react-static is a React static site generator that transforms components into static HTML files to improve page load speed and search engine optimization. It functions as a progressive web app framework, exporting static HTML that hydrates into a full interactive application to enable real-time updates and instant navigation.
The project distinguishes itself as a static site asset optimizer, using code-splitting and an asset prefetching queue to reduce perceived load times. It includes a dedicated MDX content processor to generate routes from Markdown files with JSX and frontmatter, as well as an automatic sitemap generator for creating customizable XML sitemaps.
The framework covers a broad range of capabilities, including route-based data fetching, file-system route mapping, and the management of global and route-specific data from external APIs. It also provides tools for document shell customization, lifecycle-based plugin extensibility, and the implementation of incremental builds.