lazily

Lazy reactive primitives for Rust — Context, Slots, Cells with automatic dependency tracking and cache invalidation.

Overview

lazily provides five core primitives for reactive computation:

• Context — owns all reactive state and manages the dependency graph
• Slot — a lazily-computed cached value that automatically tracks dependencies
• Cell — a mutable value that invalidates dependent Slots when changed
• Signal — an eager derived value that recomputes the instant a dependency invalidates, with no intermediate unset value
• Effect — a side-effect callback that automatically reruns after tracked dependencies invalidate

Values are lazy by default: dependents are marked dirty on invalidation but only validated or recomputed when accessed. When you need eager push-style semantics — recompute immediately, observe v1 -> v2 with no unset window — reach for Signal, which layers a puller effect over a memoized slot. The Slot -> Cell -> Signal progression lets you choose lazy or eager per derived value within one graph. ctx.memo() Slots use a memo guard: if recomputation produces the same value, downstream dirty caches and effects are left alone. Multiple updates can be grouped with ctx.batch(...) so invalidation and effect reruns happen once after the outermost batch exits.

Development

Minimum supported Rust version (MSRV): 1.88 — declared via rust-version in Cargo.toml. The crate uses let_chains (stabilized in 1.88) pervasively.

Run the local CI-equivalent suite with:

make check

The Makefile also exposes focused targets such as make test-tokio, make test-loom, make benchmark-check, and make benchmark-update.

Usage

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use lazily::Context;

let ctx = Context::new();

// Create a mutable cell
let counter = ctx.cell(0i32);

// Create a derived value (automatically tracks dependencies)
let doubled = ctx.computed(|ctx| {
    let val = counter.get(ctx);
    val * 2
});

assert_eq!(doubled.get(&ctx), 0);

// Mutate the cell — dependents are marked dirty (not recomputed yet)
counter.set(&ctx, 5);

// Slot recomputes lazily on next access
assert_eq!(doubled.get(&ctx), 10);

// Effects run immediately and then after tracked dependencies change
let effect = ctx.effect(move |ctx| {
    println!("counter = {}", counter.get(ctx));
});

counter.set(&ctx, 6); // schedules and runs the effect once
effect.dispose(&ctx); // unsubscribes and prevents future reruns

// Batch writes coalesce invalidation and effect reruns.
ctx.batch(|ctx| {
    counter.set(ctx, 7);
    counter.set(ctx, 8);
});
}

Why Lazy?

In a web server handling requests, you might have 50 computed values available but any given request only uses 5. With eager reactivity, all 50 recompute on every change. With lazy, only the 5 actually accessed compute.

lazily defaults to lazy but does not force the choice on you: derive with ctx.computed()/ctx.memo() for pull-based laziness, or ctx.signal() for the eager column above (UI rendering, real-time mirrors, always-materialized values). Both share the same context, dependency graph, glitch-freedom, and memo guard — pick per value.

Core Concepts

Context

Context owns all Slots and Cells. It manages the dependency graph and provides the API for creating, reading, and mutating reactive values. Think of it as the “world” for your reactive computations — in web frameworks, this maps to a request context, application scope, or component tree.

The current Context is intentionally single-threaded. It uses RefCell and non-Send callback storage to keep the fast path allocation-only and mutex-free. Create independent contexts per OS thread for local graphs, or use ThreadSafeContext when one reactive graph must be shared across threads.

Slot

A SlotHandle<T> wraps a compute function Fn(&Context) -> T. The result is cached after first access. Dependencies are discovered automatically via a thread-local tracking stack — any Slot or Cell accessed during computation becomes a dependency. ctx.computed() is the ergonomic name for a derived value; ctx.slot() is the same primitive. Use ctx.memo() when T: PartialEq and equal recomputations should suppress downstream work.

When a dependency is invalidated, the Slot marks its cached value dirty. It does not validate or recompute until ctx.get() is called again. For ctx.memo() slots, if recomputation returns a value equal to the previous cache, downstream dirty Slots become fresh without recomputing, and scheduled effects that only depended on unchanged Slots skip cleanup/rerun.

Dependencies are dynamic. Every time a Slot recomputes, it re-discovers its dependencies from scratch. If your compute function has conditional branches that access different Cells depending on state, the dependency graph updates automatically. No stale subscriptions, no manual cleanup.

Cell

A CellHandle<T> holds a mutable value. cell.set(&ctx, value) and ctx.set_cell() compare old and new values via PartialEq — if unchanged, no invalidation occurs. If changed, all dependent Slots are recursively marked dirty.

Signal

A SignalHandle<T> is an eager derived value — the eager counterpart to a lazy Slot, one step further along the Slot -> Cell -> Signal progression. Where a Slot only marks itself dirty on invalidation and recomputes on the next read, a Signal recomputes the instant a dependency is invalidated, before the invalidating set/set_cell/batch call returns. The value is always materialized, so observers never see an intermediate unset value — a dependency change drives the value directly from v1 to v2.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
let n = ctx.cell(1);
let doubled = ctx.signal(|ctx| n.get(ctx) * 2); // materialized now: 2
n.set(&ctx, 5);                                  // doubled is already 10 — eager
assert_eq!(doubled.get(&ctx), 10);
}

A Signal is composed from existing primitives, not a parallel engine: a memoized Slot (ctx.memo) supplies glitch-free, pull-based, memo-guarded recomputation, and a small puller Effect re-materializes that slot after every invalidation to supply the eagerness. Consequently a Signal inherits the memo guard (an equal recompute suppresses downstream work) and diamond glitch-freedom (D = f(A, g(A)) never surfaces a mixed new-A/old-g(A) intermediate), and batched writes settle to one consistent recomputation at batch exit.

ctx.signal() requires T: PartialEq + 'static (the memo guard); get_signal additionally requires T: Clone. signal.dispose(&ctx) removes the eager puller — the value stays readable but reverts to lazy (recompute-on-read) behavior. The same primitive is available on ThreadSafeContext (signal, returning a Send + Sync ThreadSafeSignalHandle<T>) and AsyncContext (signal_async, with a non-blocking get_signal snapshot and an awaiting get_signal_async); see SPEC.md for the per-context type bounds and the async eagerness caveat.

Batch Updates

ctx.batch(|ctx| { ... }) groups multiple cell updates and explicit slot/cell clears into one invalidation pass. Nested batches flush only when the outermost batch exits. Direct ctx.get_cell() reads inside the callback see the latest cell value immediately; changed-cell dependents are marked dirty after the batch, so Slot reads during the callback return their pre-batch cached value until the batch completes.

Effect

An EffectHandle represents a side-effect callback registered with ctx.effect(). Effects run immediately, track any Slots or Cells read during that run, and rerun after those dependencies invalidate. Scheduled effect reruns are flushed after the invalidation pass, so diamond dependency paths coalesce to one rerun. Effects scheduled only by dirty Slot dependencies first validate those Slots and skip cleanup/rerun when values are unchanged.

Effects can return a cleanup closure. Cleanup runs before the next rerun and when the handle is disposed:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
let effect = ctx.effect(move |ctx| {
    let value = counter.get(ctx);
    move || println!("cleanup for {value}")
});

effect.dispose(&ctx);
}

API

ThreadSafeContext

ThreadSafeContext is the mutex-backed counterpart for sharing one reactive graph across OS threads. It mirrors the core Context methods while requiring Send + Sync + 'static values and compute/effect callbacks. The graph lock is released before user compute callbacks, effect callbacks, or cleanup closures run, so callbacks can re-enter the same context without deadlocking. If a slot is invalidated while its callback is running, the stale result is discarded and the getter retries before returning a fresh value.

Design

• Lazy by default, eager on demand: Slots mark dirty on invalidation and validate/recompute on access; ctx.signal() opts a value into eager recomputation (a memo-slot + puller-effect composition) with no intermediate unset state
• Ergonomic aliases: ctx.computed() names derived values while preserving ctx.slot() for low-level terminology
• PartialEq guard: CellHandle::set() only invalidates when value actually changes
• Memo guard: Dirty ctx.memo() Slots compare recomputed values and suppress downstream recomputation/effect reruns when values are equal
• Dynamic dependencies: Edges re-discovered on each recomputation (no stale subscriptions)
• Batching: Multiple writes share one invalidation/effect flush boundary
• Effect scheduling: Effects rerun after dependency invalidation and coalesce duplicate schedules
• Slot-id-indexed contiguous node storage for the single-threaded fast path
• Interior mutability via RefCell (single-threaded)
• Thread-local tracking stack for automatic dependency discovery
• Zero mandatory runtime dependencies in the default library surface
• Optional instrumentation feature for benchmark counters, lock timing, and thread-safe lock attribution

Threading Roadmap

lazily-rs guarantees local, single-threaded Context graphs plus an explicit ThreadSafeContext for shared graphs. SlotHandle<T> and CellHandle<T> are Send + Sync when T is Send + Sync, and EffectHandle is also Send + Sync, but handles must be used with their owning context.

Enable the optional loom feature to run the thread-safe synchronization model:

cargo test --features loom --test thread_safe_loom

Enable the optional tokio feature for sync-on-Tokio integration tests and the tokio_sync example:

cargo test --features tokio
cargo run --example tokio_sync --features tokio

The feature proves ThreadSafeContext can be shared through tokio::spawn and tokio::task::spawn_blocking. It does not add async computations or effects; those need the separate AsyncContext design captured in SPEC.md, including in-flight future deduplication, stale completion handling, cleanup ordering, and separate Send versus LocalSet surfaces.

ThreadSafeContext intentionally keeps one mutex-backed graph lock while fresh cached slot reads use a per-slot read-mostly cached-value sidecar. Dependency edges, dirty/revision state, cached-value publication, batching, and effect queues still mutate under the graph mutex. In-flight recompute waiters use per-slot generation Condvar sidecars so they can park while the compute owner runs user code, and a completion only wakes waiters for that finished slot. Per-slot dependency summaries let cell-only dirty refreshes claim the SlotId-partitioned recompute sidecar and skip the graph-locked get_refresh dependency scan before the final publish mutation. Changed-cell and slot-value invalidation build an explicit frontier plan, then apply dirty flags, revisions, and effect scheduling in one graph-mutex mutation boundary; slot-only changed-cell frontiers may publish dirty state through per-node sidecars with cache-revision dirty epochs instead. The thread_safe_graph_propagation benchmarks compare fan-out eager validation, fan-out/fan-in lazy dirty epoch publication, and fan-in batched flush behavior with lock attribution, effect queue pushes, dependency-edge counters, sidecar dirty marks, sidecar fallbacks, and dirty epoch advances. Sharded-lock or CAS variants should wait for lock wait/hold benchmark evidence and a Loom or Shuttle safety model for stale in-flight completion, invalidation during compute, dynamic dependency cleanup/disposal, effect scheduling/disposal, and re-entrant callbacks. A lock-free versioned optimistic read path is deferred until cached values can be retained independently of graph-protected erased-value storage.

Benchmarks

See BENCHMARKS.md for full benchmark results, regression budgets, lock attribution, and instrumentation profiles.

Multi-Language

lazily is implemented across three languages with shared semantics:

Cross-Channel Compatibility

The cross-language family should use one graph-state protocol across channels: IpcMessage::Snapshot and IpcMessage::Delta. Rust FFI is viable as a narrow C ABI adapter with opaque handles and owned byte buffers, not by sharing live Rust contexts, closures, typed handles, or references across the ABI.

IPC, WebSocket frames, WebRTC data channels, and FFI byte buffers can then carry the same permission-filtered snapshots and deltas. Transport code owns framing, memory ownership, reliability, and back-pressure; lazily semantics stay in the shared message schema.

Enable the ffi feature for the C ABI adapter. It exposes an opaque LazilyFfiChannel, JSON IpcMessage validation/classification helpers, and Rust-owned LazilyFfiBytes buffers with an explicit free function. The adapter re-encodes every accepted frame as canonical IpcMessage JSON, so FFI callers share the same state plane as other channels.

Related

• lazily-zig — Zig implementation with FFI support
• lazily-py — Python implementation with context-as-dict
• Blog post: Lazily — Reactive Primitives Done Right

License

MIT