[v6] Use the Rust React Compiler via jsc.transform.reactCompiler #1423

Motivation

The React Compiler has been ported to Rust and is exposed through builtin:swc-loader as jsc.transform.reactCompiler since Rspack 2.1. Rspack measures the Rust implementation at 7–13x the speed of babel-plugin-react-compiler.

Re.Pack has no React Compiler support of any kind today — no mention in packages/, website/src or the templates. Users who want it add babel-plugin-react-compiler to their own babel.config.js, and because of how babel-swc-loader partitions work, that plugin then runs on the Babel side for every component file in the app.

Part of #1414 (Roadmap to V6), which lists "rust react compiler support" as a deliverable. Adjacent to #1422 (SWC setup rework) — both touch getSwcLoaderOptions, and the config surface should be designed once.

Why it lands on the Babel side today

babelSwcLoader reads the project's Babel config, partitions the detected plugins into "SWC can do this" vs "Babel must do this", then runs Babel with excludePlugins: supportedSwcTransforms followed by SWC:

const { includedSwcTransforms, supportedSwcTransforms, swcConfig } =
  partitionTransforms(this.resourcePath, detectedBabelTransforms);
const babelResult = await transform(source, baseBabelConfig, {
  excludePlugins: supportedSwcTransforms,
  ...
});

babel-plugin-react-compiler appears in none of SWC_SUPPORTED_NORMAL_RULES / SWC_SUPPORTED_CONFIGURABLE_RULES / SWC_SUPPORTED_CUSTOM_RULES in swc.ts, so it is never excluded and always runs through Babel. React Compiler is by far the most expensive Babel plugin in a typical RN app's config — it does whole-function dataflow analysis on every component. Mapping it into jsc.transform.reactCompiler is the single biggest remaining Babel offload available to us.

Verified behaviour

All of the below was checked against @rspack/core@2.1.6 via experiments.swc.transformSync.

It works, and composes with the RN-shaped config we already emit:

The last row matters — getSwcLoaderOptions emits module.type: 'commonjs' by default, and the compiler runtime import survives the module transform correctly.

The accepted option surface is narrower than the Babel plugin's. Probed exhaustively:

Notably sources is rejected. The Babel plugin uses it to scope which files get compiled; here that has to be expressed with the loader rule's include / exclude instead. Same for the enable* escape hatches (e.g. enableTreatRefLikeIdentifiersAsRefs) — projects depending on those cannot move off Babel yet.

Version floor. @rspack/core >= 2.1.0. #1414 currently targets "Rspack 2+", which is not sufficient for this; the floor needs to be 2.1 if this ships as a supported feature (or the option needs a version guard, which Re.Pack already has machinery for — see getRspackMajorVersion / isRspack2 in src/helpers/rspackVersion.ts).

React version. The workspace catalog is on react: 19.2.3, where react/compiler-runtime is built in and target can be omitted. React 17/18 projects need an explicit target and the separate react-compiler-runtime package installed — that's a user-facing install step we have to document, not something we can do for them.

Proposed direction

Two independent surfaces, both opt-in and off by default:

1. babel-swc-loader (the default path). Add babel-plugin-react-compiler to the custom-transform map in swc.ts so a project that already has it in babel.config.js gets it lifted to SWC automatically, with its Babel options translated to the reactCompiler shape. Because the surface is narrower, the mapping must detect unsupported options and leave the plugin on the Babel side rather than silently dropping them — a sources or enable* option present means "keep using Babel for this project".

2. getSwcLoaderOptions / getJsTransformRules (the SWC-native path). Add a reactCompiler?: boolean | { target?, compilationMode?, panicThreshold? } option that maps to jsc.transform.reactCompiler, defaulting to off.

Ordering caveat to verify

In babelSwcLoader, Babel runs first and SWC second, so lifting React Compiler to SWC moves it from "before everything" to "after the remaining Babel plugins". JSX survives the Babel pass (transform-react-jsx is in the SWC-supported set, so it is excluded from Babel), which is the main thing React Compiler needs to see intact — but this needs a real test, not an assumption. Projects with worklet-style plugins that rewrite function bodies (react-native-worklets/plugin is in apps/tester-app/babel.config.js, and Reanimated is a first-party integration in packages/plugin-reanimated) are the interesting case: those stay on the Babel side and would now run before the compiler instead of after it.

Scope

Core

• Add reactCompiler to getSwcLoaderOptions (+ thread through getJsTransformRules), off by default, mapping to jsc.transform.reactCompiler
• Guard the option behind Rspack >= 2.1 with a clear error/warning on older majors and on webpack (builtin:swc-loader is Rspack-only)
• Map babel-plugin-react-compiler in swc.ts's SWC_SUPPORTED_CUSTOM_RULES, translating target / compilationMode / panicThreshold
• Bail out of the mapping (leave the plugin on Babel) when the project passes options SWC does not accept — sources, enable*, anything outside the three above
• Decide whether target is inferred from the resolved react version or left explicit

Apps and tests

• Verify the Babel-then-SWC ordering is safe, specifically alongside react-native-worklets/plugin and packages/plugin-reanimated
• Enable React Compiler in apps/tester-app (or a variant) so the path is exercised on device, not just in unit tests
• Unit tests for the swc.ts mapping, including the unsupported-option bail-out
• Snapshot coverage in getSwcLoaderOptions tests

Docs

• New guide page for React Compiler — how to enable it on both loader paths, the Rspack >= 2.1 requirement, and the React 17/18 target + react-compiler-runtime install step
• Document the option gap vs babel-plugin-react-compiler (sources → use rule include/exclude) and when a project should stay on Babel
• Update website/src/latest/api/utils/get-swc-loader-options.md and get-js-transform-rules.md

Open questions

• Does v6 raise the Rspack floor to 2.1 (making this unconditional), or keep 2.0 and version-guard the option?
• Should Re.Pack enable React Compiler by default for new projects in templates/, follow React Native's own default, or leave it entirely opt-in?
• Is auto-lifting from babel.config.js the right default for babel-swc-loader, or should it require an explicit loader option? Auto-lifting is the bigger win but silently changes where a plugin runs in the pipeline.