Why does returning plain object from a loader work?

[freddie-freeloader]

When using loaders in Remix, one should -- according to the documentation -- return a response object:

export async function loader() {
  const users = await db.users.findMany();
  const body = JSON.stringify(users);
  return new Response(body, {
    headers: {
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
  });
}

There is also a helper function json, that simplifies the code:

import { json } from "@remix-run/node"; // or cloudflare/deno

export const loader = async () => {
  const users = await fakeDb.users.findMany();
  return json(users);
};

By mistake, I forgot to wrap the returned object in a response:

export const loader = async () => {
  const users = await fakeDb.users.findMany();
  return users;
};

I got no type error though, and the loader worked just fine with useLoaderData<typeof loadRouteData>().

I assume, that the object is automatically serialized and wrapped in a Response object(?).

Is this a behavior I can rely on? Or is this considered bad practice and I should wrap the returned object in json like in the documentation?

[sergiodxa]

Remix is doing json(loaderReturnData) for you if you don't return a Response.

[freddie-freeloader]

Thank you for the quick reply 😊