Pulse-JS

A semantic reactivity system for modern applications. Separate reactive data (sources) from business conditions (guards) with a declarative, composable, and observable approach.

Official Documentation

Pulse differs from traditional signals or state managers by treating Conditions as first-class citizens. Instead of embedding complex boolean logic inside components or selectors, you define Semantic Guards that can be observed, composed, and debugged independently.

Installation

npm install @pulse-js/core @pulse-js/tools

or

bun add @pulse-js/core @pulse-js/tools

Pulse works with React via adapters like @pulse-js/react.

bun add @pulse-js/react

Core Concepts

Sources (Refined Data)

Sources are the primitive containers for your application state. They hold values and notify dependents when those values change.

import { source } from "@pulse-js/core";

// Create a source
const user = source({ name: "Alice", id: 1 });
const rawCount = source(0);

// Read the value (dependencies are tracked automatically if called inside a Guard)
console.log(user());

// Update the value
user.set({ name: "Bob", id: 1 });

// Update using a callback
rawCount.update((n) => n + 1);

Guards (Semantic Logic)

Guards represent business rules or derivations. A Guard is not just a boolean: it is a Semantic Guard—an observable rule with context. They track their own state including status (ok, fail, pending) and reason (why it failed).

import { guard } from "@pulse-js/core";

// Synchronous Guard
const isAdmin = guard("is-admin", () => {
  const u = user();
  if (u.role !== "admin") return false; // Implicitly sets status to 'fail'
  return true;
});

// Guards can be checked explicitly
if (isAdmin.ok()) {
  // Grant access
} else {
  console.log(isAdmin.reason()); // e.g. "is-admin failed"
}

Computed Values

You can derive new data from sources or other guards using compute. It works like a memoized transformation that automatically re-evaluates when dependencies change.

import { compute } from "@pulse-js/core";

const fullName = compute("full-name", [firstName, lastName], (first, last) => {
  return `${first} ${last}`;
});

Async Guards & Race Control

Pulse handles asynchronous logic natively. Guards can return Promises, and their status will automatically transition from pending to ok or fail.

Pulse implements internal runId versioning to automatically cancel stale async evaluations if the underlying sources change multiple times before a promise resolves, preventing race conditions.

const isServerOnline = guard("check-server", async () => {
  const response = await fetch("/health");
  if (!response.ok) throw new Error("Server unreachable");
  return true;
});

Explanable Guards

For complex conditions, you can call .explain() to get a structured tree of the current status, failure reason, and the status of all direct dependencies.

const explanation = canCheckout.explain();
console.log(explanation);
// { status: 'fail', reason: 'auth failed', dependencies: [...] }

Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

Pulse is designed with SSR in mind. It supports isomorphic rendering where async guards can be evaluated on the server, their state serialized, and then hydrated on the client.

Server Side

import { evaluate } from "@pulse-js/core";

// 1. Evaluate critical guards on the server
const hydrationState = await evaluate([isUserAuthenticated, appSettings]);

// 2. Serialize this state into your HTML
const html = `
  <script>window.__PULSE_STATE__ = ${JSON.stringify(hydrationState)}</script>
`;

Client Side (Hydration)

import { hydrate } from "@pulse-js/core";

// 1. Hydrate before rendering
hydrate(window.__PULSE_STATE__);

Mental Model

Compare Pulse primitives:

Framework Integrations

Pulse provides official adapters for major frameworks to ensure seamless integration.

Developer Tools

Debug your reactive graph with Pulse Tools, a powerful framework-agnostic inspector.

Features

• Component Tree: Visualize your entire guard dependency graph.
• Editable Logic: Update source values directly from the UI to test logic branches.
• Time Travel: (Coming Soon) Replay state changes.
• Zero Config: Works out of the box with @pulse-js/tools.