Migration Strategy

The programming model for Lightning Web Components is fundamentally different than the model for Aura components. Migrating a component is not a line-by-line conversion, and it's a good opportunity to revisit your component's design. Before you migrate an Aura component, evaluate the component’s attributes, interfaces, structures, patterns, and data flow.

An AI coding assistant can play a valuable role in your migration strategy. It can help analyze your Aura components, suggest optimal migration paths, and generate LWC code based on your requirements. By leveraging AI-powered tools, you can accelerate the migration process, reduce manual effort, and catch potential issues early. The coding assistant can also provide guidance on best practices, map Aura patterns to LWC equivalents, and answer questions as you step through the migration.

Here are several AI coding assistants you can use to facilitate Aura-to-LWC migration.

The easiest components to migrate are simple components that only render UI. You get more gains in performance and developer productivity by migrating larger trees of components (components within components) rather than an individual component. However, it's a useful learning experience to migrate one component and see how concepts in the Aura programming model map to concepts in the Lightning Web Components programming model.

To identify a component for migration, you can ask:

The AI coding assistant can suggest the order of migration based on the identified dependencies. For example, it can suggest in order:

  • Migrate a UI-only component without any dependencies. When migrating to LWC, use base component equivalents where possible.
  • Migrate a utility component that renders without UI and contain aura:method tags. When migrating to LWC, create a standard JavaScript module.
  • Migrate an Aura component that emits events.
  • Migrate an Aura component that work with record data or Salesforce API. Use an equivalent LWC wire adapter or API module.
  • Migrate parent Aura components that contain child components after the latter have been migrated.

An Aura component can contain LWC children (but not the other way around), so migrating leaf children first lets you progressively replace internals without breaking pages.

After migrating one component, you'll be in a better position to determine whether it makes sense for you and your org to:

  • Undertake a larger migration effort
  • Use Lightning web components for new components only
  • Stick with Aura components for now

The choice is down to you and differs for everyone, depending on use cases and available resources. Whatever decision you make, migrating a component is a valuable learning exercise.

Reviewing your components help you scope the migration workflow.

  • Inventory all Aura components in your org
  • Identify dependencies between components
  • Review current test coverage
  • Plan migration order (dependencies first)

Running the MCP tools facilitate and speed up your Aura-to-LWC migration.

  • Run a migration analysis on each component
  • Review generated migration plan
  • Update parent components to use new LWC children
  • Verify event handling and data flow

We recommend that you optimize and test your components after the migration.

  • Test new LWC components thoroughly
  • Run full regression testing
  • Train your team on LWC patterns
  • Monitor performance improvements

See Also