useEffect missing dependency warning with ref in custom hook

Question

In React Typescript with the exhaustive-deps rule enabled, when I define a ref and use that inside of an effect, the linter is fine with it:

const stringRef: RefObject<string> = useRef("Hello World!");
  
useEffect(() => {
  console.log(stringRef.current);
}, []) // no warning, the linter detects that I'm using a ref

However, when I put the effect inside of a custom hook, the linter complains that I should include the ref inside of the dependency array:

const stringRef: RefObject<string> = useRef("Hello World!");
  
useCustomHook(stringRef);

// in another-file.ts
const useCustomHook = (ref: RefObject<string>) => {
  useEffect(() => {
    console.log(ref.current);
  }, []) // ESLint: React Hook useEffect has a missing dependency: 'ref'. Either include it or remove the dependency array.(react-hooks/exhaustive-deps)
}

Semantically, nothing changed, however, the linter doesn't recognize that ref is a RefObject (even though I typed it as such).

The big question now is: How can I make the linter know that the given dependency doesn't need to be included in the dependency array without suppressing the warning?

For me, it's a major drawback that this is not possible, because I can't convert my effects into custom hooks without the linter complaining.

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

You can't configure it out of the box.

The linter (eslint) is a static code analyzer. It only analyzes text patterns without compiling the code, i.e it doesn't know the "meaning" of what is written.

For example, it sees the "use***()" pattern and believes its a custom hook, then it verifies it with Rules of Hooks patterns like not having such text in if statement.

See for yourself:

Reminder: Custom hook is a function with 'use' prefix and a function which uses hooks.

// NOT A CUSTOM HOOK, just a function with 'use' prefix
const useConsole = () => console.log("hello");

// Normal function
const logHello = () => console.log("hello2");

const Component = () => {
  if (true) {
    // Warning - React hook is called conditionally
    useConsole();

    // OK
    logHello();
  }
  return <>Example</>;
};

But, you always can propose a custom rule to identify RefObject<string> and useEffect in same scope.

From the Typescript compiler side, it doesn't violate anything as the use case matches the useEffect type.