Error Boundaries in React: Graceful Failure at Every Layer

Unhandled errors in React crash the entire component tree. Error boundaries catch rendering errors and show a fallback instead of a blank screen.

Basic Error Boundary

import { Component, ReactNode, ErrorInfo } from 'react';

interface Props { children: ReactNode; fallback?: ReactNode; }
interface State { hasError: boolean; error?: Error; }

class ErrorBoundary extends Component<Props, State> {
  state: State = { hasError: false };

  static getDerivedStateFromError(error: Error): State {
    return { hasError: true, error };
  }

  componentDidCatch(error: Error, info: ErrorInfo) {
    // Log to your error tracking service
    errorTracker.captureException(error, { extra: info });
  }

  render() {
    if (this.state.hasError) {
      return this.props.fallback ?? <div>Something went wrong.</div>;
    }
    return this.props.children;
  }
}

Strategic Placement

Don't wrap the entire app in one boundary — that catches everything but gives users no context:

function App() {
  return (
    <ErrorBoundary fallback={<AppCrashPage />}>
      <Header />
      <ErrorBoundary fallback={<SidebarError />}>
        <Sidebar />
      </ErrorBoundary>
      <ErrorBoundary fallback={<MainContentError />}>
        <MainContent />
      </ErrorBoundary>
    </ErrorBoundary>
  );
}

React Error Boundary Library (Hooks API)

npm install react-error-boundary

import { ErrorBoundary, useErrorBoundary } from 'react-error-boundary';

function UserProfile({ userId }: { userId: string }) {
  const { showBoundary } = useErrorBoundary();

  const { data, error } = useQuery({
    queryKey: ['user', userId],
    queryFn: () => fetchUser(userId),
  });

  if (error) showBoundary(error); // Propagate to nearest boundary

  return <div>{data?.name}</div>;
}

// With reset capability
<ErrorBoundary
  FallbackComponent={({ error, resetErrorBoundary }) => (
    <div>
      <p>Error: {error.message}</p>
      <button onClick={resetErrorBoundary}>Try again</button>
    </div>
  )}
  onReset={() => queryClient.clear()}
>
  <UserProfile userId={userId} />
</ErrorBoundary>

What Error Boundaries DON'T Catch

• Event handlers (use try/catch)
• Async code (use .catch() or useErrorBoundary)
• Server-side rendering errors
• Errors thrown in the error boundary itself

Error boundaries, React Query error states, and resilient UI patterns are part of the production-ready setup in the AI SaaS Starter Kit.

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