Dependency management

The Javascript file that you actually deploy to State Backed must be a single, self-contained ECMAScript Module.

If you choose to build your bundle yourself, you can manage your dependencies however you like.

If you choose to have smply build your bundles, you can choose to use either Deno-style or Node/NPM-style dependency management.

Node-style dependency management

Node-style dependency management requires a package.json and installing dependencies into a node_modules directory (via npm install, yarn, or the equivalent).

You can then import or require your dependencies as you normally would in node. For example, you could import xstate with either import { createMachine } from "xstate"; or const { createMachine } = require("xstate"); as long as you have an xstate dependency in your package.json and the xstate module in your node_modules directory at build time.

Deno-style dependency management

Deno was built to avoid having a build step and to embrace web standards. Deno dependencies are explicit at the import site and require no external package management.

So, when using deno-style dependency management, you can just write your code, skipping package.json and node_modules. Simple state machines are often easily written as a single Deno-style Typescript/Javascript file.

To import xstate from a Deno-style machine defnition, you could write import { createMachine } from "npm:xstate@4.33.0";

At build time, smply will download the specified version of the module and include it in your bundle.