whatisgithub

What is react-devtools?

facebook/react-devtools — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

★ 11,014Audience · developerComplexity · 1/5Setup · moderate

In one sentence

This is the archived original home of React DevTools, a browser extension for inspecting React component trees, active development has moved to the main React repository at facebook/react.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((react-devtools))
    What it does
      Component inspection
      Chrome extension
      Firefox extension
    Status
      Archived repo
      Moved to facebook/react
      Legacy v3 branch
    Use cases
      Legacy v3 access
      Source build
    Audience
      React developers
      OSS contributors
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Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Access the legacy version 3 of the React DevTools extension for older React projects that need it

USE CASE 2

Build the archived version 3 React DevTools extension from source using the instructions on the legacy branch

How does it compare?

facebook/react-devtoolsbytebot-ai/bytebotzilliztech/claude-context
Stars11,01411,01311,013
Language—TypeScriptTypeScript
Setup difficultymoderatemoderatemoderate
Complexity1/54/53/5
Audiencedeveloperdeveloperdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

This repository is archived, the actively maintained React DevTools project is at github.com/facebook/react.

So what is it?

This repository was the home of React DevTools, a browser extension that lets developers inspect the structure of React apps inside Chrome and Firefox's built-in developer tools. The extension shows which React components make up a page and how they are organized. The project has since moved to the main React repository at github.com/facebook/react. This repository now serves as an archive. The older version 3 of the extension is still available here on a separate branch for anyone who needs it, with brief instructions for building it from source.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Where can I find the current actively maintained version of React DevTools for Chrome or Firefox?
Prompt 2
How do I build the legacy version 3 React DevTools extension from source using the archived branch?
Prompt 3
How do I use React DevTools to inspect a React component's props and state in the Chrome developer tools?

Frequently asked questions

What is react-devtools?

This is the archived original home of React DevTools, a browser extension for inspecting React component trees, active development has moved to the main React repository at facebook/react.

How hard is react-devtools to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is react-devtools for?

Mainly developer.

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