declarative-rules

🚦 Declarative Rules

Tired of messy if/else chains? Spiraling conditional complexity got you down?

Declarative Rules offers a clean, powerful, and flexible way to manage complex business logic. Define your conditions as a set of "rules," and let the engine find the right answer.

Why you'll love it

• ✅ Clean & Readable: Say goodbye to nested ternaries and complex conditional blocks. Your logic becomes self-documenting.
• ✨ Extensible: Adding new rules is as simple as a single line of code, without touching the core logic.
• 🔒 Type-Safe: Full TypeScript support ensures that your rules and their outputs are always correct.
• 🚀 Flexible: Works for simple role lookups or complex, nested logic trees.

Core Concepts

The pattern is simple. There are three main players:

• The Rules Class: Your rulebook! It's a super-powered Map with a friendly, fluent API for defining rules (.setRule()) and a safety net (.setDefault()).
• The applyRules Function: The referee! It takes your rulebook and some data, runs through the rules, and returns the prize from the first one that matches.
• Predicate Functions: The players! These are tiny, pure functions that hold a single piece of logic. They take some data and return true or false.

This setup keeps your business rules separate from the code that runs them, making your logic a joy to work with.

Example 1: The VIP Lounge 👑

Let's start with a classic: figuring out who gets access to the VIP lounge at an exclusive club.

1. Meet the Guests & Write the Rules

First, we define our Guest and the rules for entry.

import { Rules, applyRules } from 'declarative-rules';

// A guest at our club
type Guest = {
  name: string;
  visits: number;
  isFriendOfOwner: boolean;
};

// Our simple, single-purpose predicate functions
const isVIP = (guest: Guest) => guest.name === 'Taylor Swift';
const isFriend = (guest: Guest) => guest.isFriendOfOwner;
const isLoyal = (guest: Guest) => guest.visits > 100;

2. Build the Rulebook

Next, we use the Rules class to create our access list. The order is key—the first rule that matches wins!

const accessLevelRules = new Rules<string, Guest>()
  .setRule(isVIP, 'Access All Areas 🌟')
  .setRule(isFriend, 'VIP Lounge Access 🥂')
  .setRule(isLoyal, 'Free Drink Voucher 🍹')
  .setDefault('General Admission 🎟️'); // Everyone else gets this

3. Check the List!

Now, let's see who gets in. We use applyRules to check our guests against the rulebook.

const regularJoe = { name: 'Joe', visits: 10, isFriendOfOwner: false };
const taylor = { name: 'Taylor Swift', visits: 999, isFriendOfOwner: true };

// applyRules does the hard work for us!
const joesAccess = applyRules(regularJoe, accessLevelRules); // "General Admission 🎟️"
const taylorsAccess = applyRules(taylor, accessLevelRules);   // "Access All Areas 🌟"

Example 2: The Magic Item Shop 🧙‍♂️ (Advanced)

This is where the real magic happens! What if a rule's outcome was... another set of rules?

Let's determine the price and description of a magic item based on its properties.

1. Define the Rules for Magic Items

First, let's define the shape of our data and the predicates that will test it. This makes our rules easier to read and maintain.

import { Rules, applyRules } from 'declarative-rules';

// The data for a magic item
type Item = {
  rarity: 'legendary' | 'enchanted' | 'common';
  isCursed: boolean;
};

// The final object we want to create
type ItemInfo = {
  price: string;
  description: string;
};

// Predicates to check the item's properties
const isLegendary = (item: Item) => item.rarity === 'legendary';
const isEnchanted = (item: Item) => item.rarity === 'enchanted';
const isLegendaryAndCursed = (item: Item) => isLegendary(item) && item.isCursed;

Now we'll build two rulebooks: one for the item's description and a more complex one for its pricing, which will use the first one.

// --- First, the Description Rulebook ---
// This one is simple: it just returns a string.
const descriptionRules = new Rules<string, Item>()
  .setRule(isLegendary, 'Forged in dragon fire! 🔥')
  .setRule(isEnchanted, 'Glows with a faint magical aura. ✨')
  .setDefault('A standard, well-made item.');

// --- Now, the Pricing Rulebook ---
// The values here are FUNCTIONS that call applyRules with our other rulebook!
const pricingRules = new Rules<(item: Item) => ItemInfo, Item>()
  .setRule(isLegendaryAndCursed, (item) => ({
    price: 'Priceless',
    description: 'A powerful but dangerous artifact!', // Custom description
  }))
  .setRule(isLegendary, (item) => ({
    price: '10,000 Gold',
    description: applyRules(item, descriptionRules), // Nested call!
  }))
  .setRule(isEnchanted, (item) => ({
    price: '500 Gold',
    description: applyRules(item, descriptionRules), // Nested call!
  }))
  .setDefault((item) => ({
    price: '50 Gold',
    description: applyRules(item, descriptionRules), // Nested call!
  }));

2. How It Works

The flow is like a waterfall:

• Top Level: We call applyRules with pricingRules. It finds the first match (e.g., isLegendary) and returns the function associated with it.
• Nested Level: We then call that function, which in turn calls applyRules with descriptionRules to get the final, detailed description.

This keeps our logic neatly organized, even when it gets complex!

💡 Pro Tip: When nesting, the context object passed to the root applyRules call is automatically available to all child rules. If a child rule needs extra data, simply include it in the context object passed to the initial call.

Best Practices 🚀

• Order Matters: Chain your most specific rules first with .setRule(). The first match always wins.
• Always Set a Default: Every Rules instance should end with .setDefault(). This is your safety net, ensuring you never have an unhandled case.