jotai

What is jotai?

Jotai is a state management library for React that focuses on atomic state management. It allows you to manage state in a more granular and efficient way by breaking down the state into smaller, independent atoms.

What are jotai's main functionalities?

Basic Atom

This feature allows you to create a basic atom and use it in a React component. The `atom` function creates a new atom with an initial state, and the `useAtom` hook allows you to read and update the atom's state.

import { atom, useAtom } from 'jotai';

const countAtom = atom(0);

function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useAtom(countAtom);
  return (
    <div>
      <p>{count}</p>
      <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Increment</button>
    </div>
  );
}

Derived Atom

This feature allows you to create a derived atom that depends on the state of another atom. The `doubledCountAtom` is derived from `countAtom` and always holds double the value of `countAtom`.

import { atom, useAtom } from 'jotai';

const countAtom = atom(0);
const doubledCountAtom = atom((get) => get(countAtom) * 2);

function DoubledCounter() {
  const [doubledCount] = useAtom(doubledCountAtom);
  return <p>{doubledCount}</p>;
}

Async Atom

This feature allows you to create an atom that handles asynchronous operations. The `fetchUserAtom` fetches user data from an API and the `User` component displays the user's name once the data is loaded.

import { atom, useAtom } from 'jotai';

const fetchUserAtom = atom(async () => {
  const response = await fetch('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users/1');
  return response.json();
});

function User() {
  const [user] = useAtom(fetchUserAtom);
  return user ? <p>{user.name}</p> : <p>Loading...</p>;
}

Other packages similar to jotai

recoil

Recoil is another state management library for React that provides a similar atomic state management approach. It allows you to create atoms and selectors to manage and derive state. Compared to Jotai, Recoil offers more built-in features like selectors and persistence, but Jotai is simpler and more lightweight.

zustand

Zustand is a small, fast, and scalable state management library for React. It uses a different approach by creating a global store with hooks to access and update the state. While Jotai focuses on atomic state management, Zustand provides a more traditional global state management solution.

redux

Redux is a widely-used state management library for JavaScript applications. It uses a single global store and actions to manage state changes. Compared to Jotai, Redux is more complex and requires more boilerplate code, but it offers a robust and scalable solution for large applications.

README

npm i jotai or visit jotai.org

Jotai is pronounced "joe-tie" and means "state" in Japanese.

You can try live demos in the following: Demo 1 | Demo 2.

How does Jotai differ from Recoil?

• Minimalistic API
• No string keys
• TypeScript oriented

First create a primitive atom

An atom represents a piece of state. All you need is to specify an initial value, which can be primitive values like strings and numbers, objects and arrays. You can create as many primitive atoms as you want.

import { atom } from 'jotai'

const countAtom = atom(0)
const countryAtom = atom('Japan')
const citiesAtom = atom(['Tokyo', 'Kyoto', 'Osaka'])
const mangaAtom = atom({ 'Dragon Ball': 1984, 'One Piece': 1997, Naruto: 1999 })

Use the atom in your components

It can be used like React.useState:

import { useAtom } from 'jotai'

function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useAtom(countAtom)
  return (
    <h1>
      {count}
      <button onClick={() => setCount(c => c + 1)}>one up</button>

Create derived atoms with computed values

A new read-only atom can be created from existing atoms by passing a read function as the first argument. get allows you to fetch the contextual value of any atom.

const doubledCountAtom = atom((get) => get(countAtom) * 2)

function DoubleCounter() {
  const [doubledCount] = useAtom(doubledCountAtom)
  return <h2>{doubledCount}</h2>

Recipes

Creating an atom from multiple atoms

You can combine multiple atoms to create a derived atom.

const count1 = atom(1)
const count2 = atom(2)
const count3 = atom(3)

const sum = atom((get) => get(count1) + get(count2) + get(count3))

Or if you like fp patterns ...

const atoms = [count1, count2, count3, ...otherAtoms]
const sum = atom((get) => atoms.map(get).reduce((acc, count) => acc + count))

Derived async atoms

You can make the read function an async function too.

const urlAtom = atom("https://json.host.com")
const fetchUrlAtom = atom(
  async (get) => {
    const response = await fetch(get(urlAtom))
    return await response.json()
  }
)

function Status() {
  // Re-renders the component after urlAtom changed and the async function above concludes
  const [json] = useAtom(fetchUrlAtom)

You can create a writable derived atom

Specify a write function at the second argument. get will return the current value of an atom. set will update an atoms value.

const decrementCountAtom = atom(
  (get) => get(countAtom),
  (get, set, _arg) => set(countAtom, get(countAtom) - 1),
)

function Counter() {
  const [count, decrement] = useAtom(decrementCountAtom)
  return (
    <h1>
      {count}
      <button onClick={decrement}>Decrease</button>

Write only atoms

Just do not define a read function.

const multiplyCountAtom = atom(null, (get, set, by) => set(countAtom, get(countAtom) * by))

function Controls() {
  const [, multiply] = useAtom(multiplyCountAtom)
  return <button onClick={() => multiply(3)}>triple</button>

Async actions

Just make the write function an async function and call set when you're ready.

const fetchCountAtom = atom(
  (get) => get(countAtom),
  async (_get, set, url) => {
    const response = await fetch(url)
    set(countAtom, (await response.json()).count)
  }
)

function Controls() {
  const [count, compute] = useAtom(fetchCountAtom)
  return <button onClick={() => compute("http://count.host.com")}>compute</button>

Installation notes

This package requires some peer dependencies, which you need to install by yourself.

yarn add jotai react

Learn Jotai

More documents

• Basics
  • Concepts
  • Primitives
  • Comparison
  • Showcase
• Guides
  • Async
  • TypeScript
  • Debugging
  • Testing
  • Persistence
  • Next.js
  • React Native
  • Resettable
  • Atoms in atom
• API
  • Core
  • Utils
  • Devtools
  • Babel
• Integrations
  • Immer
  • Optics
  • Query
  • XState
  • Valtio
  • Zustand
  • Redux
  • URQL
• Advanced Recipes
  • Large Objects
  • Atom Creators