Fix issue with `useQuery` polling when `skip` was initialized with `true` by jerelmiller · Pull Request #13155 · apollographql/apollo-client

jerelmiller · 2026-02-12T17:14:06Z

Polling was properly skipped when changing from skip: false to skip: true, but when skip was initialized to true, polling kicked in.

This was due to calling updatePolling in a setTimeout which runs after reobserve is called when first subscribing to ObservableQuery (which properly cancels polling when the fetchPolicy is standby). Now updatePolling will also check for standby and cancel polling if detected.

Summary by CodeRabbit

Bug Fixes
- Fixed useQuery incorrectly initiating polling when skip was set to true on the initial render. Polling now correctly remains inactive until skip is disabled.

changeset-bot · 2026-02-12T17:14:12Z

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apollo-librarian · 2026-02-12T17:15:02Z

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Build ID: 46b862979f674ba00b37e40e
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pkg-pr-new · 2026-02-12T17:15:59Z

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/apollographql/apollo-client/@apollo/client@13155

commit: 816911d

Hardanish-Singh · 2026-02-15T18:20:10Z

src/react/hooks/__tests__/useQuery.test.tsx

    });

+    // https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-client/issues/13154
+    it("doesn't poll when initially skipped", async () => {


nit: it("does not poll when initially skipped")

@Hardanish-Singh I'm fine with it the way it is. The contraction is perfectly fine.

In the future, I'd appreciate if you didn't add these kinds of review comments. They are just noise.

I'm happy to answer specific questions or concerns you may have if you're looking at a PR, but please avoid +1 or nit comments like this. Thanks.

phryneas · 2026-02-18T11:09:41Z

src/core/ObservableQuery.ts

+      !pollInterval ||
+      !this.hasObservers() ||
+      fetchPolicy === "cache-only" ||
+      fetchPolicy === "standby"


Would it make sense to add a similar check inside of maybeFetch, too?
Currently all code paths changing any of those seem to be covered, but it seems like it could easily happen that some code path might run out of sync again.

0c30515 0c30515

phryneas · 2026-02-19T08:43:43Z

src/core/ObservableQuery.ts

    info.interval = pollInterval;

    const maybeFetch = () => {
+      if (this.options.fetchPolicy === "standby") {


Actually... do we want to repeat all those other checks here, too? 😅

extracted to a helper 🙂 4e167ba

coderabbitai · 2026-02-19T16:40:53Z

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Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between fd42142 and 7a72816.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

.changeset/chilly-games-punch.md
src/core/ObservableQuery.ts
src/react/hooks/__tests__/useQuery.test.tsx

🧰 Additional context used

🧬 Code graph analysis (1)

src/react/hooks/__tests__/useQuery.test.tsx (3)

src/core/ApolloClient.ts (2)

query (982-1036)

ApolloClient (700-1685)

src/link/index.ts (2)

ApolloLink (8-8)

RequestHandler (16-16)

src/react/hooks/useQuery.ts (1)

useQuery (380-399)

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🔇 Additional comments (4)

.changeset/chilly-games-punch.md (1)

1-5: LGTM!

The changeset accurately documents the bug fix with an appropriate patch level for a defect correction.

src/core/ObservableQuery.ts (2)

1426-1439: LGTM!

The shouldCancelPolling helper correctly centralizes the polling cancellation logic and adds the crucial standby check that prevents polling from restarting after reobserve has already canceled it. Re-reading fetchPolicy and pollInterval from this.options inside the helper (rather than using the outer destructured values) is the right approach for the deferred maybeFetch call where options may have changed.

1465-1470: LGTM!

This is the key fix for the reported issue. By checking shouldCancelPolling() at the start of maybeFetch, the deferred polling callback now correctly detects when options have changed (e.g., fetchPolicy became standby due to skip: true) and cancels polling before executing. The comment clearly documents the defensive purpose of this check.

src/react/hooks/__tests__/useQuery.test.tsx (1)

2360-2405: Nice regression coverage for initial skip polling.
The test directly asserts both “no rerender” and “no link calls” under skip: true + pollInterval, which matches the reported failure mode.

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

A patch fix is introduced to resolve an issue where useQuery continues polling with pollInterval even when skip is initially true. The fix adds a shouldCancelPolling helper function to ObservableQuery that determines when polling should be canceled, preventing unwanted polling during initialization and subsequent polling cycles.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Changeset Documentation `.changeset/chilly-games-punch.md`	Marks a patch release documenting the fix for polling behavior when `skip` is initially true.
Core Observable Query Logic `src/core/ObservableQuery.ts`	Introduces a centralized `shouldCancelPolling` helper function that encapsulates polling cancellation conditions (no pollInterval, no observers, cache-only or standby fetch policies). The helper is applied during initial polling guard and pre-checked in the polling path to prevent stale polling when options change.
Test Coverage `src/react/hooks/__tests__/useQuery.test.tsx`	Adds a new test case "doesn't poll when initially skipped" that verifies the query does not poll or make network requests when `skip: true` and `pollInterval` are both set on initial render.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~20 minutes

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The PR title clearly describes the main fix: preventing polling when useQuery is initialized with skip set to true, which aligns perfectly with the changeset and objectives.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The PR addresses the core requirement from issue `#13154`: preventing polling from starting when useQuery has skip: true, by adding shouldCancelPolling checks in ObservableQuery and including a test to verify the fix.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	All changes are directly related to fixing the skip/polling bug: the helper function, polling checks, test case, and changeset documentation are all within scope.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

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Commit unit tests in branch jerel/fix-skip-polling

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phryneas

one last suggestion to shave a few yaks/bytes, generally approved

src/core/ObservableQuery.ts

Co-authored-by: Lenz Weber-Tronic <lorenz.weber-tronic@apollographql.com>

@jerelmiller

This PR was opened by the [Changesets release](https://github.com/changesets/action) GitHub action. When you're ready to do a release, you can merge this and the packages will be published to npm automatically. If you're not ready to do a release yet, that's fine, whenever you add more changesets to main, this PR will be updated. # Releases ## @apollo/client@4.1.5 ### Patch Changes - [#13155](#13155) [`3ba1583`](3ba1583) Thanks [@jerelmiller](https://github.com/jerelmiller)! - Fix an issue where `useQuery` would poll with `pollInterval` when `skip` was initialized to `true`. - [#13135](#13135) [`fd42142`](fd42142) Thanks [@jerelmiller](https://github.com/jerelmiller)! - Fix issue where `client.query` would apply options from `defaultOptions.watchQuery`. Co-authored-by: github-actions[bot] <41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>

jerelmiller added 3 commits February 12, 2026 09:56

Add failing test

b670d83

Cancel polling if fetch policy is standby

54d6136

Add changeset

e4aa12f

jerelmiller force-pushed the jerel/fix-skip-polling branch from 940cb04 to e4aa12f Compare February 12, 2026 17:14

jerelmiller requested a review from phryneas February 12, 2026 17:15

jerelmiller mentioned this pull request Feb 12, 2026

skip-option ignored when pollInterval is set on useQuery #13154

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Hardanish-Singh reviewed Feb 15, 2026

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phryneas reviewed Feb 18, 2026

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jerelmiller added 2 commits February 18, 2026 12:14

Prevent maybeFetch from running if fetchPolicy is standby

0c30515

Merge branch 'main' into jerel/fix-skip-polling

1fda1f1

phryneas reviewed Feb 19, 2026

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jerelmiller added 2 commits February 19, 2026 09:39

Use the same check in both places

4e167ba

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7a72816

phryneas approved these changes Feb 19, 2026

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src/core/ObservableQuery.ts Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

github-actions bot added the auto-cleanup 🤖 label Feb 19, 2026

jerelmiller and others added 2 commits February 19, 2026 09:47

Tweak destructuring

816911d

Co-authored-by: Lenz Weber-Tronic <lorenz.weber-tronic@apollographql.com>

Clean up Prettier, Size-limit, and Api-Extractor

6f30ec5

jerelmiller merged commit 3ba1583 into main Feb 19, 2026
33 checks passed

jerelmiller deleted the jerel/fix-skip-polling branch February 19, 2026 17:01

github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Feb 19, 2026

Version Packages #13158

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jerelmiller mentioned this pull request Feb 19, 2026

useQuery: skip does not stop polling. #11120

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