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ujsx/docs/architecture/decisions/003-preact-signals-for-reactivity.md
glm-5.1 0d5b9d5ea8 stabilize architecture docs: address review findings and advance to stable
Critical fixes:
- Restructure pointers.md: move setNode prop-key writes section under
  its own heading (was incorrectly nested under selectNode)
- Add Context/Density/Direction/RenderContext documentation section
  to host-config.md (was only a brief constraint bullet)
- Advance all 5 ADRs from Status: Proposed → Accepted and frontmatter
  from status: draft → status: stable (decisions are driving implementation)
- Add error handling philosophy section to README

Warning/suggestion fixes:
- Add isUElement null check (node !== null) to schema.md discriminator table
- Add UjsxEnvelope convenience type documentation to events.md
- Add Direction Unicode arrow naming note to transforms.md
- Standardize all cross-references from absolute docs/research/ paths
  to relative ../research/ paths across all architecture docs
- Fix schema.md ADR references to use relative paths
- Reduce redundancy between transforms.md and host-config.md Direction notes
- Update all architecture doc frontmatter from draft → stable

Deferred:
- Performance model section (reconciler not yet built)
- Concepts/glossary document (low ROI at current scale)
- Line counts in source references (would date quickly)
2026-05-18 16:10:24 +00:00

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---
status: stable
last_updated: 2026-05-18
---
# ADR-003: Preact signals-core for reactivity
**Status**: Accepted
## Context
UJSX needs a reactive primitive for propagating changes through element trees. The reactive layer (ReactiveRoot, reactiveComponent, reactiveElement) needs signal, computed, effect, and batch operations.
## Alternatives Considered
- **Custom reactive implementation**: Write a signal/computed/effect system from scratch. Rejected because writing a correct implementation (cycle detection, batch scheduling, lazy evaluation) is non-trivial and Preact's implementation is battle-tested.
- **Solid.js reactive primitives**: Use Solid's reactive system. Rejected because they're coupled to Solid's render cycle and not published as a standalone package.
- **Vue reactivity**: Use Vue's reactive system. Rejected because it uses Proxy-based tracking which has different performance characteristics and isn't designed for tree-agnostic use.
- **RxJS**: Use observables for reactivity. Rejected because it's an observable/stream model, not a reactive state model. Different paradigm, much larger API surface.
## Decision
Use `@preact/signals-core` as the reactive layer. Re-export its primitives (`signal`, `computed`, `effect`, `batch`) and types (`Signal`, `ReadonlySignal`) from the UJSX reactive module.
## Consequences
### Positive
- Proven implementation with ~800 lines of battle-tested code, used in Preact and adopted by other frameworks.
- Small dependency surface — `@preact/signals-core` has zero dependencies.
- Batch scheduling is built-in, matching the reconciliation model planned for the reconciler.
- Future consumers (flowgraph reactive host) can use the same signal/computed/effect primitives without a different reactive library.
### Negative
- UJSX re-exports Preact signals, creating a coupling. If Preact signals changes its scheduling model, UJSX is affected.
- The `effect` return value (dispose function) is currently discarded in reactiveComponent/reactiveElement — the dispose functions are no-ops. This is a known gap that the reconciler work addresses.