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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.

Composition Patterns All

A short map of how WildflowerJS apps fit together. Four kinds of composition, each backed by a small set of concrete features. Use this page to pick which feature you want, then click through to its implementation docs for the details.

Why a separate page for this? Most framework docs jump straight into APIs. Knowing the four kinds of composition first makes the rest of the docs faster to navigate, because every feature you'll meet is a concrete instance of one of them.

The Four Kinds

Kind Mechanism Use it for
Structural <template> + data-use-template Reusing visual fragments across components. A child slots a piece of UI from its parent.
Logic wildflower.component + wildflower.store Owning state and behaviour. Components own UI logic; stores own cross-component or cross-page data.
Action data-action delegation Connecting parent UI to child methods (or vice versa) without prop drilling. Click handlers find their owner by walking up the DOM.
Temporal SSR hydration + lazy template resolution Composing the app over time as scripts and templates arrive. New components register; existing ones rescan; nothing pre-loads.

Structural Composition

A child component asks its parent for a template by name. The parent (or any ancestor) provides the markup; the child instantiates it and binds its own state. The same child renders differently in different parents, with no JavaScript change.

<!-- Parent provides the template -->
<div data-component="dashboard">
    <template data-item-template="userCard">
        <div class="card">
            <h3 data-bind="name"></h3>
            <p data-bind="role"></p>
        </div>
    </template>

    <!-- Child consumes it -->
    <div data-component="user-list">
        <div data-list="users" data-key="id">
            <template data-use-template="userCard"></template>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

Resolution walks up the DOM tree from the child. The closest ancestor with a matching template wins. To target a specific component instead of "closest," use data-use-template="userCard@dashboard".

When to reach for it: a child component's visual shape depends on context. Same logic, different look in different parents. Read more in Configurable Templates and Advanced Configurable Templates.

What it is not: data-driven variants on a single child instance. For "render a different template based on a state value," see Dynamic Templates (data-template-key).

Logic Composition

Two primitives, picked by lifespan and scope.

Components

A component owns the state and behaviour for a chunk of UI. Lifecycle is tied to its DOM element: created when the element is inserted, destroyed when the element is removed. State on a component is private to that instance.

wildflower.component('counter', {
    state: { count: 0 },
    increment() { this.state.count++; }
});

Stores

A store owns state that needs to outlive any single component, or be shared across components, or persist across route changes. Stores are global by name and live for the lifetime of the application.

wildflower.store('cart', {
    state: { items: [] },
    add(product) { this.state.items.push(product); },
    computed: {
        total() { return this.state.items.reduce((s, i) => s + i.price, 0); }
    }
});

wildflower.component('header', {
    subscribe: ['cart'],
    // this.stores.cart.total reactively updates
});

When to reach for which: default to a component. Reach for a store when two or more components need the same state, or when state must survive a route change. Read more in Basic Stores and Advanced Stores.

Action Composition

An event handler attached with data-action finds its owning component by walking up the DOM. The button doesn't need to know which component it belongs to; the framework figures it out at click time.

<div data-component="todo-list">
    <ul data-list="items" data-key="id">
        <template>
            <li>
                <span data-bind="title"></span>
                <!-- This button's click bubbles up to todo-list.removeItem -->
                <button data-action="removeItem">✕</button>
            </li>
        </template>
    </ul>
</div>
wildflower.component('todo-list', {
    state: { items: [{ id: 1, title: 'Write docs' }] },
    removeItem(event, element, details) {
        // details.index identifies which item the click came from
        this.state.items.splice(details.index, 1);
    }
});

The same delegation works across nested components: a button inside a child component can target a method on a grandparent if no closer ancestor handles it. This is how parents "skin" children without coupling: the parent provides the template (Structural Composition), and the actions inside that template still resolve to the parent's methods.

When to reach for it: any time a UI fragment needs to invoke logic owned by something further up the tree. Read more in Event Handling.

Temporal Composition

The framework follows the DOM. Components and templates can register at any time; nothing pre-resolves at startup.

Hydration: claim and adopt

Server-rendered HTML carries state inline (input value attributes, bound text nodes, list items already populated). On the client, the framework scans for data-ssr markers, parses state out of the live DOM, attaches reactivity to the existing nodes, and only renders fresh content where SSR didn't reach. No double-render. No flicker. Read more in Server-Side Rendering.

Lazy template resolution

A child component's data-use-template lookup runs at first-render time, not at scan time. As long as the parent's template is in the DOM by the moment the child renders, resolution succeeds. Templates added later can be picked up explicitly via wildflower.rescanItemTemplates(componentId).

Inline fallback content

If a referenced template hasn't loaded yet (or never will), the framework falls back to inline content placed inside the data-use-template element. Soft failure mode for asynchronous code splitting.

<div data-use-template="fancyCard" data-with="item">
    <!-- Fallback if fancyCard isn't registered yet -->
    <div><span data-bind="item.title"></span></div>
</div>

When to reach for it: mostly automatic. The patterns matter when you ship a multi-file app where templates and components arrive out of order. Read more in Configurable Templates and SSR.

Three Principles That Follow

The four kinds compose into three working principles users tend to hit in practice.

The DOM is the source of truth. Hydration reads state from rendered HTML. Template resolution walks the live DOM. Action delegation finds owners by ancestor lookup. There is no parallel virtual tree the framework consults; the document is the database.
Parents skin children. A child component declares which template it needs by name; the parent provides the markup. Children supply behaviour, parents supply shape. The same child component renders three different ways across three different parents with no JavaScript change.
Animation, persistence, and side concerns are pluggable. The framework provides hooks (lifecycle, transitions, watchers); user code or third-party libraries provide the engines. List item animations use AutoAnimate via dynamic import(). Persistence is opt-in inside store methods. Bundle size scales with what you actually use.

Where to Go Next

Previous Communication
Next Single-File Components
Related patterns: Component Composition