[compiler] Improve snap workflow for debugging errors #35539
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# Summary note: This implements the idea discussed in reactwg/react#389 (comment) This is a large PR that significantly changes our impurity and ref validation to address multiple issues. The goal is to reduce false positives and make the errors we do report more actionable. ## Validating Against Impure Values In Render Currently we create `Impure` effects for impure functions like `Date.now()` or `Math.random()`, and then throw if the effect is reachable during render. However, impurity is a property of the resulting value: if the value isn't accessed during render then it's okay: maybe you're console-logging the time while debugging (fine), or storing the impure value into a ref and only accessing it in an effect or event handler (totally ok). This PR updates to validate that impure values are not transitively consumed during render, building on the new effects system: rather than look at instruction types, we use effects like `Capture a -> b`, `Impure a`, and `Render b` to determine how impure values are introduced and where they flow through the program. We're intentionally conservative, and do _not_ propagate impurity through MaybeCapture effects, which is used for functions we don't have signatures for. This means that things like `identity(performance.now())` drop the impurity. This feels like a good compromise since it means we have very high confidence in the errors that we report and can always add increased strictness later as our confidence increases. An example error: ``` Error: Cannot access impure value during render Calling an impure function can produce unstable results that update unpredictably when the component happens to re-render. (https://react.dev/reference/rules/components-and-hooks-must-be-pure#components-and-hooks-must-be-idempotent). error.invalid-impure-value-in-render-helper.ts:5:17 3 | const now = () => Date.now(); 4 | const render = () => { > 5 | return <div>{now()}</div>; | ^^^^^ Cannot access impure value during render 6 | }; 7 | return <div>{render()}</div>; 8 | } error.invalid-impure-value-in-render-helper.ts:3:20 1 | // @validateNoImpureFunctionsInRender 2 | function Component() { > 3 | const now = () => Date.now(); | ^^^^^^^^^^ `Date.now` is an impure function. 4 | const render = () => { 5 | return <div>{now()}</div>; 6 | }; ``` Impure values are allowed to flow into refs, meaning that we now allow `useRef(Date.now())` or `useRef(localFunctionThatReturnsMathDotRandom())` which would have errored previously. The next PR reuses this improved impurity tracking to validate ref access in render as well. ## Refs Now Treated As Impure Values in Render Reading a ref now produces an `Impure` effect, and reading refs in render is validated using the above validation against impure values in render. The error category and message is customized for refs, we're just reusing the validation implementation. This means you get consistent results for `performance.now()` as for `ref.current`. A nice consistency win. ## Simplified writing-ref validation Now that _reading_ a ref in render is validated using the impure values infra, I also dramatically simplified ValidateNoRefAccessInRender to focus solely on validation against _writing_ refs during render. It was harder to use the new effects infra for this since we intentionally do not record ref mutations as a `Mutate` effect. So for now, the pass switches on InstructionValue variants. We continue to support the `if (ref.current == null) { ref.current = <init> }` pattern and reasonable variants of it. We're conservative about what we consider to be a write of a ref - `foo(ref)` now assumes you're not mutating rather than the inverse. # Takeaways * Impure-values-in-render logic is more conservative about what it considers an error (ie to users it appears more persmissive). We follow clearly identifiable (and if we wanted traceable/explainable) paths from impure sources through to where they are rendered. We allow many more cases than before, notably `x = foo(ref)` optimistically assumes you don't read the ref. Concretely, this follows from not tracking impure values across MaybeCapture effects. * No-writing-refs-in-render is also more conservative about what it counts as a write, appearing to users as allowing more cases. We look for very direct evidence of writing to refs, ie `ref.current = <value>` or `ref.current.property = <value>`, and allow potential writes through eg `writeToRef(ref, value)`.
Initializes CLAUDE.md and a settings file for the compiler/ directory to help use claude with the compiler. Note that some of the commands here depend on changes to snap from the next PR.
A whole bunch of changes to snap aimed at making it more usable for humans and agents. Here's the new CLI interface:
```
node dist/main.js --help
Options:
--version Show version number [boolean]
--sync Run compiler in main thread (instead of using worker
threads or subprocesses). Defaults to false.
[boolean] [default: false]
--worker-threads Run compiler in worker threads (instead of
subprocesses). Defaults to true.
[boolean] [default: true]
--help Show help [boolean]
-w, --watch Run compiler in watch mode, re-running after changes
[boolean]
-u, --update Update fixtures [boolean]
-p, --pattern Optional glob pattern to filter fixtures (e.g.,
"error.*", "use-memo") [string]
-d, --debug Enable debug logging to print HIR for each pass[boolean]
```
Key changes:
* Added abbreviations for common arguments
* No more testfilter.txt! Filtering/debugging works more like Jest, see below.
* The `--debug` flag (`-d`) controls whether to emit debug information. In watch mode, this flag sets the initial debug value, and it can be toggled by pressing the 'd' key while watching.
* The `--pattern` flag (`-p`) sets a filter pattern. In watch mode, this flag sets the initial filter. It can be changed by pressing 'p' and typing a new pattern, or pressing 'a' to switch to running all tests.
* As before, we only actually enable debugging if debug mode is enabled _and_ there is only one test selected.
Much nicer workflow for working through errors in the compiler: * Run `yarn snap -w`, oops there are are errors * Hit 'p' to select a fixture => the suggestions populate with recent failures, sorted alphabetically. No need to copy/paste the name of the fixture you want to focus on! * tab/shift-tab to pick one, hit enter to select that one * ...Focus on fixing that test... * 'p' to re-enter the picker. Snap tracks the last state of each fixture and continues to show all tests that failed on their last run, so you can easily move on to the next one. The currently selected test is highlighted, making it easy to move to the next one. * 'a' at any time to run all tests * 'd' at any time to toggle debug output on/off (while focusing on a single test)
This was referenced Jan 16, 2026
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Much nicer workflow for working through errors in the compiler:
yarn snap -w, oops there are are errorsStack created with Sapling. Best reviewed with ReviewStack.