JavaScript’s MutationObserver API is a powerful yet underused tool that allows you to watch for changes in the DOM — whether it’s a new element being added, an attribute change, or text content being updated.
🔍 The Real Question
Have you ever used MutationObserver in a real-world project?
What was your use case?
Did it solve a problem you couldn’t fix with other event-based logic?
Was it easy to implement, or did you run into edge cases or performance issues?
Drop your experience, thoughts, or questions below 👇
Top comments (3)
Yeah, I used MutationObserver to watch custom element inserts in a dashboard, and it saved me so much trouble compared to trying to catch every relevant event manually.
Honestly the biggest pain was making sure I wasn't triggering unnecessary rerenders, but totally worth it for dynamic interfaces.
I wanted to track all elements entering and leaving the top layer in order to make a system for keeping toasts (and other elements) active and visible. I need to track item when they were deleted from the Dom as they wouldn't fire an event to say they'd left the top layer but they wouldn't be there any more
github.com/bloc-digital/usetoplaye...
I also wrote a piece about the problem, though I don't really go into the mutation observer usage.
Dialogs, Popovers & the Top Layer Mess
Andrew Bone ・ Feb 18
Been cool seeing steady progress - it adds up. what do you think actually keeps things growing over time? habits? luck? just showing up?
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