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@stacksjs/stx
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0.2.72 • Public • Published

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stx

A Blade-like template engine plugin for Bun, enabling simple and powerful templating with .stx files.

Features

  • 🦋 Laravel Blade-like syntax
  • ⚡ Reactive bindings (:class, :style, :text, @click, @model)
  • 📡 Signals system (state, derived, effect)
  • 🧩 35+ browser composables (useRef, useFetch, useLocalStorage, etc.)
  • 🚀 Fast and lightweight
  • 📦 Zero config

Installation

bun add bun-plugin-stx

Setup

Add the plugin to your bunfig.toml:

preload = [ "bun-plugin-stx" ]

# or as a serve plugin
[serve.static]
plugins = [ "bun-plugin-stx" ]

Or register the plugin in your build script:

import { build } from 'bun'
import stxPlugin from 'bun-plugin-stx'

await build({
  entrypoints: ['./src/index.ts', './templates/home.stx'],
  outdir: './dist',
  plugins: [stxPlugin],
})

Usage with ESM

1. Configure Bun to use the plugin

In your build script or Bun configuration:

// build.js
import { build } from 'bun'
import stxPlugin from 'bun-plugin-stx'

await build({
  entrypoints: ['./src/index.ts', './templates/home.stx'],
  outdir: './dist',
  plugins: [stxPlugin],
})

2. Import and use .stx files directly

You can import .stx files directly in your ESM code:

// app.js
import homeTemplate from './templates/home.stx'

// Use the processed HTML content
document.body.innerHTML = homeTemplate

3. Use with Bun's server

You can serve .stx files directly with Bun's server:

// server.js
import { serve } from 'bun'
import homeTemplate from './home.stx'

serve({
  port: 3000,
  fetch(req) {
    return new Response(homeTemplate, {
      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' }
    })
  }
})

Or use as route handlers:

import about from './about.stx'
// server.js
import home from './home.stx'

export default {
  port: 3000,
  routes: {
    '/': home,
    '/about': about
  }
}

stx Template Syntax

stx templates use a syntax inspired by Laravel Blade. Templates can contain HTML with special directives for rendering dynamic content.

Basic Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title>stx Example</title>
  <script>
    // Define your data as an ESM export
    export const title = "Hello World";
    export const items = ["Apple", "Banana", "Cherry"];
    export const showFooter = true;
  </script>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>{{ title }}</h1>

  <ul>
    @foreach (items as item)
      <li>{{ item }}</li>
    @endforeach
  </ul>

  @if (showFooter)
    <footer>Copyright 2023</footer>
  @endif
</body>
</html>

Data Export Options

There are two ways to expose data in your stx templates:

1. ESM exports (recommended)

<script>
  // Modern ESM named exports
  export const title = "Hello World";
  export const count = 42;

  // Export functions
  export function getFullName(first, last) {
    return `${first} ${last}`;
  }

  // Export default object
  export default {
    items: ["Apple", "Banana", "Cherry"],
    showDetails: true
  };
</script>

2. Legacy CommonJS (module.exports)

<script>
  // Legacy CommonJS exports
  module.exports = {
    title: "Hello World",
    items: ["Apple", "Banana", "Cherry"],
    showFooter: true
  };
</script>

Template Directives

Custom Directives

stx supports defining your own custom directives for template processing:

import type { CustomDirective } from 'bun-plugin-stx'
// Configure custom directives
import stxPlugin from 'bun-plugin-stx'

// Create custom directives
const uppercaseDirective: CustomDirective = {
  name: 'uppercase',
  handler: (content, params) => {
    return params[0] ? params[0].toUpperCase() : content.toUpperCase()
  },
  // No hasEndTag needed for single-parameter directives
}

const wrapDirective: CustomDirective = {
  name: 'wrap',
  handler: (content, params) => {
    const className = params[0] || 'default-wrapper'
    return `<div class="${className}">${content}</div>`
  },
  hasEndTag: true, // This directive requires an end tag (@wrap...@endwrap)
}

// Register custom directives
await build({
  entrypoints: ['./src/index.ts', './templates/home.stx'],
  outdir: './dist',
  plugins: [stxPlugin],
  stx: {
    customDirectives: [uppercaseDirective, wrapDirective],
  },
})

Then use them in your templates:

<!-- Single-parameter directive -->
<p>@uppercase('hello world')</p>

<!-- Block directive with content and optional parameter -->
@wrap(highlight)
  <p>This content will be wrapped in a div with class "highlight"</p>
@endwrap

Custom directives have access to:

  • content: The content between start and end tags (for block directives)
  • params: Array of parameters passed to the directive
  • context: The template data context (all variables)
  • filePath: The current template file path

Variables

Display content with double curly braces:

<h1>{{ title }}</h1>
<p>{{ user.name }}</p>

Conditionals

Use @if, @elseif, and @else for conditional rendering:

@if (user.isAdmin)
  <div class="admin-panel">Admin content</div>
@elseif (user.isEditor)
  <div class="editor-tools">Editor tools</div>
@else
  <div class="user-view">Regular user view</div>
@endif

Loops

Iterate over arrays with @foreach:

<ul>
  @foreach (items as item)
    <li>{{ item }}</li>
  @endforeach
</ul>

Use @for for numeric loops:

<ol>
  @for (let i = 1; i <= 5; i++)
    <li>Item {{ i }}</li>
  @endfor
</ol>

Raw HTML

Output unescaped HTML content:

{!! rawHtmlContent !!}

Reactive Bindings (Signals)

stx includes a built-in signals system for client-side reactivity. Define reactive state in your <script> block and bind it directly to your template using :class, :style, :text, and other directive bindings.

State & Reactivity

<script>
  const count = state(0)
  const doubled = derived(() => count() * 2)

  effect(() => {
    console.log('Count changed:', count())
  })

  function increment() {
    count.set(count() + 1)
  }
</script>

<button @click="increment()">Count: {{ count() }}</button>
<p>Doubled: {{ doubled() }}</p>
  • state(initialValue) — creates a reactive signal. Read with signal(), write with signal.set(value)
  • derived(fn) — creates a computed value that auto-tracks dependencies
  • effect(fn) — runs a side effect whenever its tracked signals change
  • batch(fn) — batches multiple signal updates into a single re-render

Dynamic Class Binding (:class)

Bind classes reactively using :class with object, array, or string syntax. The static class attribute is preserved — :class adds/removes classes on top of it.

Object syntax — toggle classes based on conditions:

<script>
  const activeTab = state('home')
</script>

<button
  class="tab-btn px-3 py-1.5 rounded text-sm font-medium"
  :class="{ active: activeTab() === 'home' }"
  @click="activeTab.set('home')"
>
  Home
</button>

<button
  class="tab-btn px-3 py-1.5 rounded text-sm font-medium"
  :class="{ active: activeTab() === 'settings', disabled: !isAdmin() }"
  @click="activeTab.set('settings')"
>
  Settings
</button>

Array syntax — apply a list of classes:

<div :class="[baseClass(), isLarge() ? 'text-lg' : 'text-sm']">
  Content
</div>

String syntax — bind a dynamic class string:

<div :class="isError() ? 'bg-red-500 text-white' : 'bg-zinc-800'">
  Content
</div>

All three syntaxes are reactive — when the underlying signals change, the classes update automatically.

Dynamic Style Binding (:style)

Bind inline styles reactively:

<div :style="{ color: textColor(), fontSize: size() + 'px' }">
  Styled content
</div>

Dynamic Text & HTML (:text, :html)

<span :text="message()"></span>
<div :html="richContent()"></div>

Dynamic Attribute Binding (:attr)

Bind any HTML attribute reactively:

<input :disabled="isLoading()" :placeholder="hint()" />
<a :href="linkUrl()">Dynamic link</a>

Event Handling (@click, @submit, etc.)

Bind event handlers directly in the template:

<button @click="count.set(count() + 1)">Increment</button>
<form @submit.prevent="handleSubmit()">...</form>
<input @keydown.enter="search()" />

Supported modifiers: .prevent, .stop, .self, .once, .capture, .passive, .ctrl, .alt, .shift, .meta, .enter, .escape, .space, .tab

Conditional Rendering (@if, @show)

<div @if="isLoggedIn()">Welcome back!</div>
<div @show="isVisible()">Toggles display</div>

List Rendering (@for)

<ul>
  <li @for="item in items()">{{ item.name }}</li>
</ul>

Two-way Binding (@model)

<input @model="username" />
<p>Hello, {{ username() }}</p>

Lifecycle Hooks

<script>
  onMount(() => {
    console.log('Component mounted')
    fetchData()
  })

  onDestroy(() => {
    console.log('Cleaning up')
  })
</script>

Browser Composables

stx provides 35+ utility composables for common browser tasks:

<script>
  // Refs
  const el = useRef('my-element')

  // Events
  useEventListener('click', handler, { target: '#my-btn' })
  useClickOutside(el, () => closeDropdown())

  // Storage
  const theme = useLocalStorage('theme', 'dark')

  // Routing
  const route = useRoute()
  const path = route.path

  // Async data
  const { data, isLoading, error } = useFetch('/api/data')

  // Timing
  const debouncedSearch = useDebounce(search, 300)

  // Responsive
  const { width } = useWindowSize()
  const isMobile = useMediaQuery('(max-width: 768px)')

  // State utilities
  const [isDark, toggleDark] = useToggle(false)
  const { count, inc, dec } = useCounter(0)
</script>

Markdown Support

stx supports rendering Markdown content directly in your templates using the @markdown directive:

<div class="content">
  @markdown
  # Heading 1

  This is a paragraph with **bold text** and *italic text*.

  - List item 1
  - List item 2
  - List item 3

  ```js
  // Code block
  function hello() {
    console.log('Hello world');
  }

@endmarkdown

```

You can also pass options to the markdown renderer:

<!-- Enable line breaks (converts single line breaks to <br>) -->
@markdown(breaks)
Line 1
Line 2
@endmarkdown

<!-- Disable GitHub Flavored Markdown -->
@markdown(no-gfm)
Content here
@endmarkdown

Internationalization (i18n)

stx supports internationalization to help you build multilingual applications. Translation files are stored in YAML format (JSON also supported) and support nested keys and parameter replacements.

Configuration

Configure i18n in your build script:

import stxPlugin from 'bun-plugin-stx'

await build({
  entrypoints: ['./templates/home.stx'],
  outdir: './dist',
  plugins: [stxPlugin],
  stx: {
    i18n: {
      locale: 'en', // Current locale
      defaultLocale: 'en', // Fallback locale
      translationsDir: 'translations', // Directory containing translations
      format: 'yaml', // Format of translation files (yaml, yml, json, or js)
      fallbackToKey: true, // Use key as fallback when translation not found
      cache: true // Cache translations in memory
    }
  }
})

Translation Files

Create translation files in your translationsDir:

# translations/en.yaml
welcome: Welcome to stx
greeting: Hello, :name!
nav:
  home: Home
  about: About
  contact: Contact
# translations/de.yaml
welcome: Willkommen bei stx
greeting: Hallo, :name!
nav:
  home: Startseite
  about: Über uns
  contact: Kontakt

Using Translations

stx provides multiple ways to use translations in your templates:

  1. @translate Directive

    <!-- Basic translation -->
<p>@translate('welcome')</p>

<!-- With parameters -->
<p>@translate('greeting', { "name": "John" })</p>

<!-- Nested keys -->
<p>@translate('nav.home')</p>

<!-- With fallback content -->
<p>@translate('missing.key')Fallback Content@endtranslate</p>

  2. Filter Syntax

    <!-- Basic translation as filter -->
<p>{{ 'welcome' | translate }}</p>

<!-- With parameters -->
<p>{{ 'greeting' | translate({ "name": "Alice" }) }}</p>

<!-- Short alias -->
<p>{{ 'nav.home' | t }}</p>

Parameters in translations use the :param syntax, similar to Laravel:

greeting: Hello, :name!
items: You have :count items in your cart.

Then in your template:

<p>@translate('greeting', { "name": "John" })</p>
<p>@translate('items', { "count": 5 })</p>

Web Components Integration

stx now provides seamless integration with Web Components, allowing you to automatically build and use custom elements from your stx components.

Configuration

Enable web component integration in your build configuration:

import { build } from 'bun'
import stxPlugin from 'bun-plugin-stx'

await build({
  entrypoints: ['./templates/home.stx'],
  outdir: './dist',
  plugins: [stxPlugin],
  config: {
    stx: {
      webComponents: {
        enabled: true,
        outputDir: 'dist/web-components',
        components: [
          {
            name: 'MyButton', // Class name for the component
            tag: 'my-button', // HTML tag name (must contain a hyphen)
            file: 'components/button.stx', // Path to the stx component
            attributes: ['type', 'text', 'disabled'] // Observed attributes
          },
          {
            name: 'MyCard',
            tag: 'my-card',
            file: 'components/card.stx',
            shadowDOM: true, // Use Shadow DOM (default: true)
            template: true, // Use template element (default: true)
            styleSource: 'styles/card.css', // Optional external stylesheet
            attributes: ['title', 'footer']
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
})

Using Web Components in Templates

Include web components in your templates with the @webcomponent directive:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title>Web Component Demo</title>

  <!-- Include the web components -->
  @webcomponent('my-button')
  @webcomponent('my-card')
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Web Components Demo</h1>

  <!-- Use the custom elements -->
  <my-button type="primary" text="Click Me"></my-button>

  <my-card title="Card Title" footer="Card Footer">
    This is the card content
  </my-card>
</body>
</html>

Source stx Components

The original stx components can be simple:

<!-- components/button.stx -->
<button class="btn {{ type ? 'btn-' + type : '' }}" {{ disabled ? 'disabled' : '' }}>
  {{ text || slot }}
</button>

<!-- components/card.stx -->
<div class="card">
  <div class="card-header">{{ title }}</div>
  <div class="card-body">
    {{ slot }}
  </div>
  <div class="card-footer">{{ footer }}</div>
</div>

Advanced Options

Web components support several configuration options:

  • shadowDOM: Enable/disable Shadow DOM (default: true)
  • template: Use template element for better performance (default: true)
  • extends: Extend a specific HTML element class
  • styleSource: Path to external stylesheet
  • attributes: List of attributes to observe for changes

TypeScript Support

stx ships its TypeScript declarations as part of the package. As soon as @stacksjs/stx is installed, TypeScript automatically picks up:

  • *.stx and *.md module declarations (so .stx imports typecheck)
  • Ambient runtime globals injected into <script client> blocks: state, derived, effect, batch, onMount, onDestroy, defineStore, useStore, useHead, useSeoMeta, navigate, useRoute, etc.
  • The window.stx registry interface

You do not need to create your own stx.d.ts. Just include .stx files in your tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "types": ["bun"],
    "moduleResolution": "bundler"
  },
  "include": ["**/*.ts", "**/*.stx"]
}

If you have an old stx.d.ts from a previous version declaring *.stx or runtime globals, it's now redundant and can be deleted.

Example Server

Run a development server with your stx templates:

// serve.ts
import home from './home.stx'

const server = Bun.serve({
  routes: {
    '/': home,
  },
  development: true,

  fetch(req) {
    return new Response('Not Found', { status: 404 })
  },
})

console.log(`Listening on ${server.url}`)

Testing This Plugin

To test the plugin with the included examples:

  1. Build the test file:
bun run test-build.ts
  1. Run the test server:
bun run serve-test.ts
  1. Open your browser to the displayed URL (typically http://localhost:3000).

How It Works

The plugin works by:

  1. Extracting script tags from .stx files
  2. Creating an execution context with variables from the script
  3. Processing Blade-like directives (@if, @foreach, etc.) into HTML
  4. Processing variable tags ({{ var }}) with their values
  5. Returning the processed HTML content

Testing

bun test

CSS Generation with Headwind

stx uses Headwind for utility-first CSS generation. Headwind is a blazingly fast CSS framework built with Bun that generates only the CSS you need.

Building CSS

# Build CSS from your .stx templates
bun run build:css

# The CSS will be generated at ./examples/dist/styles.css

Headwind Configuration

Headwind is configured via headwind.config.ts:

import type { HeadwindConfig } from 'headwind'
import path from 'node:path'

const config: Partial<HeadwindConfig> = {
  content: [
    './examples/**/*.stx',
    './examples/**/*.{html,js,ts,jsx,tsx}',
  ],
  output: './examples/dist/styles.css',
  minify: false,
}

export default config

Using Utility Classes

stx templates support all Headwind/Tailwind-compatible utility classes:

<div class="flex items-center justify-between p-4 bg-white rounded-lg shadow-md hover:shadow-lg">
  <h1 class="text-2xl font-bold text-gray-900">Hello World</h1>
  <button class="px-4 py-2 bg-blue-500 text-white rounded hover:bg-blue-600 transition">
    Click Me
  </button>
</div>

The build process automatically scans all your .stx files and generates only the CSS classes you actually use. For more information, visit the Headwind documentation.

Changelog

Please see our releases page for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Please review the Contributing Guide for details.

Community

For help, discussion about best practices, or any other conversation that would benefit from being searchable:

Discussions on GitHub

For casual chit-chat with others using this package:

Join the Stacks Discord Server

Postcardware

You will always be free to use any of the Stacks OSS software. We would also love to see which parts of the world Stacks ends up in. Receiving postcards makes us happy—and we will publish them on our website.

Our address: Stacks.js, 12665 Village Ln #2306, Playa Vista, CA 90094, United States 🌎

Sponsors

We would like to extend our thanks to the following sponsors for funding Stacks development. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please reach out to us.

Credits

Many thanks to the following core technologies & people who have contributed to this package:

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see LICENSE for more information.

Made with 💙

Documentation Generation

stx can automatically generate documentation for your components, templates, and directives. This helps developers understand your UI components and how to use them.

Command Line

Generate documentation using the CLI:

# Generate markdown documentation (default)
stx docs

# Generate HTML documentation
stx docs --format html

# Generate JSON documentation
stx docs --format json

# Specify output directory
stx docs --output my-docs

# Only generate specific sections
stx docs --no-components
stx docs --no-templates
stx docs --no-directives

# Specify custom directories
stx docs --components-dir src/components --templates-dir src/views

Configuration

You can configure documentation generation in your stx.config.ts file:

export default {
  // ...other config options
  docs: {
    enabled: true,
    outputDir: 'docs',
    format: 'markdown', // 'markdown', 'html', or 'json'
    components: true,
    templates: true,
    directives: true,
    extraContent: '## Getting Started\n\nThis is additional content to include in the documentation.',
  },
}

Component Documentation

stx can extract component metadata from JSDoc comments in your component files:

<!--
  Alert component for displaying messages to the user.
  This component supports different types (success, warning, error).
-->
<div class="alert alert-{{ type }}">
  <div class="alert-title">{{ title }}</div>
  <div class="alert-body">{{ message }}</div>
</div>

<script>
  /**
   * The type of alert to display
   * @type {string}
   * @default "info"
   */
  const type = module.exports.type || "info";

  /**
   * The alert title
   * @type {string}
   * @required
   */
  const title = module.exports.title;

  /**
   * The alert message
   * @type {string}
   */
  const message = module.exports.message || "";

  // Prepare the component's context
  module.exports = {
    type,
    title,
    message
  };
</script>

This component will be documented with all its properties, types, default values, and requirements.

Web Component Documentation

stx will automatically document web components defined in your configuration:

export default {
  // ... other config
  webComponents: {
    enabled: true,
    outputDir: 'dist/web-components',
    components: [
      {
        name: 'MyButton',
        tag: 'my-button',
        file: 'components/button.stx',
        attributes: ['type', 'text', 'disabled'],
        description: 'A customizable button component'
      }
    ]
  }
}

The documentation will include:

  • Component name and description
  • Custom element tag
  • Observed attributes
  • Usage examples

This makes it easy for developers to understand how to use your web components in their HTML.

Readme

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