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Issue list flickers/thrashes on load before settling #13

Description

@mabry1985

What happens

When the GitHub plugin's issue-list widget loads, the list flickers/thrashes a couple of times before it finally settles. It's visually disruptive and makes the board feel janky.

Likely cause

Multiple async state transitions on mount — the widget likely passes through several render states (loading skeleton → empty → data arrives → re-render) without a stable in-between, or the data fetch fires more than once (e.g., a React strict-mode double-render + a useEffect re-trigger + a parent re-render all kicking off fetches).

Common culprits in a React widget:

  • No stable key / no bail-out on the fetch effect → refires on every parent render.
  • "Empty" state renders briefly between "loading" and "data arrived" because the loading flag flips before the data is populated.
  • Multiple data sources (e.g., issues list + labels) resolving at different times, each triggering a layout shift.

What should happen

One clean transition: loading skeleton → populated list. No intermediate flicker states.

Notes

Observed in the console util-bar widget (the read-only issue board). The plugin iframe may add its own mount/unmount cycle that triggers extra fetches.

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