form0-core

[!WARNING] form0 is in active, very early development. Do not use in production. Expect breaking changes and unstable behavior.

form0-core is the schema-driven engine that powers form0 open-source ecosystem. It is framework-agnostic and runs in any JavaScript runtime (Node.js, browsers, React Native, etc.)

🚀 Start with the CLI (recommended)

The entry point for most users is form0-cli. Follow the quickstart to create a project and preview your schema.

🗂️ Documentation

• Overview: https://docs.form0.dev/core/overview
• Concepts: https://docs.form0.dev/core/concepts
• Full docs: https://docs.form0.dev

Direct usage (advanced)

If you are integrating the engine directly:

npm install form0-core

form0-core owns behavioral schema concerns such as fields, conditions, calculations, events, and AI metadata. Applications may still attach optional top-level metadata such as id (unique form identifier), status (publication state), version (schema version), scope fields like main_org_id, and media or location settings. Operational counters like record_count and record_last_change_at should stay platform-owned and be injected at application or API boundaries, not treated as engine-authored schema. A top-level form.version may still exist, but the engine does not bump or consume it.

Record-side contract

form0-core intentionally uses two different choice-value shapes:

• Live engine / renderer values use renderer shape:
  • single / boolean: { choice, other }
  • multi: { choices, other }
• Structured records use canonical stored shape:
  • single / boolean: { choice_value, other_value }
  • multi: { choices_value, other_value }

Record-side utilities follow this contract:

• createStructuredRecord() outputs canonical stored records
• normalizeStructuredRecord() consumes and returns canonical stored records
• buildFormRecordSnapshot() consumes canonical stored records and returns renderer snapshot values
• projectDatasetRowValues() consumes canonical stored rows
• Choice FIELD_SPECS keep separate validators by context:
  • valueValidator validates live engine / renderer values
  • recordValueValidator validates canonical stored record values

Record status remains top-level as @status; it is not stored inside form_values.

Security

See SECURITY.md for security modes and configuration.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+

Related repositories

• form0-cli - Command-line interface
• form0-react - React components
• form0-react-native - React Native components

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.