In our journey of developing the AI Prompt Architect application, we’ve reached an exciting milestone: migrating our entire React application to SvelteKit. Rather than taking the traditional route of manual component conversion, we’re leveraging Aider’s powerful scripting capabilities to automate this process. This approach not only saves time but also ensures consistency across our codebase.
Why Switch to SvelteKit?
You might wonder, “Why move away from React?” While React remains a powerful and widely-used framework, SvelteKit offers several compelling advantages:
- Simpler Syntax: SvelteKit’s straightforward syntax makes our code more readable and maintainable
- Cost-Effective: The resulting code is typically more concise, reducing technical debt
- Better Developer Experience: Personal preference plays a role – I genuinely enjoy working with Svelte
The initial choice of React wasn’t arbitrary. It served as an experimental starting point and allowed us to connect with a broader audience familiar with React. Now, this migration serves as a perfect opportunity to introduce Svelte to React developers who might be curious about alternatives.
Setting Up the Migration Environment
Before diving into the migration process, we took several precautionary steps:
- Created a new branch to isolate our migration work
- Used Aider’s Architect mode to scaffold the new SvelteKit environment
- Installed necessary dependencies through npm
- Verified the initial setup by running the development server
Automating the Migration Process
The real innovation in our approach lies in the automation script we created. Instead of manually converting our 20+ components one by one, we developed a script that leverages Aider’s capabilities to handle the migration systematically.
Building the Dependency Graph
A crucial step in our automation process involved creating a dependency graph of our components. We utilized:
- Aider’s repo map functionality to understand the project structure
- Claude AI to generate a Mermaid diagram showing component dependencies
- This information to ensure components were migrated in the correct order
The Migration Script
Our migration script incorporated several key features:
- Automatic component conversion following the dependency order
- Safe handling of React components through read-only mode
- Commit automation for each successful migration
- Cost-effective processing (approximately $0.02-0.03 per component)
Benefits of the Automated Approach
The automated migration process yielded several significant benefits:
Code Reduction
Comparing the migrated components with their React counterparts showed consistent improvements in code conciseness. For example:
- WizardNavigation: Reduced from 77 to 67 lines
- Across 20 components, we saved approximately 100 lines of code
Cost Efficiency
The total migration cost came to around $0.50 for all components, which is remarkably efficient considering:
- Individual component migrations cost $0.02-0.03
- Clean chat history for each component
- Reduced likelihood of errors
Maintainable Process
The scripted approach provided:
- Consistent conversion patterns
- Easy tracking through git commits
- Simple rollback capabilities if needed
Challenges and Solutions
During the migration, we encountered several challenges:
- Missing Components: Some components were initially missed in the migration script. We solved this by manually running the migration command for these specific components.
- Import Updates: Needed to update import statements, particularly for libraries like lucide-react to lucide-svelte.
- Path Corrections: Fixed relative path issues in component imports.
Looking Forward
While we’ve successfully migrated the core application to SvelteKit, there’s still work to be done:
- Bug fixing and functionality improvements
- Adding new features specific to SvelteKit
- Deploying the updated application
Conclusion
This migration project demonstrates the power of automation in modern web development. By leveraging Aider’s scripting capabilities, we transformed a potentially tedious manual process into an efficient, systematic operation. The results speak for themselves: cleaner code, cost-effective migration, and a more maintainable codebase.
For developers considering a similar migration, this approach offers a template that can be adapted to various project sizes and requirements. The combination of careful planning, automation, and systematic execution can make even large-scale migrations manageable and successful.
Want to see this migration in action? Check out the full video tutorial on YouTube: Automating React to SvelteKit Migration