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Rendering Animate Svg Wrapper

Source: .agents/references/coding-standard/vercel-react-best-practices/rules/rendering-animate-svg-wrapper.md

Metadata​

  • title: Animate SVG Wrapper Instead of SVG Element
  • impact: LOW
  • impactDescription: enables hardware acceleration
  • tags: rendering, svg, css, animation, performance

Content​

Animate SVG Wrapper Instead of SVG Element​

Many browsers don't have hardware acceleration for CSS3 animations on SVG elements. Wrap SVG in a <div> and animate the wrapper instead.

Incorrect (animating SVG directly - no hardware acceleration):

function LoadingSpinner() {
  return (
    <svg 
      className="animate-spin"
      width="24" 
      height="24" 
      viewBox="0 0 24 24"
    >
      <circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10" stroke="currentColor" />
    </svg>
  )
}

Correct (animating wrapper div - hardware accelerated):

function LoadingSpinner() {
  return (
    <div className="animate-spin">
      <svg 
        width="24" 
        height="24" 
        viewBox="0 0 24 24"
      >
        <circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10" stroke="currentColor" />
      </svg>
    </div>
  )
}

This applies to all CSS transforms and transitions (transform, opacity, translate, scale, rotate). The wrapper div allows browsers to use GPU acceleration for smoother animations.