How We Built Hydrogen: A React Framework for Building Custom Storefronts - Shopify

This post details the development of Hydrogen, a React framework for building custom storefronts on Shopify. It highlights the adoption of React Server Components (RSC) and streaming server-side rendering (SSR) for improved performance and developer experience. Key technical decisions include component-level data fetching with a preload cache to avoid network waterfalls, and the removal of bloated GraphQL fragments in favor of more explicit developer-defined queries. The post also discusses the benefits of building in public, including external contributions and feedback, and the strategic bet on RSC for its modularity and ability to integrate third-party components.