---
title: "React Quickstart"
description: "Build realtime React applications with Rivet Actors"
skill: true
---

import { Hosting } from "@/components/docs/Hosting";
import { ConfigurationOptions } from "@/components/docs/ConfigurationOptions";



## Steps

<Steps>
<Step title="Add Rivet Skill to Coding Agent (Optional)">

If you're using an AI coding assistant (like Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.), add Rivet skills for enhanced development assistance:

```sh
npx skills add rivet-dev/skills
```

</Step>

<Step title="Install Dependencies">

```sh
npm install rivetkit @rivetkit/react
```

</Step>

<Step title="Create Backend Actor and Start Server">

Create your actor registry on the backend and start the server:

```ts backend/index.ts
import { actor, setup } from "rivetkit";

export const counter = actor({
	state: { count: 0 },
	actions: {
		increment: (c, x: number) => {
			c.state.count += x;
			c.broadcast("newCount", c.state.count);
			return c.state.count;
		},
	},
});

export const registry = setup({
	use: { counter },
});

registry.start();
```

</Step>

<Step title="Create React Frontend">

Set up your React application:

<CodeGroup workspace>
```tsx Counter.tsx
import { createRivetKit } from "@rivetkit/react";
import { useState } from "react";
import type { registry } from "./index";

const { useActor } = createRivetKit<typeof registry>("http://localhost:6420");

function Counter() {
	const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

	// Get or create a counter actor for the key "my-counter"
	const counter = useActor({
		name: "counter",
		key: ["my-counter"]
	});

	// Listen to realtime events
	counter.useEvent("newCount", (x: number) => setCount(x));

	const increment = async () => {
		// Call actions
		await counter.connection?.increment(1);
	};

	return (
		<div>
			<p>Count: {count}</p>
			<button onClick={increment}>Increment</button>
		</div>
	);
}
```

```ts index.ts @hide
import { actor, setup } from "rivetkit";

export const counter = actor({
	state: { count: 0 },
	actions: {
		increment: (c, x: number) => {
			c.state.count += x;
			c.broadcast("newCount", c.state.count);
			return c.state.count;
		},
	},
});

export const registry = setup({
	use: { counter },
});

registry.start();
```
</CodeGroup>

For detailed information about the React client API, see the [React Client API Reference](/docs/clients/react).

</Step>

<Step title="Setup Vite Configuration">

Configure Vite for development:

```ts vite.config.ts @nocheck
import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import react from '@vitejs/plugin-react'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [react()],
  server: {
    port: 5173,
  },
})
```

</Step>

<Step title="Run Your Application">

Start both the backend and frontend:

**Terminal 1**: Start the backend

<CodeGroup>

```sh Node.js
npx tsx --watch backend/index.ts
```

```sh Bun
bun --watch backend/index.ts
```

```sh Deno
deno run --allow-net --allow-read --allow-env --watch backend/index.ts
```

</CodeGroup>

**Terminal 2**: Start the frontend

```sh Frontend
npx vite
```

Open `http://localhost:5173` in your browser. Try opening multiple tabs to see realtime sync in action.

</Step>

<Step title="Deploy">

<Hosting />

</Step>

</Steps>

## Configuration Options

<ConfigurationOptions />
