FractoState: Advanced Features & Conventions

FractoState has been upgraded with a set of futuristic features to ensure zero name collisions, superior performance, and absolute tactical control over your state updates.

1. Underscore System (Built-in Methods)

To prevent your business data (e.g., a field named set or delete) from colliding with FractoState's internal logic, all built-in methods are now prefixed with an underscore _.

Old: ops.self.user.set("Jean")
New: ops.self.user._set("Jean")

This applies to everything in the toolbox: _merge, _push, _increment, _toggle, _undo, _reset, etc.

2. Forceful vs. Smart Updates

You now have total control over how history and updates are recorded.

Method	Behavior	Use Case
`_set`	Forceful Update. Always commits a change, even if the value is identical.	Triggering repeated effects or manual snapshots.
`_patch`	Smart Update. Compares old and new values. Skips update if identical.	Optimized frequent updates (e.g., cursor tracking).

📖 Deep Dive: For a full comparison and more examples, check out _set vs _patch.

Note: Most specific operators like _increment or _push behave like _patch (they only update if the logic changes the state).

3. Direct State Access (`ops.state`)

Inside your actions, you no longer need to "unwrap" proxies to read values. You can access the raw, immutable current state directly via ops.state.

login: (username: string) => async (ops) => {
  // Read directly - 100% Type-safe
  if (ops.state.isAuthenticated) return;

  // Modify via proxy
  ops.self.user._set({ username, role: "admin" });
};

4. Raw Value Retrieval (`._val`)

If you are deep inside a proxy chain and need the literal value of a node, use the ._val property. It stops the proxy recursion and returns the data.

const count = ops.self.basket.items.length._val;

5. Direct Function Invocation

If your state contains functions (callbacks, dynamic logic), you can now call them directly on the proxy path. FractoState's proxy trap detect types and executes the function for you.

// If 'callback' is in your state
ops.self.system.callback("Operation successful");

6. Type-Safe Action Overloads

The defineFlow and useFlow functions now support 100% perfect type inference for actions. No more any in your component code—everything is strictly typed from the definition to the usage.