[Flight] Walk parsed JSON instead of using reviver for parsing RSC payload (facebook#35776)

timneutkens · unstubbable · web-flow · commit f247ebaf4431 · 2026-02-19T08:37:41.000-08:00
## Summary Follow-up to vercel/next.js#89823 with the actual changes to React. Replaces the `JSON.parse` reviver callback in `initializeModelChunk` with a two-step approach: plain `JSON.parse()` followed by a recursive `reviveModel()` post-process (same as in Flight Reply Server). This yields a **~75% speedup** in RSC chunk deserialization. | Payload | Original (ms) | Walk (ms) | Speedup | |---------|---------------|-----------|---------| | Small (2 elements, 142B) | 0.0024 | 0.0007 | **+72%** | | Medium (~12 elements, 914B) | 0.0116 | 0.0031 | **+73%** | | Large (~90 elements, 16.7KB) | 0.1836 | 0.0451 | **+75%** | | XL (~200 elements, 25.7KB) | 0.3742 | 0.0913 | **+76%** | | Table (1000 rows, 110KB) | 3.0862 | 0.6887 | **+78%** | ## Problem `createFromJSONCallback` returns a reviver function passed as the second argument to `JSON.parse()`. This reviver is called for **every key-value pair** in the parsed JSON. While the logic inside the reviver is lightweight, the dominant cost is the **C++ → JavaScript boundary crossing** — V8's `JSON.parse` is implemented in C++, and calling back into JavaScript for every node incurs significant overhead. Even a trivial no-op reviver `(k, v) => v` makes `JSON.parse` **~4x slower** than bare `JSON.parse` without a reviver: ``` 108 KB payload: Bare JSON.parse: 0.60 ms Trivial reviver: 2.95 ms (+391%) ``` ## Change Replace the reviver with a two-step process: 1. `JSON.parse(resolvedModel)` — parse the entire payload in C++ with no callbacks 2. `reviveModel` — recursively walk the resulting object in pure JavaScript to apply RSC transformations The `reviveModel` function includes additional optimizations over the original reviver: - **Short-circuits plain strings**: only calls `parseModelString` when the string starts with `$`, skipping the vast majority of strings (class names, text content, etc.) - **Stays entirely in JavaScript** — no C++ boundary crossings during the walk ## Results You can find the related applications in the [Next.js PR ](vercel/next.js#89823 I've been testing this on Next.js applications. ### Table as Server Component with 1000 items Before: ``` "min": 13.782875000000786, "max": 22.23400000000038, "avg": 17.116868530000083, "p50": 17.10766700000022, "p75": 18.50787499999933, "p95": 20.426249999998618, "p99": 21.814125000000786 ``` After: ``` "min": 10.963916999999128, "max": 18.096083000000363, "avg": 13.543286884999988, "p50": 13.58350000000064, "p75": 14.871791999999914, "p95": 16.08429099999921, "p99": 17.591458000000785 ``` ### Table as Client Component with 1000 items Before: ``` "min": 3.888875000000553, "max": 9.044959000000745, "avg": 4.651271475000067, "p50": 4.555749999999534, "p75": 4.966624999999112, "p95": 5.47754200000054, "p99": 6.109499999998661 ```` After: ``` "min": 3.5986250000005384, "max": 5.374291000000085, "avg": 4.142990245000046, "p50": 4.10570799999914, "p75": 4.392041999999492, "p95": 4.740084000000934, "p99": 5.1652500000000146 ``` ### Nested Suspense Before: ``` Requests: 200 Min: 73ms Max: 106ms Avg: 78ms P50: 77ms P75: 80ms P95: 85ms P99: 94ms ``` After: ``` Requests: 200 Min: 56ms Max: 67ms Avg: 59ms P50: 58ms P75: 60ms P95: 65ms P99: 66ms ``` ### Even more nested Suspense (double-level Suspense) Before: ``` Requests: 200 Min: 159ms Max: 208ms Avg: 169ms P50: 167ms P75: 173ms P95: 183ms P99: 188ms ``` After: ``` Requests: 200 Min: 125ms Max: 170ms Avg: 134ms P50: 132ms P75: 138ms P95: 148ms P99: 160ms ``` ## How did you test this change? Ran it across many Next.js benchmark applications. The entire Next.js test suite passes with this change. --------- Co-authored-by: Hendrik Liebau <mail@hendrik-liebau.de>
diff --git a/packages/react-client/src/ReactFlightClient.js b/packages/react-client/src/ReactFlightClient.js
@@ -355,7 +355,6 @@ type Response = {
   _encodeFormAction: void | EncodeFormActionCallback,
   _nonce: ?string,
   _chunks: Map<number, SomeChunk<any>>,
-  _fromJSON: (key: string, value: JSONValue) => any,
   _stringDecoder: StringDecoder,
   _closed: boolean,
   _closedReason: mixed,
@@ -2302,6 +2301,11 @@ function defineLazyGetter<T>(
         // TODO: We should ideally throw here to indicate a difference.
         return OMITTED_PROP_ERROR;
       },
+      // no-op: the walk function may try to reassign this property after
+      // parseModelString returns. With the JSON.parse reviver, the engine's
+      // internal CreateDataProperty silently failed. We use a no-op setter
+      // to match that behavior in strict mode.
+      set: function () {},
       enumerable: true,
       configurable: false,
     });
@@ -2622,6 +2626,11 @@ function parseModelString(
                 // TODO: We should ideally throw here to indicate a difference.
                 return OMITTED_PROP_ERROR;
               },
+              // no-op: the walk function may try to reassign this property
+              // after parseModelString returns. With the JSON.parse reviver,
+              // the engine's internal CreateDataProperty silently failed.
+              // We use a no-op setter to match that behavior in strict mode.
+              set: function () {},
               enumerable: true,
               configurable: false,
             });
@@ -2699,7 +2708,6 @@ function ResponseInstance(
   this._nonce = nonce;
   this._chunks = chunks;
   this._stringDecoder = createStringDecoder();
-  this._fromJSON = (null: any);
   this._closed = false;
   this._closedReason = null;
   this._allowPartialStream = allowPartialStream;
@@ -2783,9 +2791,6 @@ function ResponseInstance(
       markAllTracksInOrder();
     }
   }
-
-  // Don't inline this call because it causes closure to outline the call above.
-  this._fromJSON = createFromJSONCallback(this);
 }
 
 export function createResponse(
@@ -5259,24 +5264,52 @@ export function processStringChunk(
 }
 
 function parseModel<T>(response: Response, json: UninitializedModel): T {
-  return JSON.parse(json, response._fromJSON);
+  const rawModel = JSON.parse(json);
+  // Pass a wrapper object as parentObject to match the original JSON.parse
+  // reviver behavior, where the root value's reviver receives {"": rootValue}
+  // as `this`. This ensures parentObject is never null when accessed downstream.
+  return reviveModel(response, rawModel, {'': rawModel}, '');
 }
 
-function createFromJSONCallback(response: Response) {
-  // $FlowFixMe[missing-this-annot]
-  return function (key: string, value: JSONValue) {
-    if (key === __PROTO__) {
-      return undefined;
+function reviveModel(
+  response: Response,
+  value: JSONValue,
+  parentObject: Object,
+  key: string,
+): any {
+  if (typeof value === 'string') {
+    if (value[0] === '$') {
+      return parseModelString(response, parentObject, key, value);
     }
-    if (typeof value === 'string') {
-      // We can't use .bind here because we need the "this" value.
-      return parseModelString(response, this, key, value);
+    return value;
+  }
+  if (typeof value !== 'object' || value === null) {
+    return value;
+  }
+  if (isArray(value)) {
+    for (let i = 0; i < value.length; i++) {
+      (value: any)[i] = reviveModel(response, value[i], value, '' + i);
     }
-    if (typeof value === 'object' && value !== null) {
+    if (value[0] === REACT_ELEMENT_TYPE) {
+      // React element tuple
       return parseModelTuple(response, value);
     }
     return value;
-  };
+  }
+  // Plain object
+  for (const k in value) {
+    if (k === __PROTO__) {
+      delete (value: any)[k];
+    } else {
+      const walked = reviveModel(response, (value: any)[k], value, k);
+      if (walked !== undefined) {
+        (value: any)[k] = walked;
+      } else {
+        delete (value: any)[k];
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  return value;
 }
 
 export function close(weakResponse: WeakResponse): void {
diff --git a/packages/react-noop-renderer/src/ReactNoopFlightClient.js b/packages/react-noop-renderer/src/ReactNoopFlightClient.js
@@ -43,9 +43,6 @@ const {createResponse, createStreamState, processBinaryChunk, getRoot, close} =
     requireModule(idx: string) {
       return readModule(idx);
     },
-    parseModel(response: Response, json) {
-      return JSON.parse(json, response._fromJSON);
-    },
     bindToConsole(methodName, args, badgeName) {
       return Function.prototype.bind.apply(
         // eslint-disable-next-line react-internal/no-production-logging
