TanStack Query is a Must for Vue.js / Neil Merton

If you’ve spent any time building Vue applications, you know the drill. You create a component, define a few refs for data, isLoading, and error, and then write an onMounted hook to fetch your data. It works for a small app, but as your project grows, you find yourself rewriting that same logic over and over.

Enter TanStack Query (formerly known as Vue Query). It isn’t just a “fetcher”, it’s a powerful asynchronous state manager that handles the “Server State” so you don’t have to.

In this post, we’ll explore why TanStack Query has become the gold standard for Vue.js projects and how it can make your life as a developer significantly easier.

The Problem: “Server State” vs. “Client State”

One of the biggest mistakes we make in Vue is treating API data like local state. We shove it into Pinia or local components, but server data is different. It’s remote, it’s asynchronous, and it can go out of date without you knowing.

TanStack Query acts as a bridge, managing this “Server State” with features like:

Automatic Caching: Instant UI updates when moving between pages.
Background Refetching: Keeping data fresh without manual intervention.
Request Deduplication: No more firing three identical API calls because three components mounted at once.

1. Zero Boilerplate, Pure Declarative Logic

In a standard Vue setup, a simple fetch looks like this:

const data = ref(null);
const loading = ref(true);
const error = ref(null);

onMounted(async () => {
  try {
    const res = await fetch('/api/todos');
    data.value = await res.json();
  } catch (err) {
    error.value = err;
  } finally {
    loading.value = false;
  }
});

With TanStack Query, all of that reactive plumbing is handled for you:

import { useQuery } from '@tanstack/vue-query';

const { isLoading, data, error } = useQuery({
  queryKey: ['todos'],
  queryFn: () => fetch('/api/todos').then(res => res.json()),
});

You get a reactive data object, a boolean isLoading, and an error object out of the box. No more manual try/catch blocks for every request.

2. The “Stale-While-Revalidate” Magic

The user experience (UX) benefit is massive. When a user navigates back to a page they’ve already visited, TanStack Query immediately shows the cached data from the previous visit.

While the user is looking at that data, the library quietly refetches it in the background to see if anything changed. If it has, the UI updates seamlessly. This makes your app feel incredibly fast and responsive - like it’s working offline.

3. Intelligent Mutations and Invalidation

Updating data is usually where the wheels fall off. If you delete a “Todo,” you have to manually update your local array or refresh the entire page.

TanStack Query’s useMutation makes this trivial. You can tell the library: “Hey, I just added a new item. Go ahead and mark the ‘todos’ list as ‘invalid’ so it refetches.”

import { useMutation, useQueryClient } from '@tanstack/vue-query';

const queryClient = useQueryClient();

const { mutate } = useMutation({
  mutationFn: (newTodo) => postTodo(newTodo),
  onSuccess: () => {
    // This tells TanStack Query to refetch 'todos' immediately
    queryClient.invalidateQueries({ queryKey: ['todos'] });
  },
});

4. Goodbye, Massive Pinia Stores

Do you have a Pinia store full of fetchUserData actions and arrays of items? You might not need them.

By moving your server logic into TanStack Query, your Pinia stores can stay lean, focusing only on actual client state (like whether the sidebar is open, the user’s theme, or current form drafts). This separation of concerns makes your codebase much easier to maintain.

How to Get Started

Setting up TanStack Query in your Vue 3 project takes about two minutes.

Step 1: Install the package

npm install @tanstack/vue-query

Or yarn add @tanstack/vue-query if you prefer.

Step 2: Initialize in main.js

import { createApp } from 'vue';
import { VueQueryPlugin } from '@tanstack/vue-query';
import App from './App.vue';

const app = createApp(App);
app.use(VueQueryPlugin);
app.mount('#app');

Additional Tooling

TanStack Query also comes with devtools that let you inspect your queries, mutations, and cache in real-time. It’s a game-changer for debugging and optimizing your data fetching logic.

npm install @tanstack/vue-query-devtools

And there’s also an eslint plugin to enforce best practices:

npm install eslint-plugin-tanstack-query

Conclusion

TanStack Query isn’t just a luxury; it’s a productivity powerhouse. By handling the complexities of caching, background updates, and loading states, it allows you to focus on what actually matters: building features and a great user experience.

If you’re still manually managing your fetch states in 2026, it’s time to upgrade your stack! Give TanStack Query a try in your next Vue project, and you might just wonder how you ever lived without it.