Refine.dev Framework

Refine is a headless React framework for building enterprise CRUD applications. It provides data fetching, routing, authentication, and access control out of the box while remaining UI-agnostic.

Core Concepts

Refine is built around these key abstractions:

1. Data Provider — adapter for your backend (REST, GraphQL, etc.)
2. Resources — entities in your app (e.g., posts, users, products)
3. Hooks — useList, useOne, useCreate, useUpdate, useDelete, useForm, useTable
4. Auth Provider — handles login, logout, permissions
5. Router Provider — integrates with React Router, etc.

Quick Start (Vite)

Scaffold: npm create refine-app@latest (select Vite, Mantine, REST API). For manual setup, install @refinedev/core @refinedev/mantine @refinedev/react-router and Mantine packages.

Minimal App Structure

// src/App.tsx
import { Refine } from "@refinedev/core";
import { MantineProvider } from "@mantine/core";
import routerProvider from "@refinedev/react-router";
import dataProvider from "@refinedev/simple-rest";
import { BrowserRouter, Routes, Route } from "react-router-dom";

function App() {
  return (
    <BrowserRouter>
      <MantineProvider>
        <Refine
          dataProvider={dataProvider("https://api.example.com")}
          routerProvider={routerProvider}
          resources={[
            {
              name: "posts",
              list: "/posts",
              create: "/posts/create",
              edit: "/posts/edit/:id",
              show: "/posts/show/:id",
            },
          ]}
        >
          <Routes>{/* Your routes here */}</Routes>
        </Refine>
      </MantineProvider>
    </BrowserRouter>
  );
}

Critical Prohibitions

• Do NOT mix multiple UI libraries (pick Mantine and stick with it)
• Do NOT bypass data provider — always use Refine hooks for data operations
• Do NOT hardcode API URLs — use data provider configuration
• Do NOT skip resource definition — all CRUD entities must be declared in resources
• Do NOT ignore TypeScript types — Refine is fully typed, leverage it

Steps for New Feature

1. Define the resource in <Refine resources={[...]}>
2. Create page components (List, Create, Edit, Show)
3. Set up routes matching resource paths
4. Use appropriate hooks (useTable for lists, useForm for create/edit)
5. Configure auth provider if authentication is needed

Definition of Done

• Resource defined in Refine configuration
• All CRUD pages implemented with proper hooks
• Routes match resource configuration
• TypeScript types for resource data defined
• Error handling in place
• Loading states handled

References (Detailed Guides)

Core

• data-providers.md — Data provider interface, available providers, custom implementation
• resources.md — Resource definition and configuration
• routing.md — React Router integration and route patterns

Hooks

• hooks.md — All hooks: useList, useOne, useCreate, useUpdate, useDelete, useForm, useTable, useSelect

Security & Auth

• auth.md — Auth provider, access control, RBAC/ABAC, Casbin/CASL integration

UI & Components

• mantine-ui.md — Mantine components integration
• inferencer.md — Auto-generate CRUD pages from API schema

Utilities & Features

• notifications.md — Notification provider and useNotification hook
• i18n.md — Internationalization with i18nProvider
• realtime.md — LiveProvider for websocket/realtime subscriptions

Links

• Documentation
• Releases
• GitHub
• npm