<p>The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) under alkaline conditions is a crucial anodic reaction for the electrolysis of water to produce clean hydrogen. To address the resource scarcity and poor stability of traditional noble metal catalysts (such as RuO₂ and IrO₂), metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and their derivatives employ surface engineering and interface engineering to modify the electronic structure of reactive active sites, optimize the d-band center, and adjust the adsorption energy of oxygen-containing intermediates. Research has demonstrated that the true active sites for the OER rely on metal oxides/hydroxides regenerated from metal sites. This review will establish the connection between surface engineering and interface engineering strategies and the induced reconstruction of MOFs-based electrocatalysts. It will also reveal how to effectively achieve the rational design of pre-catalysts through <i>in-situ</i> characterization techniques. Additionally, performance comparisons will be provided to demonstrate the superiority of these strategies. Based on this, the challenges in the rational design of pre-catalysts for MOFs to achieve more efficient OER catalysts in the future will be proposed.</p>