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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.

Common Mistakes

Frequently encountered mistakes and how to fix them when working with WildflowerJS.

API Mistakes

These are the most common API usage errors:

Wrong Right Why
wildflower.createStore('name', {...}) wildflower.store('name', {...}) createStore does not exist
this.getStore('name') wildflower.getStore('name') Stores are global, not per-component
store.state.value store.value Store proxy exposes state properties directly
querySelector('[data-bind="X"]') Use id attributes on elements data-bind is stripped from the DOM after binding

Template Mistakes

WildflowerJS uses standard HTML data attributes, not interpolation syntax:

Wrong Right Why
<div data-list="items"><div>...</div></div> <div data-list="items"><template>...</template></div> data-list requires a <template> child
{{variable}} or {variable} <span data-bind="variable"></span> WildflowerJS doesn't use interpolation syntax
data-if="condition" data-show="condition" or data-render="condition" data-if doesn't exist in WildflowerJS

State & Reactivity Mistakes

Understanding WildflowerJS reactivity prevents unnecessary workarounds:

Wrong Right Why
Always using immutable spreads:
this.items = [...items, newItem]		 this.items.push(newItem) Direct mutation works for most cases; immutable spread is only needed for top-level array append
Spreading parent for nested mutation:
this.columns = [...this.columns]		 this.columns[0].cards.push(card) Deep proxy handles nested mutations automatically
Reading state behind a short-circuit:
return s.field === 'X' && s.id === item.id		 Read both eagerly first:
const f = s.field, id = s.id;
return f === 'X' && id === item.id		 The proxy only tracks reads that actually happen. JavaScript's && short-circuits and skips reading the right side when the left is falsy, so that dep never gets tracked. Eagerly destructuring at the top of the computed guarantees both fields are tracked.
The short-circuit dep-tracking gotcha. When a computed property has a conditional like a && b or a ? b : c, the WildflowerJS dependency tracker only records reads that the JavaScript engine actually performed. If a is falsy on the first evaluation, b is never read, and the binding doesn't track b as a dependency. Later, when b changes but a hasn't, the binding doesn't wake up. The symptom is usually non-deterministic: the UI updates correctly for some click sequences and silently fails for others. The fix is to read all potentially-relevant state fields eagerly at the top of the computed, before any branching logic. This same pattern exists in every Proxy-based reactive system (Vue, Solid, MobX, Preact Signals); see Conditional reads and dep tracking for the technical explanation.

Store Definition Mistakes

Store methods go at the top level of the definition. There is no actions or methods block:

// ❌ Wrong: methods in an actions block
wildflower.store('counter', {
    state: { count: 0 },
    actions: {
        increment() { this.count++ }  // "actions" block doesn't exist
    }
})

// ✅ Right: methods at top level
wildflower.store('counter', {
    state: { count: 0 },
    increment() { this.count++ }
})

Binding Mistakes

WildflowerJS does not have individual data-bind-* attributes for every HTML attribute. Use data-bind-attr or data-bind-style instead:

Wrong Right Why
data-bind-disabled="isDisabled" data-bind-attr="{ disabled: isDisabled }" data-bind-disabled doesn't exist; use data-bind-attr for HTML attributes
Using CSS classes for dynamic widths:
class="progress-width-75"		 data-bind-style="{ width: pct + '%' }" Use data-bind-style for dynamic inline styles

Method Naming Mistakes

The framework drives certain method names directly. If you define a non-lifecycle method (an action handler or helper) using one of these reserved names, it will run on the framework's schedule, not yours:

Reserved: init, beforeInit, destroy, beforeDestroy, onUpdate, beforeUpdate, onError, tick.

// ❌ Wrong: "tick" is reserved. The framework calls it every
//          animation frame for components in the pool loop, not on click.
wildflower.component('counter', {
    state: { count: 0 },
    tick() { this.count++ }
})
<button data-action="tick">Click</button>  <!-- this won't behave as you expect -->

// ✅ Right: name the action something specific.
wildflower.component('counter', {
    state: { count: 0 },
    increment() { this.count++ }
})
<button data-action="increment">Click</button>

See Lifecycle Hooks for the full list and what each reserved name does.

Interactive Demo

This demo shows the correct patterns in action: a counter, a list with add/remove, and computed properties:

<div data-component="common-mistakes-demo">
    <div class="my-3">
        <strong>Counter:</strong> <span data-bind="count"></span>
        <button class="btn btn-sm btn-primary ms-2" data-action="increment">+1</button>
        <button class="btn btn-sm btn-secondary ms-1" data-action="decrement">-1</button>
    </div>

    <div class="my-3">
        <strong>Items:</strong> <span data-bind="itemCount"></span>
        <button class="btn btn-sm btn-success ms-2" data-action="addItem">Add Item</button>
        <button class="btn btn-sm btn-danger ms-1" data-action="removeLastItem">Remove Last</button>
    </div>

    <ul class="list-group mb-3" data-list="items">
        <template>
            <li class="list-group-item d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center">
                <span data-bind="name"></span>
                <span class="badge bg-primary" data-bind="id"></span>
            </li>
        </template>
    </ul>

    <div data-show="hasItems">
        <small class="text-muted">Showing <span data-bind="itemCount"></span> item(s).</small>
    </div>
</div>
wildflower.component('common-mistakes-demo', {
    state: {
        count: 0,
        items: [
            { id: 1, name: 'First item' },
            { id: 2, name: 'Second item' }
        ],
        nextId: 3
    },

    computed: {
        itemCount() { return this.items.length },
        hasItems() { return this.items.length > 0 }
    },

    increment() { this.count++ },
    decrement() { this.count-- },

    addItem() {
        const id = this.nextId++
        this.items.push({ id, name: 'Item ' + id })
    },

    removeLastItem() {
        if (this.items.length > 0) {
            this.items.pop()
        }
    }
})
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