component-architecture-patterns

A set of lessons about structuring user-interface components, based on architectural reviews and refactoring work. It focuses on avoiding large components that combine many unrelated responsibilities.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when reviewing or refactoring oversized components, deciding where logic belongs, or breaking a page component into smaller parts.
Why use it?
It helps make components easier to understand, test, and change by separating state, display, and other concerns.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/rm2thaddeus/pixel_detective/component-architecture-patterns
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/rm2thaddeus/Pixel_Detective

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 0 Nothing until a file matches its globs; then the whole rule loads.
When invoked 3,613 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.03613
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.01806
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00723
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00361

Measured 2d ago against content hash d19ca5e498fa, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

component-architecture-patterns scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

frontend/.cursor/rules/component-architecture-patterns.mdc · 532 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 532 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Component Architecture Patterns

🏗️ COMPONENT DESIGN PATTERNS (From Sprint 10 Lessons)

Based on architectural review findings and real refactoring experiences during Sprint 10.

🚨 ANTI-PATTERN: "God Components" (Sprint 10 Discovery)

The Problem - Large Monolithic Components
// ❌ ANTI-PATTERN: 424-line HomePage component
export default function HomePage() {
  // State management (50+ lines)
  const [backendStatus, setBackendStatus] = useState<'loading' | 'ok' | 'error'>('loading')
  const [setupStep, setSetupStep] = useState(1)
  const [healthStatus, setHealthStatus] = useState<'loading' | 'ok' | 'error'>('loading')
  
  // Color mode values (20+ lines)
  const sidebarBg = useColorModeValue('white', 'gray.800')
  const textColor = useColorModeValue('gray.800', 'white')
  const mutedTextColor = useColorModeValue('gray.600', 'gray.300')
  // ... 15+ more color definitions
  
  // Effects and handlers (100+ lines)
  useEffect(() => {
    const checkBackendHealth = async () => {
      // Complex health check logic
    }
    checkBackendHealth()
    const interval = setInterval(checkBackendHealth, 30000)
    return () => clearInterval(interval)
  }, [])
  
  // More effects...
  useEffect(() => {
    if (backendStatus === 'ok' && collection) {
      setSetupStep(3)
    } else if (backendStatus === 'ok') {
      setSetupStep(2)
    } else {
      setSetupStep(1)
    }
  }, [backendStatus, collection])
  
  // Complex render logic (200+ lines)
  return (
    <Box minH="100vh">
      {/* Massive JSX structure */}
    </Box>
  )
}

Problems with this approach:

  • Performance: Entire component re-renders on any state change
  • Maintainability: Hard to understand and modify
  • Testing: Difficult to test individual features
  • Reusability: Logic tied to specific component
  • Debugging: Hard to isolate issues

✅ SOLUTION: Component Composition Pattern

1. Extract Logical Sections
// ✅ PATTERN: Focused, single-responsibility components
export default function HomePage() {
  return (
    <Box minH="100vh">
      <Header />
      <Flex>
        <SystemStatusSidebar />
        <MainContent />
      </Flex>
      <CollectionModal />
      <AddImagesModal />
    </Box>
  )
}

// ✅ Each component has a single responsibility
function SystemStatusSidebar() {
  const { backendStatus, setupProgress } = useSystemHealth()
  
  return (
    <Sidebar>
      <SetupProgress progress={setupProgress} />
      <SystemStatus status={backendStatus} />
      <CollectionStats />
    </Sidebar>
  )
}

function MainContent() {
  const { setupStep } = useSystemHealth()
  
  return (
    <Container>
      <HeroSection />
      {setupStep >= 3 ? <FeaturedActions /> : <SetupGuidance />}
      <AdditionalTools />
    </Container>
  )
}

Read the full file on GitHub · 532 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 532 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A d19ca5e498fa

Subscribe to this mod's changes

component-architecture-patterns is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository rm2thaddeus/Pixel_Detective (21 stars, last pushed 7mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 3,613 tokens. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.