React Refractor - Syntax Highlighter

react-refractor is a lightweight React component for syntax highlighting code snippets, acting as a thin wrapper around the `refractor` library. `refractor` itself is a virtual DOM implementation of `Prism.js`, allowing for efficient updates and server-side rendering without direct DOM manipulation. The current stable version is v4.0.0, which dropped Node.js 18 support and upgraded to `refractor` v5. The library maintains a moderately active release cadence, with several minor and major versions released within the last year. A key differentiator is its VDOM-based approach, which makes it performant and flexible for React environments but also means it's incompatible with `Prism.js` plugins. Developers must explicitly import and register specific language syntaxes from `refractor` to keep bundle sizes small, and styling is left to the developer, often by importing `Prism.js` themes. It requires React 18+ and is ESM-only since v3.0.0.