@convex-dev/react-query

Instead of polling you subscribe to receive update from server-side query functions in a Convex deployment. Convex is a database with server-side (db-side? like stored procedures) functions that update reactively.

New results for all relevant subscriptions are pushed to the client where they update at the same time so data is never stale and there's no need to call queryClient.invalidateQueries().

Setup

See ./src/example.tsx for a real example. The general pattern:

1. Create a ConvexClient and ConvexQueryClient. Set the global default queryKeyHashFn to convexQueryClient.hashFn() and queryFn to convexQueryClient.queryFn(). Connect the ConvexQueryClient to the React Query QueryClient.

const convexClient = new ConvexReactClient(import.meta.env.VITE_CONVEX_URL);
const convexQueryClient = new ConvexQueryClient(convexClient);
const queryClient = new QueryClient({
  defaultOptions: {
    queries: {
      queryKeyHashFn: convexQueryClient.hashFn(),
      queryFn: convexQueryClient.queryFn(),
    },
  },
});
convexQueryClient.connect(queryClient);

2. Use useQuery() with the convexQuery options factory function called with an api object imported from ../convex/_generated/server and the arguments for this query function. These two form the query key.

const { isPending, error, data } = useQuery({
  ...convexQuery(api.repos.get, { repo: "made/up" }),
  gcTime: 10000, // unsubscribe after 10s of no use
});

staleTime is set to Infinity beacuse this data is never stale; it's proactively updated whenever the query result updates on the server. (see tkdodo's post for more about this) If you like, customize the gcTime to the length of time a query subscription should remain active after all useQuery() hooks using it have unmounted.

If you need to use a Convex Action as a query, it won't be reactive; you'll get all the normal tools from React Query to refetch it.

Differences from using TanStack Query with fetch

New query results are pushed from the server, so a staleTime of Infinity should be used.

Your app will remain subscribed to a query until the gcTime has elapsed. Tune this for your app: it's usually a good tradeoff to use a value of at least a couple seconds.

Example

To run this example:

• npm install
• npm run dev

Mutations and Actions

If you wrap your app in a ConvexProvider you'll be able to use convex hooks like useConvexMutation and useConvexAction.:

<ConvexProvider client={convex}>
  <QueryClientProvider client={queryClient}>
    <App />
  </QueryClientProvider>
</ConvexProvider>

You can use this mutation function directly or wrap it in a TanStack Query useMutation:

const mutationFn = useConvexMutation(api.board.createColumn);
const { mutate } = useMutation({ mutationFn });

const { mutate } = useMutation({
  mutationFn: useConvexAction(api.time.getTotal),
});

Authentication (example TODO)

TanStack Query isn't opionated about auth; an auth code might be a an element of a query key like any other. With Convex it's not necessary to add an additional key for an auth code; auth is an implicit argument to all Convex queries and these queries will be retried when authentication info changes.

Convex auth is typically done via JWT: some query functions will fail if requested before calling convexReactClinet.setAuth() with a function that provides the token.

Auth setup looks just like it's recommended in Convex docs, which make use of components that use native convex hooks. For Clerk, this might look like this: a ClerkProvider for auth, a ConvexProviderWithClerk for the convex client, and a QueryClient.

<ClerkProvider publishableKey="pk_test_...">
  <ConvexProviderWithClerk client={convex} useAuth={useAuth}>
    <QueryClientProvider client={queryClient}>
      <App />
    </QueryClientProvider>
  </ConvexProviderWithClerk>
</ClerkProvider>

See the Convex Auth docs for setup instructions.

TODO

• auth
• paginated queries
• cleanup / unsubscribe in useEffect; something with hot reloading may not be working right

Contributing

After cloning this repo run npm i to install dependencies. This package uses tshy to publish an ESM. If there's ever demand for a CJS build we can add "cjs" to the "dialects" section of "tshy" config in the package.json.

To publish an alpha release, update the version in package.json to something like 0.0.0-alpha.1 and run npm publish --tag alpha.

To publish a regular release, update the version in package.json to something like 0.1.2 and run npm publish.