perf(Text): remove unnecessary useRef and useImperativeHandle hooks

[hectahertz]

Closes #

Text had useRef + useRefObjectAsForwardedRef (wrapping useImperativeHandle) just to forward a ref that was never read internally. Removed both hooks and passed the forwarded ref directly to the element.

	Before	After
useRef	1	0
useImperativeHandle (via useRefObjectAsForwardedRef)	1	0
Total hooks per render	2	0

Text is one of the most frequently rendered Primer components. On a typical page with 50-100 Text instances, this eliminates ✨ 100-200 hook calls per render cycle ✨.

Changelog

New

N/A

Changed

• Text now passes the forwarded ref directly to the element instead of through useRef + useImperativeHandle

Removed

N/A

Rollout strategy

• Patch release
• Minor release
• Major release; if selected, include a written rollout or migration plan
• None; if selected, include a brief description as to why

Testing & Reviewing

1. Render <Text ref={myRef}>Hello</Text> and verify myRef.current points to the DOM span
2. Verify polymorphic as prop still works: <Text as="p" ref={myRef}>Hello</Text>
3. Verify size and weight props still apply data attributes

Merge checklist

• Added/updated tests
• Added/updated documentation
• Added/updated previews (Storybook)
• Changes are SSR compatible
• Tested in Chrome
• Tested in Firefox
• Tested in Safari
• Tested in Edge
• (GitHub staff only) Integration tests pass at github/github

[changeset-bot]

🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: 2f71900

The changes in this PR will be included in the next version bump.

This PR includes changesets to release 1 package

Name	Type
@primer/react	Patch

Not sure what this means? Click here to learn what changesets are.

Click here if you're a maintainer who wants to add another changeset to this PR

[github-actions]

👋 Hi, this pull request contains changes to the source code that github/github-ui depends on. If you are GitHub staff, test these changes with github/github-ui using the integration workflow. Or, apply the integration-tests: skipped manually label to skip these checks.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR optimizes the Text component in @primer/react by removing internal ref plumbing (useRef + useImperativeHandle) and forwarding the received ref directly to the rendered element, reducing per-render hook usage for a frequently-rendered component.

Changes:

• Remove useRef/useRefObjectAsForwardedRef from Text and attach the forwarded ref directly to the polymorphic element.
• Add a patch changeset documenting the performance-focused change.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
packages/react/src/Text/Text.tsx	Removes internal ref hooks and forwards ref directly to the rendered element.
.changeset/text-remove-hooks.md	Patch changeset entry describing the perf change.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

packages/react/src/Text/Text.tsx:22

• Ref-forwarding behavior changed (ref now passed directly to the rendered element), but the existing Text unit tests don’t assert ref behavior. Add a test that renders (and ideally as well) and verifies ref.current points at the underlying DOM element to prevent regressions.

    <Component className={clsx(className, classes.Text)} data-size={size} data-weight={weight} {...rest} ref={ref} />

[primer-integration]

👋 Hi from github/github-ui! Your integration PR is ready: https://github.com/github/github-ui/pull/14134

[primer-integration]

Integration test results from github/github-ui:

  CI Passed
  VRT Waiting
  Projects Passed