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WildflowerJS Reactive JS, No BS*

A no-build reactive JavaScript framework, rooted in the web platform.
No build step. No dependencies. No lock-in.

<script src="wildflower.min.js"></script> ...and start building.

Back to Basics

The code you write is 100% web standard code. HTML stays HTML. JavaScript stays JavaScript. CSS stays CSS. No JSX, no templating language, no custom syntax to learn. If you know the web platform, you already know how to use this.

WildflowerJS extends the web platform. It doesn't replace it.

Your Development Simplified

Because you develop with 100% web standards, every tool in your existing chain already understands the code: IDE, browser DevTools, linter, formatter, screen reader, SEO crawler. Nothing to install, no custom file types, no sourcemaps. Save the file, refresh, and your change is live.

Just be a web developer.

Batteries Included: One Mental Model

Router, SSR, stores, computed properties, two-way binding, event modifiers, data pools, and TypeScript types, all built in, all speaking the same language. Learn data-bind once and you know binding everywhere: lists, pools, stores, forms. There's no five-library stack to keep in sync.

One script tag. Everything you need.

<div data-component="counter">
  <span data-bind="count"></span>
  <button data-action="increment">
    +1
  </button>
</div>

<script>
wildflower.component('counter', {
  state: { count: 0 },
  increment() { this.count++ }
})
</script>

How It Works

data-bind connects state to the DOM.

data-action connects events to methods.

this.count++ triggers a precise DOM update.

Mutate state. The DOM updates.

Two Reactivity Modes

data-list for automatic reactivity: mutate state, DOM updates. data-pool for explicit control: plain objects, zero proxy overhead, you say what changed.

Same template syntax. Different performance profile. From interactive forms to per-frame particle systems. You choose the right tradeoff for the job.

Try it. Right-click, inspect this demo. Every dot is a real DOM element.

See full demo →

Get Started View Demos
* Build Step

Zero Toolchain

Modern frameworks ask you to install a compiler, a bundler, a package manager, hundreds of fragile transitive dependencies, and a framework-specific file format, before you write a single line of your application.

WildflowerJS was built starting from a single principle: no build step, no tooling. Ever.

WildflowerJS asks you to add a script tag.

There's no CLI scaffolding step, no config files, no .vue/.jsx/.svelte source format. You don't debug through sourcemaps or wait on a build pipeline. Your project has zero dependencies.

Performance isn't a tradeoff. Build steps optimize bundle delivery, not the runtime work that follows it. WildflowerJS writes directly to the DOM, with no virtual DOM or reconciliation pass between state change and update, so it doesn't need a build step to be fast.

The framework is full-featured without the toolchain: router, SSR, stores, computed properties, transitions, pools. You don't need a toolchain to use any of it.

my-app/
  index.html
  app.js
  style.css
  wildflower.min.js

That's the entire project. No package.json.
No node_modules. No config files. Ship it.

Zero Install. Zero Attack Surface.

Every dependency you install is trust extended to a maintainer you've never met, running scripts on your dev machine and in your CI. A typical React + Vite + UI‑lib setup pulls in 300+ transitive packages before you write a feature.

Each one is a potential intrusion vector. NPM worms, OAuth chains compromising deploy platforms, postinstall hijacking: the supply chain is now where production code gets compromised, not the deploy. And signing isn't a backstop: Mini Shai‑Hulud (May 2026) compromised 170+ packages whose malicious versions carried valid SLSA Build Level 3 provenance, because the attestation came from build infrastructure the worm had already taken over.

WildflowerJS users don't have this attack surface, by construction. There is no npm install, no postinstall script, no transitive package graph. The framework is one file you copy or pin by hash.

As of v1.1, the same holds for building the framework itself. WildflowerJS bundles with a vendored rollup and terser pipeline pulled as three SHA‑512‑pinned tarballs: no npm install, no transitive packages, no postinstall scripts in the build path. The entire toolchain is three files you verify by hash.

Zero dependencies is the absence of a problem the rest of the industry has not properly addressed.

A typical React/Vue project:

  npm install
  ├── hundreds of packages
  ├── from hundreds of maintainers
  ├── postinstall scripts run on install
  └── tens to hundreds of MB of transitive code

WildflowerJS:

  <script src="wildflower.min.js"></script>
  └── 1 file.
      No transitive dependencies.

Zero Lock-in

WildflowerJS works with the DOM, not instead of it. There's no virtual DOM intercepting your code and no compiler rewriting your markup. The render cycle is yours.

That means Leaflet, DataTables, Chart.js, D3, Three.js, any library that touches the DOM, just works. No wrapper packages or framework-specific escape hatches required. Drop in a script tag and use it.

Because your code is standard HTML and JavaScript, you're never locked in. Your skills transfer and your code is more portable. If you outgrow the framework, your knowledge doesn't expire.

This also means your "ecosystem" is all of the world of vanilla JS. Without compromises or hacks.

<!-- Use any library directly -->
<div data-component="map-view">
  <div id="map" style="height: 400px"></div>
</div>
wildflower.component('map-view', {
  state: { lat: 51.505, lng: -0.09 },
  init() {
    // Leaflet works as-is. No wrappers.
    this._map = L.map('map')
      .setView([this.lat, this.lng], 13);
    L.tileLayer('https://{s}.tile.osm.org'
      + '/{z}/{x}/{y}.png').addTo(this._map);
  }
})

Precise Reactivity

When you write this.count++, WildflowerJS updates the single DOM node bound to count. Nothing else is touched. There's no tree diffing or reconciliation pass to figure that out.

This isn't a tradeoff. You get fine-grained updates and a simple mental model. Change a property, the bound element updates. That's the entire reactivity model.

Other frameworks ask you to learn signals, accessors, memos, effects, and subscription lifecycles to achieve what WildflowerJS does with a property assignment.

wildflower.component('dashboard', {
  state: {
    users: 1420,
    status: 'healthy'
  },
  computed: {
    summary() {
      return this.users + ' users, ' + this.status;
    }
  },
  refresh() {
    this.users = 1421;
    // Only the elements bound to 'users'
    // and 'summary' update. Everything
    // else on the page is untouched.
  }
})

One Reactivity Model. Everywhere.

Components, Stores, and Plugins all share the same reactive foundation. State, computed properties, and methods work identically no matter where they live. Learn it once, it works the same way in a UI component, a global store, or a framework plugin.

Other frameworks make you learn a different system for each layer. React components use hooks, but stores need Redux or Zustand, which are completely different APIs. Vue components use reactive data, but Pinia stores have their own patterns. Every layer is a new mental model.

In WildflowerJS, there's one model. A store is a component without a template. A plugin is an entity that extends the framework itself, adding directives, lifecycle hooks, and services. The same this.count++ triggers the same reactivity everywhere.

This unlocks patterns other frameworks can't express. A store can run headless physics simulations with tick(), feeding data into a component that renders it through a pool, all using the same reactive primitives, no glue code required.

// Component: reactive UI
wildflower.component('cart', {
  state: { items: [] },
  computed: {
    total() { return this.items.length; }
  }
})

// Store: global shared state
wildflower.store('user', {
  state: { name: '', role: 'guest' },
  computed: {
    isAdmin() { return this.role === 'admin'; }
  }
})

// Plugin: extends the framework
wildflower.plugin({
  name: 'notifications',
  state: { items: [], unreadCount: 0 },
  computed: {
    hasUnread() { return this.unreadCount > 0; }
  },
  add(msg) { this.items.push(msg); this.unreadCount++; }
})
// Access globally: wildflower.$notifications.add(...)

// Same state. Same computed. Same methods.

Data Pools

Every framework wraps collection items in reactive proxies, whether the item needs it or not. WildflowerJS gives you a choice: data-list for push reactivity (automatic), data-pool for pull reactivity (explicit control, zero proxy overhead).

Pools render plain objects with the same template syntax as lists. Mutate the object, call markDirty(), and only that item updates. Full CRUD, selection, bulk operations, all faster than the push-reactive path.

And because pools use pull-based rendering, they scale to simulations, games, particle systems, and data visualizations at native frame rate. Use cases that would choke a virtual DOM. No other framework has anything like this.

<div data-component="user-table">
  <tbody data-pool="users" data-key="id">
    <template>
      <tr>
        <td data-bind="name"></td>
        <td data-bind="status"
            data-bind-class="status === 'active'
              ? 'badge success'
              : 'badge inactive'"></td>
      </tr>
    </template>
  </tbody>
</div>
wildflower.component('user-table', {
  pools: { users: {} },

  init() {
    // Populate: plain objects, no proxies
    data.forEach(u => this.pools.users.add(u));
  },

  // Optional: add tick() and the same pool
  // renders every frame. Same template, same
  // data, different rendering frequency.
  // That's the only difference between a
  // display table and a particle system.
})

Built for AI-Assisted Development

Because WildflowerJS is standard HTML and JavaScript, AI code assistants already know how to write it. There's no custom syntax to hallucinate or compiler quirks to work around. The code an AI generates runs exactly as written, with no build step between generation and execution.

We go further. WildflowerJS ships an AI-optimized reference page with patterns, anti-patterns, and examples designed for code generation context windows. Our llms.txt file follows the llms.txt convention for machine-readable documentation.

And for structured app generation, our Universal App Manifest lets you describe an entire application as a JSON schema (components, state, computed properties, methods, templates) and have an AI generate the working code from the manifest, mediated through framework-specific idiom files.

You: "Build me a todo app with
WildflowerJS"

AI reads llms.txt or ai-assistant.html
     ↓
Generates standard HTML + JS
     ↓
<div data-component="todo-app">
  <input data-model="newItem">
  <button data-action="addItem">
    Add
  </button>
  <ul data-list="items">
    <template>
      <li data-bind="text"></li>
    </template>
  </ul>
</div>
     ↓
Open in your browser. It works, and you can read and understand the code.

Lifecycle Patterns

Practical patterns and best practices for using lifecycle hooks effectively in your WildflowerJS components.

💡 Prerequisite: This page builds on the Lifecycle Hooks reference. Make sure you're familiar with the core hooks before exploring these patterns.

Advanced Lifecycle Patterns

External Library Integration

Use lifecycle hooks to integrate with external libraries:

wildflower.component('chart-widget', {
    state: {
        chartData: [10, 20, 30, 40, 50]
    },

    // Use watcher to track specific data changes
    watch: {
        chartData(newData) {
            // Update chart when data changes
            if (this._chart) {
                this._chart.data.datasets[0].data = newData.slice()
                this._chart.update('none')
            }
        }
    },

    init() {
        // Initialize external chart library
        const canvas = this.element.querySelector('canvas')
        this._chart = new Chart(canvas, {
            type: 'line',
            data: {
                datasets: [{
                    data: this.chartData.slice()
                }]
            }
        })
    },

    destroy() {
        // Clean up external library instance
        if (this._chart) {
            this._chart.destroy()
            this._chart = null
        }
    }
})

Event Listener Management

Properly manage event listeners in lifecycle hooks:

wildflower.component('window-tracker', {
    state: {
        windowWidth: 0,
        windowHeight: 0,
        scrollY: 0
    },

    init() {
        // Set initial values
        this.updateWindowSize()
        this.updateScrollPosition()

        // Bind event handlers
        this.handleResize = this.handleResize.bind(this)
        this.handleScroll = this.handleScroll.bind(this)

        // Add event listeners
        window.addEventListener('resize', this.handleResize)
        window.addEventListener('scroll', this.handleScroll)
    },

    destroy() {
        // Remove event listeners to prevent memory leaks
        window.removeEventListener('resize', this.handleResize)
        window.removeEventListener('scroll', this.handleScroll)
    },

    handleResize() {
        this.updateWindowSize()
    },

    handleScroll() {
        this.updateScrollPosition()
    },

    updateWindowSize() {
        this.windowWidth = window.innerWidth
        this.windowHeight = window.innerHeight
    },

    updateScrollPosition() {
        this.scrollY = window.scrollY
    }
})

Async Data Loading

A common pattern is fetching data from an API with loading, error, and success states. Use async methods with data-show to display each state:

<div data-component="api-data-loader">
    <div class="card mb-3">
        <div class="card-body">
            <h5 class="card-title">Async Data Loading Demo</h5>
            <div class="mb-2">
                <button class="btn btn-primary btn-sm" data-action="loadUsers">Load Users</button>
                <button class="btn btn-secondary btn-sm ms-1" data-action="clear">Clear</button>
            </div>

            <div data-show="loading" class="text-center py-3">
                <div class="spinner-border spinner-border-sm text-primary" role="status"></div>
                <span class="ms-2">Loading...</span>
            </div>

            <div data-show="hasError" class="alert alert-danger py-2 mb-2">
                Error: <span data-bind="error"></span>
            </div>

            <div data-show="isEmpty" class="text-muted">
                No data loaded. Click "Load Users" to fetch from an API.
            </div>

            <ul class="list-group" data-show="hasData" data-list="users">
                <template>
                    <li class="list-group-item">
                        <strong data-bind="name"></strong>
                        <small class="text-muted ms-2" data-bind="email"></small>
                    </li>
                </template>
            </ul>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>
wildflower.component('api-data-loader', {
    state: {
        users: [],
        loading: false,
        error: null
    },

    computed: {
        hasError() { return this.error !== null },
        isEmpty() { return !this.loading && !this.error && this.users.length === 0 },
        hasData() { return this.users.length > 0 }
    },

    async loadUsers() {
        this.loading = true
        this.error = null
        try {
            const response = await fetch('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users')
            if (!response.ok) throw new Error('HTTP ' + response.status)
            this.users = await response.json()
        } catch (err) {
            this.error = err.message
        } finally {
            this.loading = false
        }
    },

    clear() {
        this.users = []
        this.error = null
    }
})
Live Preview

Key points:

  • Use async on the method; WildflowerJS handles async methods naturally
  • Set loading = true before the request, false in finally to guarantee cleanup
  • Use computed properties (hasError, isEmpty, hasData) with data-show to display the correct state
  • Catch errors and store the message so users see what went wrong

Lifecycle Best Practices

✅ Do
  • Initialize external libraries in init()
  • Set up event listeners in init()
  • Clean up resources in destroy()
  • Use onUpdate() for state-based side effects
  • Bind event handlers to preserve this context
❌ Don't
  • Modify state in onUpdate() (causes infinite loops!)
  • Forget to clean up timers and intervals
  • Leave event listeners attached after destruction
  • Perform heavy operations in onUpdate()
  • Access DOM elements before init()

Common Lifecycle Patterns

Use Case Hook Pattern
Measure initial DOM beforeInit() Capture dimensions before bindings modify DOM
API Data Loading init() Fetch initial data, set loading states
Timer/Interval Setup init() + destroy() Start in init, clear in destroy
Global Event Listeners init() + destroy() Add in init, remove in destroy
Capture scroll position beforeUpdate() Save scroll position before DOM changes
DOM operations after update onUpdate() Restore scroll, trigger animations
Track specific property watch Use watchers for specific property changes with old/new values
Save state before removal beforeDestroy() Persist data, save drafts before cleanup
Error Boundary onError() Catch errors, show fallback UI, log to services
Retry After Error onReset() + resetError() Clear error state and retry failed operations
React to Store Changes subscribe + onStoreUpdate() Centralized handling of store path changes
Previous Lifecycle Hooks
Next Computed Properties