@brickworks/result

A simple, powerful Result type for JavaScript with built-in API serialization support.

Features

• 🚀 Zero Dependencies - Lightweight and fast
• 🧹 Simple - No symbols, no hidden properties, just plain objects
• 🎯 Three States - Success/Failure/Error (not just Ok/Err)
• 🔗 Chainable - Fluent API with .onSuccess() / .onFailure() / .onError()
• 🌐 API-Ready - Built-in serialization with Result.fetch() and Result.parse()
• ⚡ Async Support - fromPromise(), all(), and more
• ✍️ Flexible Naming - Use success() or createSuccess(), your choice
• 📝 TypeScript - Full type definitions included

Installation

npm install @brickworks/result

Quick Start

import { Result } from '@brickworks/result';

// Create results
const ok = Result.success({ id: 123, name: 'Alice' });
const fail = Result.failure('User not found');

// Chain handlers
ok
  .onSuccess(r => console.log('User:', r.value))
  .onFailure(r => console.error('Failed:', r.reason));

// Transform
const greeting = Result.map(ok, user => `Hello ${user.name}!`);

// Pattern match
Result.match(ok, {
  success: r => console.log(r.value),
  failure: r => console.error(r.reason),
  error: e => console.error(e.message)
});

API Usage (The Killer Feature)

Server Side

import express from 'express';
import { Result } from '@brickworks/result';

const app = express();
Result.setThrowErrors(false);

app.get('/api/users/:id', async (req, res) => {
  const user = await db.users.findById(req.params.id);
  
  if (user) {
    res.json(Result.success(user));
  } else {
    res.status(404).json(Result.failure('User not found'));
  }
});

Client Side

Option 1: Using Result.fetch() (simplest)

import { Result } from '@brickworks/result';

// One line - fetch and parse automatically
const result = await Result.fetch('/api/users/123');

result
  .onSuccess(r => displayUser(r.value))
  .onFailure(r => showError(r.reason))
  .onError(e => logError(e.message));

Option 2: Using fetchResult() (named import)

import { fetchResult } from '@brickworks/result';

const result = await fetchResult('/api/users/123');

Option 3: Manual fetch with Result.parse()

const response = await fetch('/api/users/123');
const result = Result.parse(await response.text());

Why it works: Results serialize to JSON with a _result: true marker, and Result.fetch()/Result.parse() automatically restore all methods.

Core Concepts

Three States

| State | Use Case | Example | |-------|----------|---------| | Success | Operation succeeded | User found, data saved | | Failure | Expected business failure | Validation failed, not found | | Error | Unexpected exception | DB crash, network timeout |

import { Result } from '@brickworks/result';

// Success - when things work
const ok = Result.success({ userId: 123 });

// Failure - expected problems (validation, not found, etc.)
const fail = Result.failure('Invalid email', { field: 'email' }, 'VALIDATION_ERROR');

// Error - unexpected problems (system errors, crashes)
Result.setThrowErrors(false); // Don't throw, return error object
const err = Result.error('Database connection failed', { host: 'localhost' });

API Reference

Creating Results

// All three methods support: (value/reason/message, data?, code?)

Result.success(data)
Result.failure(reason)
Result.error(message)  // Set Result.setThrowErrors(false) first

// Also available with explicit names:
Result.createSuccess(data)
Result.createFailure(reason)
Result.createError(message)

Fetching & Parsing (API Helpers)

// Fetch and auto-parse Result from API
const result = await Result.fetch(url, options);

// Parse JSON string to Result
const result = Result.parse(jsonString);

// Traditional approach (still works)
const result = JSON.parse(jsonString, Result.revive);

Guards

Result.isResult(value)    // → true if any Result type
Result.isSuccess(result)  // → true if success
Result.isFailure(result)  // → true if failure
Result.isError(result)    // → true if error

// Aliases
Result.successful(result)
Result.failed(result)
Result.errored(result)

Extractors

Result.getValue(result)   // → value (throws if not success)
Result.getReason(result)  // → reason (throws if not failure)
Result.getData(result)    // → data object (always safe)

Chainable Methods

result
  .onSuccess(r => console.log('Value:', r.value))
  .onFailure(r => console.error('Reason:', r.reason))
  .onError(e => console.error('Error:', e.message));

// Returns the same result for chaining

Transformations

// map - transform success value
const doubled = Result.map(result, val => val * 2);

// mapFailure - transform failure reason
const mapped = Result.mapFailure(result, reason => reason.toUpperCase());

// flatMap - chain operations that return Results
const chained = Result.flatMap(result, val => getUserById(val));

// match - pattern matching (returns value)
const output = Result.match(result, {
  success: r => r.value,
  failure: r => 'default',
  error: e => null
});

// unwrapOr - extract with fallback
const value = Result.unwrapOr(result, 'default');

// unwrapOrElse - extract with computed fallback
const value = Result.unwrapOrElse(result, r => computeDefault(r));

Async Operations

// Convert Promise to Result
const result = await Result.fromPromise(
  fetch('/api/users'),
  {
    failureCode: 'FETCH_FAILED',
    mapError: e => ({ reason: e.message, data: {} })
  }
);

// Combine multiple Results (short-circuits on first failure)
const results = await Result.all([
  Result.fetch('/api/users/1'),
  Result.fetch('/api/users/2'),
  Result.fetch('/api/users/3')
]);

Wire Format

// Serialize (happens automatically with res.json())
const json = JSON.stringify(result);
// → {"kind":"success","ok":true,"value":...,"_result":true}

// Deserialize
const result = Result.parse(json);
// or: JSON.parse(json, Result.revive)

// Manual conversion
const wire = Result.toWire(result);
const result = Result.fromWire(wire);

Practical Examples

API Helper

import { Result } from '@brickworks/result';

export const api = {
  getUser: (id) => Result.fetch(`/api/users/${id}`),
  
  createUser: (data) => Result.fetch('/api/users', {
    method: 'POST',
    body: JSON.stringify(data)
  }),
  
  updateUser: (id, data) => Result.fetch(`/api/users/${id}`, {
    method: 'PUT',
    body: JSON.stringify(data)
  })
};

// Usage
const userResult = await api.getUser(123);
userResult.onSuccess(r => displayUser(r.value));

Form Validation

function validateEmail(email) {
  return email.includes('@')
    ? Result.success(email)
    : Result.failure('Invalid email', { field: 'email' });
}

function validatePassword(password) {
  return password.length >= 8
    ? Result.success(password)
    : Result.failure('Password too short', { field: 'password' });
}

function validateForm(data) {
  const emailResult = validateEmail(data.email);
  const passwordResult = validatePassword(data.password);
  
  return Result.flatMap(emailResult, email =>
    Result.map(passwordResult, password =>
      ({ email, password })
    )
  );
}

React Hook

import { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { Result } from '@brickworks/result';

function useApi(url) {
  const [result, setResult] = useState(null);
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true);
  
  useEffect(() => {
    Result.fetch(url).then(r => {
      setResult(r);
      setLoading(false);
    });
  }, [url]);
  
  return { result, loading };
}

// Use it
function UserProfile({ userId }) {
  const { result, loading } = useApi(`/api/users/${userId}`);
  
  if (loading) return <div>Loading...</div>;
  
  return Result.match(result, {
    success: r => <div>Welcome {r.value.name}!</div>,
    failure: r => <div>Error: {r.reason}</div>,
    error: e => <div>System error</div>
  });
}

Error Handling with Codes

const result = await api.login(email, password);

result
  .onSuccess(r => {
    localStorage.setItem('token', r.value.token);
    navigate('/dashboard');
  })
  .onFailure(r => {
    switch (r.code) {
      case 'VALIDATION_ERROR':
        highlightField(r.data.field);
        break;
      case 'AUTH_FAILED':
        showError('Invalid credentials');
        break;
      case 'USER_NOT_FOUND':
        showError('User not found');
        break;
    }
  })
  .onError(e => {
    logToSentry(e);
    showGenericError();
  });

Configuration

// Control error throwing (default: true)
Result.setThrowErrors(false);  // Don't throw, return error objects

// Logging
Result.enableLog();
Result.setLogLevel('debug');  // 'error' | 'warn' | 'info' | 'debug'
Result.setMaxLog(1000);
Result.printLog();
Result.clearLog();

TypeScript

Full type definitions included:

import { Result, SuccessResult, FailureResult, ErrorResult } from '@brickworks/result';

async function getUser(id: number): Promise<Result<User>> {
  return Result.fetch<User>(`/api/users/${id}`);
}

const result = await getUser(123);

if (Result.isSuccess(result)) {
  result.value.name;  // TypeScript knows the type!
}

Naming Options

The library supports both terse and explicit naming:

// Terse (common in FP)
import { success, failure, error } from '@brickworks/result';

// Explicit (self-documenting)
import { createSuccess, createFailure, createError } from '@brickworks/result';

// Both styles work the same!

Why This Library?

vs. Traditional Error Handling

// ❌ Traditional (throw/catch)
try {
  const response = await fetch('/api/users/1');
  const data = await response.json();
  console.log(data);
} catch (err) {
  console.error(err);  // Lost context!
}

// ✅ Result (explicit handling)
const result = await Result.fetch('/api/users/1');
result
  .onSuccess(r => console.log(r.value))
  .onFailure(r => showError(r.reason, r.code))  // Rich context
  .onError(e => logToSentry(e));                // Type-safe

vs. Other Result Libraries

| Feature | @brickworks/result | Others | |---------|---------------|--------| | Three states | Success/Failure/Error | Usually just Ok/Err | | API serialization | Built-in | Manual | | Fetch wrapper | Result.fetch() | ❌ | | Parse helper | Result.parse() | ❌ | | Chainable methods | .onSuccess() etc. | Varies | | Rich metadata | codes, timestamps, data | Limited | | Dependencies | Zero | Varies |

Tests

95 tests passing. Run with:

npm test

License

ISC

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.