React function, before any early returns.

By following this rule, you ensure that Hooks are called in the same order each time a component renders. That’s what allows React to correctly preserve the state of Hooks between multiple useState and useEffect calls.

We can use multiple State or Effect Hooks in a single component:

function Form() {
  // 1. Use the name state variable
  const [name, setName] = useState('Mary');

  // 2. Use an effect for persisting the form
  useEffect(function persistForm() {
    localStorage.setItem('formData', name);
  });

  // 3. Use the surname state variable
  const [surname, setSurname] = useState('Poppins');

  // 4. Use an effect for updating the title
  useEffect(function updateTitle() {
    document.title = name + ' ' + surname;
  });

  // ...
}

So how does React know which state corresponds to which useState call? The answer is that React relies on the order in which Hooks are called. Our example works because the order of the Hook calls is the same on every render:

// ------------
// First render
// ------------
useState('Mary')           // 1. Initialize the name state variable with 'Mary'
useEffect(persistForm)     // 2. Add an effect for persisting the form
useState('Poppins')        // 3. Initialize the surname state variable with 'Poppins'
useEffect(updateTitle)     // 4. Add an effect for updating the title

// -------------
// Second render
// -------------
useState('Mary')           // 1. Read the name state variable (argument is ignored)
useEffect(persistForm)     // 2. Replace the effect for persisting the form
useState('Poppins')        // 3. Read the surname state variable (argument is ignored)
useEffect(updateTitle)     // 4. Replace the effect for updating the title

// ...

As long as the order of the Hook calls is the same between renders, React can associate some local state with each of them. But what happens if we put a Hook call (for example, the persistForm effect) inside a condition?

// 🔴 We're breaking the first rule by using a Hook in a condition
if (name !== '') {
  useEffect(function persistForm() {
    localStorage.setItem('formData', name);
  });
}

The name !== '' condition is true on the first render, so we run this Hook. However, on the next render the user might clear the form, making the condition false. Now that we skip this Hook during rendering, the order of the Hook calls becomes different:

useState('Mary')           // 1. Read the name state variable (argument is ignored)
// useEffect(persistForm)  // 🔴 This Hook was skipped!
useState('Poppins')        // 🔴 2 (but was 3). Fail to read the surname state variable
useEffect(updateTitle)     // 🔴 3 (but was 4). Fail to replace the effect

React wouldn’t know what to return for the second useState Hook call. React expected that the second Hook call in this component corresponds to the persistForm effect, just like during the previous render, but it doesn’t anymore. From that point, every next Hook call after the one we skipped would also shift by one, leading to bugs.

This is why Hooks must be called on the top level of our components. If we want to run an effect conditionally, we can put that condition inside our Hook:

useEffect(function persistForm() {
  // 👍 We're not breaking the first rule anymore
  if (name !== '') {
    localStorage.setItem('formData', name);
  }
});

Note that you don’t need to worry about this problem if you use the provided lint rule. But now you also know why Hooks work this way, and which issues the rule is preventing.

Only call Hooks from React functions

Don’t call Hooks from regular JavaScript functions. Instead, you can:

✅ Call Hooks from React function components. ✅ Call Hooks from custom Hooks.

By following this rule, you ensure that all stateful logic in a component is clearly visible from its source code.

function FriendList() {
  const [onlineStatus, setOnlineStatus] = useOnlineStatus(); // ✅
}

function setOnlineStatus() { // ❌ Not a component or custom hook!
  const [onlineStatus, setOnlineStatus] = useOnlineStatus();
}