State management in React: when Redux, Zustand, and Context API actually fit

Every React project hits the same fork around month two. Prop drilling gets old. Someone says "we need state management." The next two days are an opinion war. Redux because it's what we know. Zustand because someone read a blog post. Context because "isn't that built in?" The mistake isn't picking the wrong tool. It's not noticing that the three you're choosing between solve different problems. What each one actually is Quick mental models. Most of the confusion lives there. Context API is a tr