live_vue_contract

Makes the props contract between <.vue ...> in LiveView and defineProps<T>() in Vue red on mix compile / mix test instead of in production.

LiveVue passes data from LiveView to a Vue component as props. The shape of that data is written twice: implicitly on the Elixir side (whatever ends up in the assign) and explicitly in TypeScript (defineProps<{ units: Unit[]; total: number }>()). Nothing checks one against the other: rename a key in the presenter and both compilers stay silent, tests stay green unless one asserts that exact key, and Vue renders undefined as an empty cell.

This library takes defineProps<T>() as the single source of truth and checks the Elixir side against it. Nothing is described a second time.

"mix test" means: any live test that renders the screen. "dev runtime" means: the first render in mix phx.server raises with the JSON path of the problem.

How it works

.vue (defineProps<T>)  --vue-component-meta-->  assets/vue/contract.json   (Mix compiler, by source hash)
                                                       │
                     ┌─────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────┐
     ~H at compile time: attributes of <.vue v-component="X"> ⟷ keys of schema X   vue/1 at render (dev/test):
     missing required / undeclared / unknown component → CompileError              encoded props ⟷ nested schema
                                                                                   → ArgumentError with a JSON path

1. A Mix compiler (:live_vue_contract) runs vue-component-meta (the same Volar engine vue-tsc uses) over every .vue file to list its props, builds a JSON-Schema subset from their TypeScript types and writes it to assets/vue/contract.json. Named types (Author, Record<string, Author>) are written once under "$defs" and referenced, so shared and recursive types cost one entry. It reruns only when a .vue file, a file a prop type is declared in, or the generator itself changed.
2. use LiveVueContract overrides ~H and checks the module's .heex files (embed_templates, a LiveView's colocated template) the same way. After the template is compiled as usual, the HEEx AST is walked and every literal <.vue v-component="X" ...> (and every <.X> shortcut) is compared with the schema of X. The walk depends on what Phoenix LiveView compiles a function component to; the tags are also counted in the template source, and a template where the walk found fewer is a CompileError, so a LiveView release that changes that form breaks the build instead of turning the check off.
3. LiveVueContract.vue/1 replaces LiveVue.vue/1. In dev and test it encodes the props exactly as LiveVue would and validates them against the nested schema before rendering. In a release it is a pass-through.

Installation

# mix.exs
def project do
  [
    ...,
    compilers: [:live_vue_contract, :phoenix_live_view] ++ Mix.compilers()
  ]
end

defp deps do
  [
    ...,
    {:live_vue_contract, "~> 0.3"}
  ]
end

# lib/my_app_web.ex, inside html_helpers — replaces `use LiveVue` and `use LiveVue.Components`
use LiveVueContract

npm install -D vue-component-meta@$(node -p "require('vue-tsc/package.json').version")
mix compile      # writes assets/vue/contract.json
git add assets/vue/contract.json

vue-component-meta must be the same version as your vue-tsc; both come from the Volar monorepo.

If your html_helpers imported LiveVue.SharedPropsView (shared props, automatic v-socket), keep that behaviour with:

use LiveVueContract, shared_props: true

Configuration

config :live_vue_contract,
  vue_root: ["assets/vue"],           # where the components live, like LiveVue.Components
  watch: [],                          # extra globs that regenerate the contract (prop types are tracked)
  contract: "assets/vue/contract.json",
  tsconfig: "tsconfig.json",
  validate: true,                     # render-time validation; default: on under Mix outside :prod
  strict: false                       # extra nested keys: warning (false) or error (true)

use LiveVueContract options: shared_props: true (compile through LiveVue.SharedPropsView), shortcuts: false (do not define <.ComponentName> functions).

Rolling out on an existing project

The first run on a real project usually finds drift you did not know about. To keep the suite green while you fix it:

# config/test.exs, config/dev.exs
config :live_vue_contract, validate: :warn

Every mismatch is then logged once per component and key instead of raising. Remove the line when the log is clean. strict: true turns "server sends a key the type does not know" into an error too.

CI and Docker

• What the contract was built from (hash and list of source files) is kept in a stamp under _build/<env>, not in the contract. Node runs only when a .vue file or a file a prop type is declared in changed; the contract is rewritten only when the schemas changed, so ~H modules are not recompiled for edits that do not touch props.
• Without node: a committed assets/vue/contract.json is used as is (with a note) when _build has no stamp; a missing contract fails mix compile with a message saying so.
• To assert freshness in CI where node is available: mix compile && git diff --exit-code assets/vue/contract.json.
• If your Dockerfile runs mix compile before COPY assets (the Phoenix default), there are no .vue files at that point and the compiler is a no-op; the later mix release sees the committed contract and checks against it.

What it does not catch

• Screens nobody renders in a test. Nested-value checks (renamed key, wrong type) run at render time, so a root component without a live test gets only the compile-time attribute check.
• Values your tests never produce. The render-time check sees the data the test rendered: a nil branch, a rare enum value or an empty list that only production data has goes unchecked. It is off in releases.
• Dynamic tags. v-component={@name} and <.vue {@rest}> are skipped at compile time and checked at render time only.
• TypeScript's lib types and functions. Date, HTMLElement, Map, Promise, unknown, object and function types become any: none of them is a JSON shape. (Mapped and generic types — Record, Partial, Pick, your own generics — are expanded.)
• Distinctions JSON does not make. Date and DateTime are both string; integer and float are both number.
• Events. pushEvent / handle_event and push_event / useLiveEvent are not covered.

Requirements

• Elixir 1.18+ (uses the built-in JSON module), Phoenix LiveView 1.1+, LiveVue 1.2+.
• Node.js with vue-component-meta and typescript in the host project's node_modules, only on machines that regenerate the contract.

CI runs the oldest supported versions (Elixir 1.18, LiveView 1.1, LiveVue 1.2.0), the locked ones, and the newest on Hex — the last also weekly, so a LiveView release that changes compiled HEEx shows up here first.

Development

mix deps.get
npm ci --prefix test/fixtures/app   # generator tests; skipped without it
mix test

test/fixtures/app is a small Vue project whose defineProps cover every shape the generator maps; its expected contract is checked in (contract.expected.json). After a deliberate change to the generator: LIVE_VUE_CONTRACT_UPDATE=1 mix test and review the diff.

The Elixir tests cover the schema validator and name resolution. The generator is exercised against real projects; see CHANGELOG.md for what it was verified on.

License

MIT