Editing React components that never rendered

2 days ago

CrossUI Studio uses static AST analysis instead of runtime introspection to understand React code structure, enabling tool functionality even when the app fails to render.
Runtime tools like React DevTools rely on a live app, becoming useless during crashes, whereas static tools work on code that never rendered cleanly.
Static analysis allows editing components that aren't rendering, including those inside .map() loops or imported from other files, by using mock data and AST nodes.
The approach supports visualizing the dependency graph and code structure during app crashes, making broken pages entry points for debugging.
Limitations include unresolvable dynamic imports, inability to see runtime values, and dependency on configuration for exotic resolution.
Features like the canvas, prop inspector, and dependency graph are unified views over the AST, ensuring tool availability when runtime-based tools fail.

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