igniteui-react-optimize-bundle-size

name	igniteui-react-optimize-bundle-size
description	Reduce bundle size in apps using Ignite UI for React — package selection, tree-shaking, and route-level code splitting of grids, charts, maps, and gauges. Use when the bundle or initial load is too large, when tree-shaking is not eliminating unused Ignite UI code, or when deciding what to lazy load.
user-invocable	true

Optimizing Ignite UI for React Bundle Size

Standard React techniques (React.lazy + Suspense, route splitting, minification, compression, bundle analyzers) apply unchanged. This skill covers only what is specific to Ignite UI.

Where the weight is

igniteui-react is published with "sideEffects": false and per-component modules, so named imports tree-shake well — a handful of core components costs little. The heavy families are separate packages:

Package	Weight	Notes
igniteui-react	light per component	core UI; tree-shakes cleanly
igniteui-grid-lite	small	MIT grid; far lighter than the premium grids
igniteui-react-grids	heavy	Data/Tree/Pivot/Hierarchical grid
igniteui-react-charts / -maps / -gauges	heavy	legacy DV packages, weaker tree-shaking

Two conclusions: install only the families you use, and split the heavy families out of the initial chunk. Downgrading IgrGrid to IgrGridLite is often the single largest win when the app only displays flat, read-only data — check the feature list in DATAVIZ.md first.

Import rules

import { IgrButton, IgrCard } from 'igniteui-react';        // ✅ tree-shakes
import * as IgniteUI from 'igniteui-react';                 // ❌ defeats tree-shaking
import { IgcButtonComponent } from 'igniteui-webcomponents'; // ❌ bypasses the wrapper

Never import from igniteui-webcomponents (or igniteui-webcomponents-grids) directly. It pulls a second copy of the element definitions alongside the wrappers and skips the auto-registration the wrapper performs.

Splitting the heavy families

Lazy-load at the route or panel boundary, not the component. IgrGrid and the DV charts are only worth splitting when the whole view that uses them is deferred.

const Dashboard = lazy(() => import('./pages/Dashboard')); // grid + its theme CSS
const Analytics = lazy(() => import('./pages/Analytics')); // charts + registration

Two Ignite-UI-specific details:

• Keep the grid theme CSS import inside the lazy chunk (import 'igniteui-react-grids/grids/themes/light/bootstrap.css' in Dashboard.tsx), so the grid stylesheet is not in the initial payload. The base theme CSS stays in the entry point — every page needs it.
• Keep .register() calls inside the lazy chunk too. Chart, gauge, and map modules must register at module scope of the file that uses them; hoisting the registration to the entry point pulls the whole DV package back into the initial bundle.

For manual chunking, give each family its own chunk so a page needing charts does not download grids:

// vite.config.ts
build: {
  rollupOptions: {
    output: {
      manualChunks: {
        'ig-core': ['igniteui-react'],
        'ig-grids': ['igniteui-react-grids'],   // only if actually installed
        'ig-charts': ['igniteui-react-charts'], // only if actually installed
      },
    },
  },
}

Auditing

# components referenced in JSX
grep -rhoE "<Igr[A-Za-z]+" src --include="*.tsx" | sort -u
# what is imported
grep -rn "from 'igniteui-react" src --include="*.tsx" --include="*.ts"

Then run any bundle analyzer and check the initial chunk for igniteui-react-grids / -charts. If either appears there while only used on secondary routes, the split is not working — usually a shared module (a barrel index.ts, a types file, or a hoisted .register() call) re-imports it eagerly.

When tree-shaking still fails

1. A wildcard or barrel import somewhere in src.
2. A local barrel file re-exporting Ignite UI components — it creates one module that depends on everything.
3. CommonJS output: set "module": "esnext" and "moduleResolution": "bundler" in tsconfig.json.
4. Both igniteui-react-grids and @infragistics/igniteui-react-grids resolved at once — pick one scope.

Related skills

• igniteui-react-components — package routing and what each family provides
• grid-lite-to-igr-grid-migration — the reverse direction, when Grid Lite is not enough