Jotai 3.0 Released as ESM-Only Package, Drops Legacy Builds and Deprecated APIs

Jotai 3.0 Focuses on Modernization

Jotai, the atomic state management library for React, has released its v3.0.0 stable version. This update primarily focuses on modernizing the package by making it ESM-only, removing legacy builds, and dropping deprecated APIs. The maintainers describe it as a backward-compatible update for teams that have already addressed previous deprecation warnings.

Removal of Legacy Support

Version 3.0 eliminates the CommonJS build, UMD, and SystemJS bundles. It also discontinues support for older Node, React, and TypeScript versions, and removes the jotai/babel plugin. The package now targets ES2020 and reads NODE_ENV directly, moving away from build-time replacements and switching build tooling from Rollup. This shift is a culmination of efforts to address the dual package hazard of shipping both CJS and ESM, resulting in a more streamlined core.

API Changes and Migration Path

While framed as having "no breaking changes," several public APIs, including atomFamily, loadable, and the setSelf argument to atom read functions, have been removed from the core. These APIs were deprecated in late v2, so teams that followed deprecation notices should experience a smooth upgrade. The internal building blocks API has also been redesigned.

For atomFamily, users must now import it from the new jotai-family package. Similarly, loadable users are directed to jotai-eager. A detailed migration guide is available for users to follow.

Future Development Considerations

Discussions around v3 indicated some user concerns, such as the removal of setSelf, which impacts patterns like optimistic atomWithStorageWhileRevalidate. There were also requests for a first-class default store lifecycle to simplify state resetting in tests. Maintainer Daishi Kato confirmed that new features and deeper breaking changes were intentionally excluded from 3.0, with plans to address concurrent-safe atoms and external-store syncing in future v3.x releases or a later major version.