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React Router V7 declarative mode - Docs

This guide walks you through setting up PostHog for React Router V7 in declarative mode. If you're using React Router in another mode, find the guide for that mode in the React Router page. If you're using React with another framework, go to the React integration guide.

1. 1

   Install client-side SDKs

   Required

   First, you'll need to install posthog-js and @posthog/react using your package manager. These packages allow you to capture client-side events.

   PostHog AI

   npm

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   npm install --save posthog-js @posthog/react

   Yarn

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   yarn add posthog-js @posthog/react

   pnpm

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   pnpm add posthog-js @posthog/react

   Bun

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   bun add posthog-js @posthog/react

2. 2

   Add your environment variables

   Required

   Add your environment variables to your .env.local file and to your hosting provider (e.g. Vercel, Netlify, AWS). You can find your project token and host in your project settings. If you're using Vite, including VITE_PUBLIC_ in their names ensures they are accessible in the frontend.

   .env.local

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   VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_TOKEN=<ph_project_token>
   VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST=https://us.i.posthog.com

3. 3

   Add the PostHogProvider to your app

   Required

   In declarative mode, you'll need to wrap your BrowserRouter with the PostHogProvider context. This passes an initialized PostHog client to your app.

   src/main.tsx

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   import { StrictMode } from "react";
   import ReactDOM from "react-dom/client";
   import { BrowserRouter, Routes, Route } from "react-router";
   import posthog from 'posthog-js';
   import { PostHogErrorBoundary, PostHogProvider } from '@posthog/react'
   // Initialize PostHog
   posthog.init(import.meta.env.VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_TOKEN, {
     api_host: import.meta.env.VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST,
     defaults: '2026-01-30',
   });
   const root = document.getElementById("root");
   ReactDOM.createRoot(root).render(
     <StrictMode>
       {/* Pass PostHog client through PostHogProvider */}
       <PostHogProvider client={posthog}>
       <BrowserRouter>
         <Routes>
           <Route path="/" element={<Root />}>
           {/* ... Your routes ... */}
           </Route>
         </Routes>
       </BrowserRouter>
       </PostHogProvider>
     </StrictMode>,
   );

   This initializes PostHog and passes it to your app through the PostHogProvider context.

   TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined

   If you see the error TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading '...') this is likely because you tried to call a posthog function when posthog was not initialized (such as during the initial render). On purpose, we still render the children even if PostHog is not initialized so that your app still loads even if PostHog can't load.

   To fix this error, add a check that posthog has been initialized such as:

   React

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   useEffect(() => {
     posthog?.capture('test') // using optional chaining (recommended)
     if (posthog) {
       posthog.capture('test') // using an if statement
     }
   }, [posthog])

   Typescript helps protect against these errors.

4. Verify client-side events are captured

   Checkpoint

   Confirm that you can capture client-side events and see them in your PostHog project

   At this point, you should be able to capture client-side events and see them in your PostHog project. This includes basic events like page views and button clicks that are autocaptured.

   You can also try to capture a custom event to verify it's working. You can access PostHog in any component using the usePostHog hook.

   TSX

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   import { usePostHog } from '@posthog/react'
   function App() {
     const posthog = usePostHog()
     return <button onClick={() => posthog?.capture('button_clicked')}>Click me</button>
   }

   You should see these events in a minute or two in the activity tab.

5. 4

   Access PostHog methods

   Required

   On the client-side, you can access the PostHog client using the usePostHog hook. This hook returns the initialized PostHog client, which you can use to call PostHog methods. For example:

   TSX

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   import { usePostHog } from '@posthog/react'
   function App() {
     const posthog = usePostHog()
     return <button onClick={() => posthog?.capture('button_clicked')}>Click me</button>
   }

   For a complete list of available methods, see the posthog-js documentation.

6. 5

   Identify your user

   Recommended

   Now that you can capture basic client-side events, you'll want to identify your user so you can associate users with captured events.

   Generally, you identify users when they log in or when they input some identifiable information (e.g. email, name, etc.). You can identify users by calling the identify method on the PostHog client:

   TSX

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   export default function Login() {
     const { user, login } = useAuth();
     const posthog = usePostHog();
     const handleLogin = async (e: React.FormEvent) => {
       // existing code to handle login...
       const user = await login({ email, password });
       posthog?.identify(user.email,
         {
           email: user.email,
           name: user.name,
         }
       );
       posthog?.capture('user_logged_in');
     };
     return (
       <div>
         {/* ... existing code ... */}
         <button onClick={handleLogin}>Login</button>
       </div>
     );
   }

   PostHog automatically generates anonymous IDs for users before they're identified. When you call identify, a new identified person is created. All previous events tracked with the anonymous ID link to the new identified distinct ID, and all future captures on the same browser associate with the identified person.

7. 6

   Create an error boundary

   Recommended

   PostHog can capture exceptions thrown in your app through an error boundary. PostHog provides a PostHogErrorBoundary component that you can use to capture exceptions. You can wrap your app with this component to capture exceptions.

   TSX

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   ReactDOM.createRoot(root).render(
     <StrictMode>
       <PostHogProvider client={posthog}>
       <PostHogErrorBoundary>
       <BrowserRouter>
         <Routes>
           <Route path="/" element={<Root />}>
             {/* ... Your routes ... */}
           </Route>
         </Routes>
       </BrowserRouter>
       </PostHogErrorBoundary>
       </PostHogProvider>
     </StrictMode>,
   );

   This automatically captures exceptions thrown in your React Router app using the posthog.captureException() method.

8. 7

   Tracking element visibility

   Recommended

   The PostHogCaptureOnViewed component enables you to automatically capture events when elements scroll into view in the browser. This is useful for tracking impressions of important content, monitoring user engagement with specific sections, or understanding which parts of your page users are actually seeing.

   The component wraps your content and sends a $element_viewed event to PostHog when the wrapped element becomes visible in the viewport. It only fires once per component instance.

   Basic usage:

   React

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   import { PostHogCaptureOnViewed } from '@posthog/react'
   function App() {
       return (
           <PostHogCaptureOnViewed name="hero-banner">
               <div>Your important content here</div>
           </PostHogCaptureOnViewed>
       )
   }

   With custom properties:

   You can include additional properties with the event to provide more context:

   React

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   <PostHogCaptureOnViewed
       name="product-card"
       properties={{
           product_id: '123',
           category: 'electronics',
           price: 299.99
       }}
   >
       <ProductCard />
   </PostHogCaptureOnViewed>

   Tracking multiple children:

   Use trackAllChildren to track each child element separately. This is useful for galleries or lists where you want to know which specific items were viewed:

   React

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   <PostHogCaptureOnViewed
       name="product-gallery"
       properties={{ gallery_type: 'featured' }}
       trackAllChildren
   >
       <ProductCard id="1" />
       <ProductCard id="2" />
       <ProductCard id="3" />
   </PostHogCaptureOnViewed>

   When trackAllChildren is enabled, each child element sends its own event with a child_index property indicating its position.

   Custom intersection observer options:

   You can customize when elements are considered "viewed" by passing options to the IntersectionObserver:

   React

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   <PostHogCaptureOnViewed
       name="footer"
       observerOptions={{
           threshold: 0.5,  // Element is 50% visible
           rootMargin: '0px'
       }}
   >
       <Footer />
   </PostHogCaptureOnViewed>

   The component passes all other props to the wrapper div, so you can add styling, classes, or other HTML attributes as needed.

9. 8

   Set up server-side analytics

   Recommended

   Now that you've set up PostHog for React Router V7 in declarative mode, you can continue to set up server-side analytics. You can find our other SDKs in the SDKs page.

   To help PostHog track your user sessions across the client and server, you'll need to add the __add_tracing_headers: ['your-backend-domain1.com', 'your-backend-domain2.com', ...] option to your PostHog initialization:

   TSX

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   posthog.init(import.meta.env.VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_TOKEN, {
     api_host: import.meta.env.VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST,
     defaults: '2026-01-30',
     __add_tracing_headers: [ window.location.host, 'localhost' ],
   });

   This adds the X-POSTHOG-DISTINCT-ID and X-POSTHOG-SESSION-ID headers to your requests, which you can later use on the server-side.

10. 9

    Next steps

    Recommended

    Now that you've set up PostHog for React Router, you can start capturing events and exceptions in your app.

    To get the most out of PostHog, you should familiarize yourself with the following:

    • PostHog Web SDK docs: Learn more about the PostHog Web SDK and how to use it on the client-side.

    • PostHog Node SDK docs: Learn more about the PostHog Node SDK and how to use it on the server-side.

    • Identify users: Learn more about how to identify users in your app.

    • Group analytics: Learn more about how to use group analytics in your app.

    • PostHog AI: After capturing events, use PostHog AI to help you understand your data and build insights.

    • Feature flags and experiments: Feature flag and experiment setup is the same as React. You can find more details in the React integration guide.

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