Why I built it Modern stacks are powerful but often heavy: bundlers, compile steps, framework DSLs, local CLIs. For internal tools, small apps, and edge/serverless deployments, I wanted something you can view-source, paste into a page, and ship.
What it is:
Runtime-only: no build or VDOM compile; hydrate behaviors directly on HTML. HTML directives: e.g. +click, lifecycle +load / +loaded / +unload / +unloaded. Zero APIs: dagger.js works in pure declarative mode, modules and directives provide everything you need to build your application. Web-Components-first: works alongside Custom Elements; keep concerns local. Distributed modules: load small, focused script modules via CDN. Progressive enhancement: the page renders without a build step.
Use cases:
Admin panels & dashboards that don’t warrant a full toolchain Embed widgets, docs-sites with interactive bits Edge/serverless apps where cold start and simplicity matter
Links
GitHub: https://github.com/dagger8224/dagger.js Docs/Guide: https://daggerjs.org Examples: https://codepen.io/dagger8224/pens
I’d love feedback on edge-cases, and where it breaks. Happy to answer tough questions here.
I've started to think something like petite-vue and twind would let you build small internal tools quickly, there are some major downsides to it which is why I haven't committed yet.
I started out developing UIs using petite-vue, unfortunately ended up rewriting it to use full Vue.js after running into too many of its limitations and issues, which given that it's abandon-ware wont ever be resolved. As such I'd strongly recommend against starting projects with PetiteVue and just use the ESM build of Vue.js which also doesn't require a build step, has the full feature-set, is actively used and maintained, etc.
Either way developing Web Apps (using Vue) without a build step using JS Modules is now my preference which I've written about in my Simple, Modern JavaScript post [1]
dagger.js aims a bit differently: it’s even smaller in scope (no virtual DOM, no reactivity system, no SFCs), and is designed to pair directly with Web Components and plain HTML snippets. The trade-off is fewer features, but also less surface area and almost zero “lock-in” — you can literally view-source and drop it into a page.
So I see them as different tiers on the same spectrum: Vue (ESM) if you want a mature, batteries-included framework without a bundler; Dagger.js if you just want minimal runtime directives and WC interop with almost no moving parts.
Appreciate you sharing the blog link — I’ll check it out. Always happy to see more people pushing the “modern JS without a toolchain” approach.
You should be able to drop in code dynamically on any existing website with JS Modules, I show an example of this in one of our release notes to showcase the versatility of JS modules [1], which:
- Dynamically adds an Import Map with references to Vue, an external lib + Vue component library
- Dynamically creates and mounts a new Vue Component on the fly
- Drops in a fully functional and editable Data Grid with API bound forms, API + form validation, etc
I did try building web components with Lit [2], unfortunately WC's encapsulation and shadow dom made it difficult to enable theming and maintain shared global tailwind styles, so ditched it and went back to Vue. Although it's a good option for creating encapsulated components that don't need to share styles.
[1] https://docs.servicestack.net/releases/v6_06#js-modules-quic...
[2] https://lit.dev