name: cradova description: Build web applications with Cradova - a lightweight reactive framework. Use when working with Cradova, creating web apps, building SPAs, or comparing frontend frameworks. Includes guidance on Signal-based state, hooks, routing, and performance optimization.

Cradova Framework

Cradova is a lightweight, reactive UI framework for building web applications. It uses direct DOM manipulation (no virtual DOM), signal-based pub/sub reactivity, and a VJS (Virtual JavaScript) specification instead of JSX.

When to Use Cradova

• Building SPAs or PWAs
• Projects where bundle size matters (~15KB framework)
• Apps requiring fine-grained reactivity
• When you want simplicity without JSX
• Projects targeting low-end devices

Critical Conventions

ALWAYS use regular functions, NOT arrow functions, for reactive components:

// CORRECT - regular function receives ctx with hooks
const MyComponent = function(ctx: Comp) {
  const [count, setCount] = ctx.useState(0);
  return div("Count: " + count);
};

// WRONG - arrow function does NOT receive ctx
const Broken = () => {
  // ctx is undefined - hooks will fail!
  const [count, setCount] = ctx.useState(0); // ERROR
  return div(count);
};

Why? Regular functions get a state tree from Cradova's rendering system. Arrow functions don't receive ctx, making them non-reactive. This convention controls how many state objects exist in the DOM.

Quick Start

import { div, h1, button, Page, Router } from "cradova";

// Create a reactive component using a REGULAR function
const Counter = function(ctx: Comp) {
  const [count, setCount] = ctx.useState(0);
  
  return div(
    h1("Count: " + count),
    button("Increment", {
      onclick() { setCount(c => c + 1); }
    })
  );
};

// Define a page
const HomePage = new Page({
  title: "My App",
  template: function(ctx) { return Counter(ctx); }
});

// Set up routing
Router.BrowserRoutes({
  "/": HomePage
});

Core Concepts

State Management

• Signal - Global reactive state with pub/sub
• useState - Component-local state
• useEffect - Side effects and lifecycle
• useMemo / useCallback - Performance optimization
• useRef - DOM element references

Routing

• Page - Define pages with template, title, activation hooks
• Router.BrowserRoutes - Configure routes
• Router.navigate() - Programmatic navigation
• Lazy loading via dynamic imports

Control Flow

• $if - Conditional rendering
• $ifelse - If/else conditionals
• $switch/$case - Switch statement rendering

DOM Elements

• All standard HTML elements: div, p, button, h1-h6, img, input, etc.
• raw() - Inject raw HTML
• ref.bind("name") - Reference DOM elements

See Also

• CONVENTIONS.md - Detailed function vs arrow function rules
• STATE.md - Signal and hooks deep dive
• COMPONENTS.md - Creating and using components
• ROUTING.md - Page and Router configuration
• CONTROL-FLOW.md - Conditional rendering
• PERFORMANCE.md - List virtualization, optimization
• EXAMPLES.md - Complete code examples
• PRODUCTION.md - Real-world patterns and